WWE officials have made it clear in recent weeks that the current ThunderDome setup for Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown and monthly pay-per-views will continue for the foreseeable future. However, due to the company’s current contract with the Amway Center and the 2020-21 NBA season scheduled to begin in December, the company will be leaving the downtown Orlando venue in the next few weeks. There’s still no official word on where they’ll land next, but Dave Meltzer mentioned on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio that a new possibility is being considered — moving to a baseball stadium.
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“I don’t know where they’re going, believe it or not, Tropicana Field in Saint Petersburg has been talked about, which is a baseball stadium….I don’t know how you run that every week,” Meltzer said (h/t WrestlingNews.co). “They’ll have to run that twice a week. I mean it’s good that you’re in central Florida. I think everybody wants to run Florida because so many of the guys live there, it’s cheaper, you’re not going to get shutdown, they start shutting things down all over the country, you’re pretty confident Florida because the governor isn’t going to shut anything down, but that’s a big empty building.”
Tropicana Field is the home of the Tampa Bay Rays and is one of the few domed stadiums in Major League Baseball. WWE has dabbled with running events in baseball stadiums for decades, though it often favors basketball arenas for smaller events and football stadiums for larger shows like WrestleMania. In recent years the Royal Rumble has taken place in baseball parks such as Phoenix’s Chase Field (2019) and Houston’s Minute Maid Park (2020).
How would you feel about seeing weekly WWE shows inside of a baseball stadium? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments.
WWE’s next pay-per-view, Survivor Series, takes place on Nov. 22. Check out the full card below:
- WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns
- Raw Women’s Champion Asuka vs. SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks
- United States Champion Bobby Lashley vs. Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn
- Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits
- Men’s Survivor Series Elimination Tag Match: Team Raw (Keith Lee, AJ Styles, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, Riddle) vs. Team SmackDown (Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Seth Rollins, TBD)
- Women’s Survivor Series Elimination Tag Match (Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Mandy Rose, Dana Brooke, Lana) vs. Team SmackDown (Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, TBD)
- The Undertaker’s “Final Farewell” appearance
