Stamford-headquartered WWE is dealing with a rise of COVID-19 cases within its broadcast talent roster.
In April, WWE received approval from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that its professional wrestling bouts constituted an essential business within the state”™s response to COVID-19. The company continued taping its bouts at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando with the only major change involving the absence of a live audience.
Within a week of DeSantis”™ approval, WWE admitted an unnamed “on-air talent” tested positive for COVID-19. Over the past week, announcers Kayla Braxton and Renee Young and producers Adam Pearce and Jamie Noble have confirmed they tested positive for the virus.
None of the WWE wrestlers have publicly confirmed they have tested positive, although earlier in the month the New York Post reported an unidentified “developmental wrestler” tested positive at the company”™s training center, which briefly resulted in the cancellation of production.
Forbes.com has published comments from an unnamed WWE wrestler who claimed the athletes were “informed by talent relations not to discuss our illness with anyone besides those we may live with that may need to know,” adding that WWE insisted it “would handle the PR and only those that needed to know about our condition would know as HIPPA laws would prevent them from making our names public.”
WWE has issued a statement saying it would “continue COVID-19 testing of its talent, production crew and employees in advance of TV productions for the foreseeable future.”
