AEW Dynamite, AEW Blood & Guts Special Both Reportedly Canceled Due to Coronavirus

The next two episodes of AEW Dynamite, scheduled for March 18 at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York, and March 25 at the Prudential Center in New Jersey, have both reportedly been canceld. While AEW has yet to release a statement on the matter, though other sources have either reported or confirmed the cancellations. Ticketmaster reported the Rochester cancellation, which matches with New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s ban on any mass gathering of more than 500 people.

Meanwhile the New Jersey Devils, who play inside the Prudential Center, confirmed that all events scheduled to take place inside the arena from now until the end of March have been canceled.

That second cancellation particularly stings because it means AEW’s first edition of WarGames, titled Blood & Guts, has been canceled. The match was supposed to see a return of the classic WarGames format from the late 1980s as The Elite (Cody Rhodes, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) took on The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana & Ortiz).

The cancellations are just the latest events to be affected by the national spread of coronavirus. In the wrestling world fans have already seen SmackDown change its location this week from Detroit to the WWE Performance Center down in Orlando. Meanwhile Ring of Honor had to cancel its next two major events, the ROH 18th Anniversary Special and Past vs. Present, both of which were scheduled for this weekend in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile the status of WrestleMania 36 remains up in the air. Tampa city officials said on Thursday that they’ll wait another week to decide whether or not to cancel the April 5 event, while WWE released a new statement saying the show will go on unless canceled by government officials.

“While we remain committed to hosting WrestleMania at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, April 5, we are putting contingency plans in place in the event that it is cancelled by government officials, civil authorities and/or local venues,” the statement read. “The health and safety of our fans, performers and employees are our top priorities and we are monitoring the situation closely with our partners and government officials in Tampa Bay.”