UK Pro Wrestling Scene Impacted By Coronavirus Lockdown
The coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the world of professional wrestling and today the UK wrestling scene took a big hit.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced today that the United Kingdom has gone into a full lockdown with the British public ordered to stay at home. Citizens will be allowed to leave their homes only for essential work, exercise, or shopping for food & medicine. All non-essential shopping, events, establishments and places of worship are now shut down with gatherings banned, including weddings and baptisms. Johnson's announcement confirmed that the new rules will be enforced by police with fines handed down to citizens who break the rules. The UK now has at least 6,650 cases of the COVID-19 virus, with at least 335 deaths. The UK is said to be just two weeks behind the level of outbreak in Italy, and the hope is that the new rules will slow the outbreak. Italy recorded almost 800 deaths from the coronavirus in one day over the weekend, and overtook China as the worst-affected nation in the world.
The UK lockdown rules will be reviewed after three weeks.
The WWE NXT UK brand currently has TV tapings scheduled for May 1 and May 2 at the Bournemouth International Centre in Bournemouth, England, plus TV tapings scheduled for July 24 and July 25 in Glasgow, Scotland. The NXT UK "Takeover: Dublin" event is scheduled for April 26, and will air live on the WWE Network. WWE has not canceled these events as of this writing, and tickets remain on Ticketmaster UK. Stay tuned for updates on these events.
PROGRESS Wrestling issued several announcements this afternoon on events being re-scheduled, how fans can help the promotion during the lockdown, and more. Super Strong Style 16, Kaiju Big Battel, and Xtreme Attitude 1998 are among the events being re-scheduled. PROGRESS also launched "PROGRESStv aka Distraction Streaming" to provide content to fans during the ongoing period of self-isolation caused by the outbreak. Details on the streaming content can be found at this link.
PROGRESS issued the following announcement today on how fans can help them during the UK lockdown:
How you can help PROGRESS during the CoronaCrisis
Let's not beat around the bush – it's a weird time right now. No shows for the next 3 months, not to mention the fact that right now we're thousands of pounds in the hole for travel costs for our scheduled trip to Tampa (which we should get back, but you never want to count on that until the funds are back in your possession!).
Like most other live entertainment organisations, we could use a little helping hand during this Coronavirus situation just to help us keep the lights on. Truthfully we don't know how other BritWres companies are set up, but in the interest of transparency we're happy to reveal that we have 7 people on regular, monthly retainers (not including the company owners, who have stopped taking money out of the company)... and our intention is to help those crew and wrestlers who are missing out on paydays because of the cancellations.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
1. Watch PROGRESStv on Twitch, we'll be streaming there at least three times a week including Wake Up With PROGRESS most weekday mornings.
There's an option to tip on there; if you can spare a couple of pounds, that all gets pooled up and split between the company and crew/wrestlers. If you can't afford to tip, no problem – please just help us spread the word!2. Keep your Demand PROGRESS subscription. We've reduced the monthly rate down to $6.99/month (£6/month approx) during this shutdown. If you're not subscribed, you can get a two-week free trial. If you're already subscribed, that £6/month goes an unimaginable distance to keeping our team in rations. We're adding new content every day during the shutdown, to keep you entertained with new pro wrestling content from around the world.
3. Our ticketing partners at DICE have opened up a donation feature. 100% of the funds donated through that gets pooled up and split between the company and crew/wrestlers. We had a large amount of people asking us if they could donate their ticket price for the cancelled events; legally we're not allowed to simply turn your purchase into a donation, but you can! Get your money back from DICE or WWN and then, if you wish and can afford it, you can donate between £2 and £15.
4. We've created the "Cancelled Collection" to mark the three cancelled shows (March 29th in Camden, April 2nd in Tampa, April 20th in Camden). Profits from this benefit merch will be split between the company and those crew/wrestlers who are missing out on PROGRESS paydays due to the virus shutdown.
5. The British government has, as we write this, enforced a much wider shutdown which means that our merchandise operation is not open for at least the next three weeks. However, we are still taking orders and, if you can wait until the shutdown is lifted, that's a great way to support us. Take a look at what we have on offer, and if any of it grabs you, order it!
If there's nothing there that grabs you right now, but you want to support anyway... we offer gift cards in denominations from £10 to £100. Right now, it all helps to keep things ticking over and to keeping our team healthy and alive!
6. If you had a ticket for one of the three cancelled shows (March 29th in Camden, April 2nd in Tampa, April 20th in Camden)... you will get your refund automatically from DICE (for Camden shows) or from WWN (for Tampa). Please be patient, it will get done. Thank you!
7. If you're a Club PROGRESS member, we need to work out precisely how the cancelled dates are going to play into the rest of this year. Rest assured, we will make sure that you are looked after – whether that means rolling next year's membership over by 3 shows, or refunding 3 shows of deposits, or some other kind of make-good.
PROGRESS also issued the following announcement on re-scheduling:
New and Replacement Dates for 2020
One silver lining to this #CoronaCrisis is that it's allowed us some time to sit down with the diary and plan out the rest of our year, with regards to replacement dates (for those shows postponed in May 2020) and to add some more shows in.
One thing to make clear right at the top is that your money is safe with us. If for some reason we can't honour these replacement dates (for example, if the Corona Crisis goes on longer than is currently anticipated), you will be offered a swap to another replacement date, or a refund. No quibbles, no hassles.
This is where we're at so far:
SUPER STRONG STYLE 16
Postponed to August 29/30/31 from May 23/24/25.
Doors 2pm, show 3.30-8pm each day @ Alexandra Palace
All weekend and day tickets purchased for the May dates will automatically be valid for the corresponding August dates. Eg, if you have a ticket for Saturday May 23, that will now be valid for Saturday August 29. If you have a weekend ticket for all three dates, that will now be valid for all three August dates.
If you can make the new dates, you don't need to do anything!
If you purchased either a weekend ticket via DICE and now can't make the whole weekend, please contact DICE and they can split your weekend ticket into 3 separate day tickets; you can then get a refund on any of the new dates that you can't make... or you could send that ticket that you can't use to a friend using the DICE architecture.
Email: help@dice.fm
If you purchased tickets via the venue website / See Tickets and can't make the new dates, please contact See Tickets for a refund. Refund requests must be submitted by 9th May 2020.KAIJU BIG BATTEL
Postponed to August 29 from May 23
XTREME ATTITUDE 1998
Postponed to August 30 from May 24
Tickets for these events never went on sale (because we managed to call that off just as the Corona Crisis was taking hold).
Single event or combo tickets for Kaiju Big Battel and Xtreme Attitude 1998 will go on sale at 12pm, Tuesday 24th March (UK time)MANCHESTER – REPLACEMENT DATE
Postponed to Saturday July 11 from Saturday May 9
Doors 2.30pm, show 3.30-8pm @ O2 Ritz Manchester
All tickets purchased for the original May date will automatically be valid for the July date.
If you can make the new date, you don't need to do anything!
If you can't make the new date, please contact the outlet from which you purchased your ticket (DICE or Ticketmaster) to get a refund.
If you purchased through DICE, you could instead opt to send the ticket you can no longer use to a friend, using the DICE architecture.
Refund requests must be submitted by 9th May 2020.
Email: help@dice.fmLEEDS – REPLACEMENT DATE
Postponed to Friday July 10 from Sunday May 10
Doors 6pm, show 7-11pm @ O2 Academy Leeds
All tickets purchased for the original May date will automatically be valid for the July date.
If you can make the new date, you don't need to do anything!
If you can't make the new date, please contact the outlet from which you purchased your ticket (DICE or Ticketmaster) to get a refund.
If you purchased through DICE, you could instead opt to send the ticket you can no longer use to a friend, using the DICE architecture.
Refund requests must be submitted by 9th May 2020.
Email: help@dice.fmThere will be more – new – dates to be published soon for the rest of this year, including return visits to Newcastle, Bournemouth, Birmingham and Sheffield. We'll update this blog post with all the info when we have it in place!
You can find more updates on PROGRESS via their Twitter account at @ThisIs_Progress, and tune into other UK indie social media accounts for similar updates.