AEW’s Dustin Rhodes called for an end to COVID-19 closures in the United States in a now-deleted Facebook post. Rhodes led with a Facebook post that read “The world needs to open back up and end this mass hysteria. We are not a socialist nation. We are not a democracy! We are a republic. If we go any longer with this bullsh-t, our economy will be shot and that much harder to kick start. #EndTheShutdown”
After initial pushback from fans and friends, Rhodes attempted to clarify his statement by adding that “no doubt we have an epidemic on our hands” and that he cares “ABOUT HUMAN LIFE, GUYS. Jeeze” before deleting the post.
AEW has recently moved to no-audience tapings of Dynamite following nationwide shutdowns related to the virus, and has performed reasonably well against the competitively airing NXT in the same Wednesday night timeslot, specifically with the debut of new signees Matt Hardy and Brodie Lee (formerly known as Luke Harper). There were also rumors stemming from an earnings call that AEW may be able to move to live tapings under the same provisions WWE secured as “essential businesses” but those have not been verified or acted upon to-date.
With the partnership of TNT and USA and Fox respectively, AEW and WWE still remain exceptionally well-positioned to weather however long shutdown orders last, certainly more so than their indie counterparts.
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