If you were hoping for spoilers of WrestleMania 36 because the event has been taped, keep dreaming. A new report suggests that anybody who would leak any information regarding the two-night extravaganza would be terminated by WWE.
Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated has taken a deep dive behind the scenes of the first-ever pre-recorded WrestleMania, and through his journey learned that any WWE employee who might leak information would be subject to termination. Also, the report notes that the agents at hand include Adam Pearce, Road Dogg, and Shawn Michaels.
Aside from them, the only people who could have potentially spoiled the event were Michael Cole, members of the production team, or any of the members of the collective brain trust including Paul Heyman, Bruce Prichard, Kevin Dunn, or Vince McMahon himself.
Apart from revealing that the spoiling of WrestleMania would have been deemed a fireable offense, Justin also provided new information on the relationship between WWE and ESPN, revealing at prior to leave the coronavirus outbreak, there were discussions for WWE to air WrestleMania on the ESPN+ service similar to the way the UFC presents their events.
?A potential partnership for this year included airing WrestleMania 36 on the ESPN+ pay-per-view service, similar to the manner in which the UFC is covered, until the coronavirus ended those discussions,? notes Barrasso. ?ESPN did not want to spend such a high price on any event stuck in uncertainty. Had WWE sold the pay-per-view piece to ESPN+ and reconfigured the Network, perhaps this could have been a real windfall for the company. Instead, it pivoted its strategy with access to the WWE Network to lead to more subscriptions. WrestleMania has always been the biggest reason people add the WWE Network, and in addition to television rights, it marks another guaranteed source of income in an uncertain time for WWE. But one thing is certain: ESPN is interested in being in the WWE business.?
Justin Barrasso spoke with a high-ranking ESPN executive who revealed that the door is open for the two brands to work together in the future. Read more about that at this link.