Orange County Mayor says WWE is an “essential business” in Florida
Yesterday, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said the WWE will now qualify as an essential business in Florida. This means that the company can resume recording live Television Shows at its Orlando training facility and at Full Sail University in Winter Park.
The decision was highlighted in a memo that came from the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis on April 9th. The memo approved the addition of professional sports and sports media production teams to the list of “essential services” in the State of Florida. According to the memo, this will cover “employees at a professional sports and media production with a national audience… only if the location is closed to the general public.” According to a spokesperson from the Governor’s office, these services were deemed essential “because they are critical to Florida’s economy.”
Mayor Demings said the WWE was not originally designated as essential when the state’s shelter-in-place order took effect on April 3rd. However, that decision was overturned after Demings had “some conversation” with the Governor’s Office.
The WWE will return with its Raw Program on Monday. A spokesperson confirmed with ESPN that the WWE will run live shows without fans for the time being. The WWE will be airing three TV shows a week: Raw (USA Network), NXT (USA Network) on Wednesday and SmackDown (Fox) on Friday.
