This year’s WrestleMania is one of the most unique and troubled events in the show’s almost four decades of history. So far we’ve seen top stars drop out of main event matches due to health concerns, the loss of the ability to shoot the show live, and even a complete relocation that ruined the “pirate ship” motif.
In an interview with TV Guide, EVP of Global Talent Strategy and Development and resident gamesman Triple H talked about the “different alternatives” WWE had considered for this year’s Showcase of the Immortals and how the global pandemic moving Mania from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to the company’s Performance Center in Orlando gave WWE the chance to, “do things differently, shoot them differently, present them differently.” One of those is the Firefly Funhouse match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt, which El Juego declares will be, “different from anything we’ve ever done.”
From the interview:
“I think that given the fact that WrestleMania will expand out, we had the opportunity to expand it out over multiple days and really do things in a way that we’ve never done before. We have Rob Gronkowski hosting with us, which it’s tough to plan around Rob because Rob kind of… you’ve got to just deal with Gronk. It’s Gronk’s world, we’re just all living in it. He’s got his own plan, so that’s unique in and of itself. But [there’s] the ability for us to then, because there are no fans, because we aren’t in the stadium, we can do things a little bit differently. So there are some matches and some components and things that will take place this year like we’ve never done before.
“Bray Wyatt and John Cena will have a Firefly Fun House match, which will be different from anything we’ve ever done in the WWE. The Undertaker and A.J. Styles will have a Bone Yard match, and they will be doing that from an off-site location. So the opportunity to do things differently, shoot them differently, present them differently. Hopefully, we’ll open up this WrestleMania in ways that people have never seen before and give them an opportunity to be entertained in ways they never have before.”
The “Firefly Slaughterhouse” t-shirt made for the match to sell at WrestleMania depicts Cena and Wyatt as hand puppets, so maybe we’ll be getting some abrupt media changes? Maybe they’ll wrestle some of it as people, some of it as puppets, some of it as cartoon characters? Even if they’re just fighting on a haunted children’s show set, it should be interesting.
One thing guaranteed to be less interesting, however? Entrances. Because how can you do WrestleMania-level ring entrances in an empty gym?
“Yeah, obviously some of that has had to be scaled down somewhat. We don’t have a stadium with a much longer ramp way, and the pyro and everything else that we would have. So, we’d have to work within certain parameters of changing what the spectacle is, but still trying to keep this as entertaining and as fresh as possible for fans. We’re going to do the best that we can, and I promise you we’ll be entertaining and it will be a spectacle in and of itself. Different, but still a spectacle.”
We get the feeling next year’s event is going to give everyone a big entrance and enough pyro to burn down a stadium.