Chavo Guerrero Reveals Vince McMahon Considered Cancelling WWE Smackdown Following Eddie's Passing
After weeks of speculation, on Monday WWE finally revealed that WrestleMania 36 won't be taking place in front of 70,000 fans in Tampa. The event has been moved to the Performance Center which is where Raw, SmackDown and NXT had also been moved to since coronavirus became a pandemic.
Chavo Guerrero discussed WrestleMania being moved due to the coronavirus when he joined The Wrestling Inc Daily.
"I just heard that and it's kinda crazy. It's definitely crazy times with all sporting events cancelled or being altered. I feel really bad High Spots and WrestleCon. It's a really unprecedented time right now," Guerrero said before being asked if he's ever seen something like this in pro wrestling.
"9/11 was the closest thing I saw when they cancelled everything or postponed. I was with WWF and we were stuck in Houston. I woke up in the morning and I got a call from my dad and then my wife called and she was talking about it. I turned on the news and went, 'Woah! Gosh!' The whole country shut down and it was immediately.
"It wasn't like this where people didn't know if it was a hoax. Basically, over the last week everyone has come to the conclusion that they really have to stay inside to shut this down. But with 9/11 everything was immediately shut down ? except for bars ? we were allowed to be stuck in bars."
Guerrero talked more about that time after 9/11 and said he had blinders on and was really only thinking about his job as a wrestler.
"I was very naive and young at the time so I kinda just went with the flow and was just happy to still be a wrestler," stated Guerrero. "Now you're thinking about the repercussions of the stock market and you have a lot more to lose with college funds and mutual funds. You definitely have an eye on it for sure."
Most sporting events have been cancelled or postponed but not WrestleMania. Guerrero was asked about WWE's decision to just move the location and remove the audience for Mania.
"Vince is all about keeping the show going. There's a few things ? there's definitely a loss of revenue but at the same time it's not just about that. It's about putting on this show and entertaining the fans stuck at home," said Guerrero. "Can you imagine if we were all stuck at home and TV shut down? That would be insane if TV, Netflix and everything else shut down. It would be like the Dark Ages for us."
Guerrero then recalled the conversation that took place just after the death of his uncle Eddie Guerrero.
"Vince is always, 'The show must go on.' The same thing happened when Eddie passed away. I was in the hallway of his hotel room and here comes Vince, Triple H and Shawn Michaels," stated Guerrero. "We're all talking and he was like, 'What should I do? Should I cancel?' I go, 'Absolutely not. Eddie would want the show to go on, for sure.'
"I respect that very much that the show's going on. WrestleMania won't be WrestleMania without the big crowds but it is what it is."
He added that he knows WWE has a lot of screening going on and WWE is taking every precaution in regards to its talent and coronavirus.
In recent years Guerrero has transitioned into Hollywood as both an actor and as the fight coordinator for GLOW. He discussed how Hollywood is dealing with coronavirus.
"Hollywood is shut down. I've got three things going and they are all shut down," revealed Guerrero. "Netflix came in and overruled us and shut GLOW down, which is the right thing. I have another project called Heels which is on Starz with Stephen Amell and that's shut down for a month.
"So, everything is up in the air right now. GLOW went down for two weeks and it will be determined when we have a start date. The same thing with Heels ? we're all on hiatus and waiting to find out what's going on."
In January it was announced that GLOW would be returning for a fourth season and Guerrero was asked if the release date will be pushed back.
"I don't think that's gonna push back our release date because after we get done filming, there's 3-4 months of post-production which is the colorization and sound editing. Once that gets done, it usually sits in a bag until Netflix decides to release it," said Guerrero. "I don't think it's gonna change the release date because it's not like it's done and they then release it the next day. It's all up to Netflix as they have a certain amount of time after post-production to release it. It's just up to them when they want to release it."
Chavo Guerrero is currently working with Gail Kim, Amy "Lita" Dumas and Christy Hemme on their upcoming KAYFABE project. For more information, or to donate to their Kickstarter campaign, please click here. Chavo's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.