WWE Rumors: Major Summer Storyline Scrapped Due To Coronavirus Pandemic
A lot of things have changed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and current rumors state that a major WWE storyline is one of them. There has been speculation that a significant storyline was to take place throughout the spring and summer of this year. The changes brought about by the current situation around the world have put it “on hold” since WWE didn’t want to run it without fans in attendance.
Since late March, WWE has been taping episodes of Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, and NXT in an empty WWE Performance Center. Pay-per-views have taken place in the same building, but there has been no one in the seats.
According to the Twitter account for WrestleVotes, this storyline was set to play out over many months. Knowing that crowd reactions play a significant part in how something comes off on television, WWE has chosen to wait until a later time to execute it.
FWIW: I’ve been told there was a long major storyline that was to unfold over the span of weeks during the spring & summer, similar to the McMahon limo explosion or the Nexus invasion debut, that was put on hold due to no fans in attendance. Crowd reaction plays a major part.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) May 14, 2020
The report from WrestleVotes is that the storyline was going to be on the level of Vince McMahon’s limo explosion or the Nexus invasion. Both of those angles are still vast memories in the minds of wrestling fans and will go down in history as major moments.
In June 2007, Vince McMahon was a big part of “Mr. McMahon Appreciation Night” on Monday Night Raw. As Vince exited the backdoor of the arena, he sat down in his limousine, shut the door, and it exploded into flames.
Many people thought Vince was actually dead and that WWE had just aired the death of their CEO. A press release was issued by the company to confirm that he wasn’t legitimately dead.
The storyline never had the chance to continue as a “Vince McMahon Memorial” episode of Raw turned into a show dedicated to Chris Benoit after his death.
On an episode of Raw in 2015, NXT rookies banded together to form the Nexus and invaded WWE. They interfered in the main event, destroyed John Cena, and decimated the ring and ringside area before ruling over the company for nearly half a year.
Eventually, the Nexus disbanded, and the superstars went their separate ways. The storyline with Vince’s death was never really continued, and there was no ending to it as WWE simply dropped the angle.
Despite rumors that this “major storyline” planned for this year is on hold, there is no way of knowing if WWE will make it happen in the future.