WWE Fans Required to Have COVID-19 Vaccination for WWE SmackDown Episode in Madison Square Garden

WWE will return to Madison Square Garden for the Sept. 10 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, but [...]

By Connor Casey

WWE will return to Madison Square Garden for the Sept. 10 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, but if fans want to attend they'll need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In an announcement posted on the venue's official website, "Guests will need to be fully vaccinated for WWE's Friday Night SmackDown at The Garden, meaning the event must be at least 14 days after your final vaccine dose. The only exception is for children under the age of 16, who may provide proof of a negative antigen or PCR COVID-19 test or full vaccination and are accompanied by a vaccinated adult."

The announcement went on to say attendees will need to provide proof of full vaccination and that kids under the age of 16 can attend if they've either been vaccinated or have proof of a negative COVID-19 test. WWE officially returns to the road with the July 16 episode of SmackDown at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

AEW confirmed last month it was also be touring in New York City with AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam coming to Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens on Sept. 22. Chris Jericho confirmed in an interview with ComicBook earlier this year that hosting an AEW event in MSG was also discussed.

"I know we talked about it, pre-pandemic, it was in the pipeline, because it's The Garden," Jericho said. "It's the cathedral of wrestling in New York City. I think that's one of the reasons why we started with the Prudential Center, and when we sold 15,000 tickets or whatever it was, that's to show The Garden that AEW can draw. Because I think there's a lot of naysayers from the other side. They'll say, 'Oh, you can't have AEW in The Garden. WWE's only drawing 6,000 people.' Meanwhile, if we had a show at The Garden, we would probably sell it out in 20 minutes. But you have to convince the powers that be that have been [there]. WWE is Madison Square Garden. There's been a relationship there for 50 odd years. So it's going to take some finagling for us to get in there.

"But in the meantime, I think there's other arenas that we could do in New York and sell them up quickly so that The Garden would go, 'Hey, that's cool.' Little known fact, it's hard to make money in The Garden though because it's so expensive with unions and all that sort of thing," he continued. "So I think the only reason why you play The Garden because it's The Garden. But there's plenty of other places in New York with the Barclays Center, and like we said, the Prudential Center just down the road in Jersey, that we could do as well. I'm just ready to go back to any arena. I don't care which one it is."

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