During an appearance on the Ad Age Remotely stream, Stephanie McMahon discussed how WWE is operating during the Covid-19 pandemic:
If talent are forced to work: “It’s all optional, it’s volunteer based, it’s up to them if they want to participate, we did have talent and crew members opt out, and we do support that” We do testing before all programming, it is more advanced testing, it isn’t the rapid test, that does have false positives and negative ,we want the best testing positive, we also have pandemic level cleaning at the PC every night, including fogging and special lighting, we have an application of a product from a company called Allied Sciences that creates a barrier.”
“If you are negative for the virus, you still need a temperature check and fill out a form, if you have been a contact you are not allowed in the facility, its as thorough as it possibly can be.”
WWE performing in the Covid-19 hotbed of Florida: “We are based in Orlando. Is it the right decision. We didn’t choose Orlando hoping it would be the best location. I do think that we’ve the best we possibly can, the testing and protocol prove it works, yes we have had some positives, the majority of performers and crew are healthy. We want to be smart and sensitive, without them we don’t have show. We also want to make sure we entertain our fans all over the world.”
If WWE talent have medical insurance: “Our talent are all independent contractors, so we don’t provide medical insurance.”
Production of the show changing: “We had a few key learnings with camera angles. Also with announcers. We have experimented with forms of augmented reality.”
“The big ‘fans’ doesn’t look the best, we have a virtual ceiling. We have sweated the audio with developmental stars with masks and social distancing.”
(quotes courtesy of HeelByNature.com)
