Tag: Amway Center

WWE/Amway Center contract reveals September 27th PPV date

Posted on by Josh Nason

Further details of WWE’s contract with the city of Orlando, Florida, regarding their residency at the Amway Center were revealed Tuesday.

Spectrum News 13’s Greg Engel first reported the details of the contract that will see WWE pay the city a mininum of $200,000 to rent ther arena through October 31st. The venue will receive $12,500 for any Sunday pay-per-view events, $10,000 for any Monday or Friday events, $7500 for any days in which WWE personnel works inside the building, and $2500 for any “dark” day when no work is happening.

The initial report had WWE paying $450,000 for the rights to use the venue for two months based on a conversation with a city official.

Other interesting notes from the contract:

  • The next WWE pay-per-view following Sunday’s Payback will be on Sunday, September 27th.
  • WWE can extend or shorten the contract with two weeks notice.
  • Under ‘Tickets’ in the contract, it reads ‘Intentionally Omitted’, essentially closing the door on the possibility of live fans during the course of the contract.

WWE began their residency last Friday with SmackDown after several months of shows at the Performance Center.

WWE to pay $450,000 for two month Amway Center lease

Posted on by Josh Nason

According to Spectrum News 13’s Jeff Allen via colleague Jon Alba, WWE will be paying nearly $450,000 to Orlando’s Amway Center for their two month residency that kicks off this week.

Allen got the information from city officials.

During a Monday Orange County coronavirus public update, city mayor Buddy Dyer officially announced WWE’s presence, confirming they will air live Mondays and Fridays and for pay-per-views. He said WWE will have additional cleaning and safety measures in place and were grateful they chose the city and venue to host this residency, a first for both WWE and the venue.

When asked if the company could have fans or extend the lease past 60 days, Dyer simply said they have the building for 60 days with Mondays, Fridays, and Sunday shows planned.

WWE officially announced the arrangement Monday in addition to ThunderDome, an interactive fan experience that will feature 1000 LED boards inside the arena that launches on this Friday’s live SmackDown.

WWE approved to use Orlando’s Amway Center through October

Posted on by Josh Nason

According to Spectrum Sports 360’s Jon Alba, WWE has an agreement with the city of Orlando, Florida, to run shows at the Amway Center through October 30th with no fans in the building.

Alba tweeted that he spoke with a city rep who gave him the details and that barring any amendment, WWE will be able to run empty arena shows there for the next two-and-a-half months. On Friday, Alba posted video of WWE trucks preparing to load equipment into the arena, further confirmation that the company will be kicking off a residency of sorts starting with next Sunday’s SummerSlam.

As has been discussed and reported here, WWE has been looking to get out of the Performance Center due to the environment, wanting a new look for Raw, SmackDown, and pay-per-view events. Nearly in concert with the move, WWE will be going live with both Raw and SmackDown, starting with next Friday’s go-home show for SummerSlam. Their hope is the changes will help turn around declining viewership.

None of the above has been announced by WWE as of this writing.

WWE planning to run live TV from Amway Center after SummerSlam

Posted on by Josh Nason

It appears that this year’s SummerSlam won’t be the only WWE TV product to air live from Orlando, Florida’s Amway Center in the near future.

The working plan is that Raw and SmackDown will return to airing live starting with next Friday’s SmackDown and assuming everything goes off smoothly for SummerSlam, as much live TV as possible will also emanate from the Amway Center for the foreseeable future.

The news was first reported by WrestleVotes and discussed further in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter by Dave Meltzer.

While WWE hasn’t officially announced anything regarding the Amway Center, Meltzer reported that both employees and production people were told and scheduled to load things into the arena next week for SummerSlam, provided everything goes as planned.

Jon Alba of MyNews13 confirmed that news Friday as his video crew got footage of WWE loading into the venue:

The rationale is that the company wants to get out of filming at the Performance Center, partially blaming their ratings decline on not being live and the darkness of the facility. As of now, next Friday’s SmackDown will be the final show in the PC for the time being.

Meltzer noted the production costs will obviously increase as running from the PC helped WWE save tens of millions during their last quarter. It will also mean talent and staff will be traveling twice as much assuming they return to live programming, effectively ignoring 14 day quarantine mandates in states like Connecticut and New York.

WrestleVotes reported Friday that WWE will install 2500 square feet of LED boards in the Amway Center so fans can appear live on the show, hosted by active and retire talent. If accurate, that would be similar to what the NBA is doing in their “bubble” at Orlando’s Disney World.

None of the above will affect NXT who will continue to run from Full Sail University, taping every two weeks.