Orlando is looking to score several shows under the TKO umbrella.
The Orlando Business Journal reported Tuesday that the Greater Orlando Sports Commission is looking to attract both WWE and UFC in the near future by proposing an $18 million grant to obtain events from both companies. Events proposed under the bid include:
A Survivor Series or Saturday Night’s Main Event show in November or December of 2026 at the Kia Center.
A UFC pay-per-view event in August or September 2027 at the Kia Center.
A Royal Rumble event for February 2028 at Camping World Stadium
A two-night WrestleMania event in mid-to-late April 2031. Camping World Stadium would serve as the main venue while the Kia Center would also host events. This would also include Raw and SmackDown shows during WrestleMania week.
The grant has been advanced by the Tourist Development Tax Sports Incentive Committee and will next go in front of Orange County for approval. According to the report, the events would bring a projected total of 300,000 attendees, 120,000 room nights, and more than $225 million in economic impact for the city.
WrestleMania 41 will take place next month in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was announced last month that WrestleMania 42 will take place in New Orleans, Louisiana.
AEW announced today that their Revolution pay-per-view event will be held in Orlando next March.
During tonight’s Dynamite, it was announced that Revolution would take place on March 6 at the Addition Financial Arena in Orlando. It will be part of what AEW is calling the AEW Weekend Spectacular, with a live edition of Rampage being held on March 4 and an AEW Fanfest event on March 5 that will also be held at the same arena. Tickets will go on sale December 17 at 10 a.m. ET, with limited combo offers available at AEWTix.com.
Last year’s Revolution took place in Jacksonville, Florida in front of a limited audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Top matches on the card included Kenny Omega defeating Jon Moxley in a exploding barbed wire deathmatch for the AEW World title, Darby Allin and Sting defeating Team Taz (Brian Cage and Ricky Starks) in a cinematic street fight, and The Young Bucks defeating Chris Jericho and MJF.
According to the amended contract between WWE and the city of Orlando, Florida, the ThunderDome will remain in the Amway Center through Tuesday, November 24th.
However, with both the NBA’s anticipated return and minor league hockey returning in December, it’s expected their residency in the facility will be soon coming to an end.
The deal between the two sides began on SummerSlam weekend in late-August, enabling WWE to run live weekly TV and pay-per-view events outside the Performance Center and to facilitate the massive ThunderDome interactive fan experience they rolled out for the residency. Several weeks ago, it was learned WWE wanted to extend the lease with the actual date unknown until Spectrum Sports 360’s Jon Alba finally got the contract Monday.
While WWE has a smaller ThunderDome setup in the Performance Center for NXT, WrestleVotes reported Monday they are looking at arena options to move the structure to with North Carolina, Texas, and Illinois being discussed this past weekend. However, they need a newer arena that can handle the technical and physical requirements for the ThunderDome in addition to one where no professional basketball or hockey team plays in, adding to the difficulty. Additionally, they need a travel hub for talent to fly into every week.
WWE will be remaining in the ThunderDome for at least another month.
First reported by PWInsider and confirmed by Dave Meltzer, the company has been running out of the Orlando, Florida-based Amway Center since the Friday, August 21st SmackDown before SummerSlam weekend.
The agreement was originally signed through October 30th with the option to extend or shorten the contract with two weeks notice. The original contract called for the city to get $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 contract also called for no fans in attendance. Even with Florida removing COVID-19 related restrictions as relates to public gatherings at sporting events, that deal would need to be changed in order to have fans in the arena.
On a side note, Spectrum Sports 360’s Jon Alba noted that the arena is set to be open for voting on U.S. election day (November 3rd) as part of the NBA players’ arrangement with owners. Voting will take place in the Disney Atrium part of the building and won’t affect anything related to WWE.
As part of the residence, WWE unveiled its interactive ThunderDome concept, bringing fans back into the arena virtually.
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.
F4W NEWSLETTER: NXT’s Survivor Series involvement Joseph Currier looks at how WWE featured NXT at Survivor Series and in the build to the PPV.
Even with how forced the battle for brand supremacy can admittedly be, Survivor Series is one of the bright spots on the WWE calendar.
The PPV has given us some of the main roster’s best matches in recent years. Last year, we got Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan and Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair (filling in for the injured Becky Lynch). In 2017, Lesnar faced AJ Styles. Those matches wouldn’t have happened without the brand vs. brand concept. And while there would ideally be more substantive stakes involved, the brands facing off has given some life to the traditional Survivor Series elimination tag matches.
The added involvement of NXT this year only improved things. The battle of the brands would have been even more forced without their inclusion. Viewers can believe that NXT really wants to prove that it’s better than Raw or SmackDown. It’s much harder to suspend your disbelief and buy into Raw and SmackDown’s wrestlers being undyingly loyal to their brand just weeks after a draft.
Coverage of Survivor Series weekend and five shows in six nights in Chicago, as well as the business, polls and more, heads this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We look at the directions things are going, how DVR viewership affects all the major shows, the decision on match order, what Vince McMahon was doing during the Survivor Seres main event, the next two major shows as well as Survivor Series and Takeover with full coverage and star ratings for every match.
The issue also covers:
The myth of NXT as developmental, World’s Collide, the next Takeover, the mention of Britt Baker on the air and more.
The tragic death of Aniah Blanchard, the stepdaughter of UFC fighter Walt Harris.
Changes in the UFC drug policy, regarding levels, what drugs are low levels now allowed, what UFC is encouraging fighters to do as far as supplements, .
The situation with Corey Graves and Mauro Ranallo, what happened, why Graves should have been more careful, and where things stand.
Jim Cornette’s apology, how his departure from the NWA took place, more of the background as to why Cornette was castigated for things that nobody would have batted an eye about had others said and why, what NWA wanted to do with him and why their hand was forced.
C.M. Punk signing with FOX, Vince McMahon’s thoughts on Seth Rollins pushing the Punk match, TV ratings in Canada and overseas, WWE get awarded, legend selling home, Oney Lorcan talks future, Mike Bennett talks wanting to leave, Injury updates in WWE, WWE market value and the most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network, plus notes on the house shows.
Full coverage of all the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.
In-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
Additional notes by Joseph Currier
WWE
WWE Backstage tonight will have an interview with Seth Rollins, as well as Green Arrow star Stephen Amell. CM Punk noted on Twitter that he would not be on tonight’s show, but may be in next week.
PWInsider reported that WWE Network will not be adding Hidden Gems content weekly going forward.
Leaders in Orlando, Florida have made bids to host SummerSlam and Survivor Series in the near future.
A new WWE Day of documentary, which will cover this year’s Survivor Series, will air on the WWE Network this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
WWE’s “WrestleMania’s Legendary Moments” special will air on the USA Network after NXT tomorrow night. The special is narrated by John Cena and first aired on FOX.
NXT’s Brendan Vink (Elliot Sexton) has been added to EVOLVE 141 in Livonia on Friday and EVOLVE 142 in Chicago on Saturday. He’ll face Colby Corino at the Livonia show.
Rey Horus and Nicole Savoy will make their ROH debuts at the promotion’s post-Final Battle TV tapings in Philadelphia on December 15. Horus will face Flip Gordon, while Savoy will face Sumie Sakai. Marty Scurll & PCO vs. Jeff Cobb & Dan Maff, Alex Shelley vs. Jonathan Gresham, and Tracy Williams vs. Tyler Bateman have also been added.
A number one contender’s bout between Corey Anderson and Jan Blachowicz is in the works to headline UFC Fight Night on February 15. The winner would likely face Jon Jones for the Light Heavyweight title.
It looks to become tradition that WWE will run NXT events in conjunction with its big three pay-per-views after the huge success of the show two nights before WrestleMania in San Jose and the night before SummerSlam in Brooklyn.
With the Royal Rumble being in Orlando, the home base of NXT, it was a given something would take place. With the NXT Takeover special in December in London, and the company wanting to space out the NXT big shows so more time can be devoted to building angles and keeping them special, it doesn’t look like a live special will happen.
However, HHH announced that they would be doing a television taping on 1/22 in Orlando at the CFE Arena at the University of Central Florida campus, which is the Friday night before the Rumble. The arena, which holds 10,000, meaning with a stage set up capacity would probably becloser to 7,000, will be the biggest NXT event ever in the state of Florida.
