AEW News: AEW Returning to Florida for Dynamite on May 6, Double or Nothing PPV Plans for May 23
At the beginning of this month, it was reported that AEW had taped enough programming to get them through the end of May. According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, AEW is planning to resume taping their weekly show live starting on May 6th.
Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed an executive order deeming all live sports including professional wrestling to be “essential services.” That led to WWE running their shows from the Performance Center in Orlando. This order allows AEW to be able to resume their tapings from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida, where they taped several shows at the end of March. Daily’s Place is right by the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium and the Jaguars are owned by the family of AEW President Tony Khan, so they own the building.
AEW is hoping that by going live again that they can push hard towards their next PPV Double or Nothing, which takes place on May 23rd. The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada was originally supposed to hold Double or Nothing, but that venue had to be changed with the current health crisis. A new location has yet to be named, but Daily’s Place is a strong possibility.
With AEW taping live again they are also hoping to be able to have more talent present then were at the previous tapings. Only around 30% of AEW’s roster was used at the previous tapings in Florida and Georgia, according to Meltzer. AEW expects to have about twice as much talent when they do Dynamite on May 6 and likely May 13 and May 20 prior to Double or Nothing on May 23. Some wrestlers from areas that were heavily hit by the Coronavirus weren’t brought into the last tapings. Those wrestlers that are booked for May 6 are expected to have a two-week quarantine at home before AEW brings them in.
Next week on AEW Dynamite, they are airing the Semifinals of the TNT Title Tournament with Cody facing Darby Allin and Dustin Rhodes will face Lance Archer.
Using the timeline of the executive order signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis April 9, it was the next day #WWE made the decision to do all of its TV tapings live. The positive coronavirus test story then came out Saturday (but occurred in March). pic.twitter.com/gnCZZQ1TRC
— Jon Alba (@JonAlba) April 14, 2020
Matt’s Musings: With the current landscape in the world changing daily, plans in the wrestling world will likely continue to change as well.