Walk me through the first few steps when you find out that everything we know
within WWE is about to change.
We're scheduled for SmackDown, as far as we know I believe it's supposed to be in
Detroit, and next thing you know the world turns upside down and we are where we are.
>> So, it's a funny thing and there are these moments in time I guess that
are happening whether it's like somehow maybe fortuitous,
if that's the right word, but we're getting ready for an NXT live show.
And in March every year Full Sail University, our partners,
they have their hall of fame where they honor all their students.
They have so
many students that go on to be academy award winning movie producers and
sound directors, everything under the sun- >> Right,
I don't even think our fans realize what Full Sail University truly is.
>> Yeah, everything to do with media and entertainment and everything else,
they teach it in that and that's part of the beauty of the partnership.
So this is one period of time in March where we have trouble with the facility
with Full Sail Live and this year because we were live every week.
They were, look we're gonna do everything we can to make this available for
you that was one week, where we just could not get in there so,
[COUGH] we have been working on a secondary location and
everything just kept kind of falling apart.
As it came closer, we netted out with, you know what?
We're just gonna go from the Performance Center, we're gonna go in there,
we're going to do much like what we did for the Superbowl halftime show.
That place is set up with a full production ring and a stage set and
lighting and everything and you can kind of go-
>> That's always kind of ready to go.
>> Yeah, and so you can go in there and you can put up some seating in there blah,
blah blah and turn it into an arena.
So we're in the process of doing this, and we're gonna do the Wednesday which is
March 11th, I believe that date sticks in my head.
It's the 11th of March, which is a Wednesday and
we're gonna go live from the Performance Center.
As I'm headed down there on the Tuesday, I'm flying down there but man the news is
now picking up fast and furious about- >> That was right about the time of
the NBA and- >> Yeah, I can't remember for
that point they had canceled or they were about to.
>> Yeah I wanna say it was it cuz I remember being at home so
I wanna say it's probably a Tuesday night.
>> Yeah. >> Where they were kicking around and
he canceled the games for the week or something along those lines.
>> Yeah something like that, and there was a debate happening about whether,
they were gonna play with no fans and
some of the players are saying we're not playing with no fans.
>> And so, as I'm flying down there in the morning, I called Vince and I said, hey,
I haven't seen the performance center yet, but I'm gonna go out you know,
we don't really do anything halfway.
So I'm gonna go out on a limb say it looks pretty spectacular, maybe when I get done
doing this live show tomorrow night, maybe we should just leave the setup up.
Like I know it's costly and all that but, maybe just in case something
cancels over the next couple of weeks where we can't go into a town,
we can at least get everybody to Florida.
At that point I wasn't even thinking about no fans, I said we can pick
up the phone and call the local fans here and fill this place up pretty easily.
>> Sure.
>> And still at least put on a show.
And Vince was like, that's probably smart.
You know what? Get me the numbers back today and
I'll let you know.
By the time we get to Tuesday night and we do the production meeting and
all that stuff, and I get done that I'm calling Vince up and
I'm like I don't have the numbers yet, but men it's getting worse.
He's like yeah, it's getting a lot worse, let's talk in the morning.
By the morning, it's like yeah, hey, we're coming, more than likely we're gonna be
coming there and doesn't matter what the numbers are at this point and time.
So by the time we do that live show and that show is over, Vince is not only
saying yeah, look, the truck's on the way to Detroit are on the side of the road,
but they're turning around, they're headed your way.
We're gonna do SmackDown from there tomorrow, everything is shutting down.
Man, for the first time he goes we might be doing WrestleMania from there.
And I was like holy cow, here come the trucks the next day and
then now they transform the performance center.
Jeff Lane is the guy that sets up NXT and does all the production stuff for that.
I said now so this team's gonna come in here so you gotta be nice when they get
here and he goes, Superman is gonna come in here and take over.
I said no, no, Superman set it up with how it looks now,
Batman's about to come with- >> [LAUGH]
>> Full of 16 trucks full of stuff that he
can make this place look crazy, right?
So, yeah, they came in.
They got there in the middle of the night, they flipped the place over and
by Friday for SmackDown, we were up and running with a full-blown show.
And we stayed over and at that point, it went from might be Detroit
to everything shutting down and we're gonna be parked here for
a while and it was a complete different conversation.
No fans, so we took out all the seats and I mean,
everything was changing at that point so rapidly that we were just kind
of trying to hang on to the tail end of it and do the best we could to not
only be able to continue to put on a show, but to do it medically safe.
It had bumps in the road, but
we were able to get to a place where we were able to continue.
And contrary to how people look at it, believe I truly do think that it's how
Vince looks at it and I know the WWE looks at it as people need some entertainment.
And I know even the response we got in those first few episodes that we did,
have people being like jeez, thank you guys for doing this.
For a lot of people I think they get to feel like they're being a part
of the solve and part of helping other people by performing and
being a part of it, still.
>> Sure.
>> And giving people something to do and look forward to.
There is nothing new happening right now, even the shows that are pre-taped series
and things like that, they are running out of episodes now.
>> Yeah. >> So, being one of the only things that's
out there still producing, I think it's important.
And I think for people's, mental well-being and we're doing everything
we can to try to continue to be able to do that and do it in the safest way possible.
Not only for our staff and our performers,
which is first and foremost, but for everybody involved.
Yeah, definitely, definitely.
So you obviously were integral the Performance Center was kind of your baby,
so to speak.
Did you ever in a million years think that WrestleMania would be held at
the Performance Center?
>> The moment in time when I walked in there and
they had now transferred it from the kind of Raw and
SmackDown set to repositioning everything and I got in there and
the giant WrestleMania sign that Kevin Owens would end up jumping off of and
all that stuff was in the Performance Center.
It was yeah, no it was surreal and just I don't know a crazy
experience I called Kenyan who runs talent development for
me, and I remember the moment walking in that building for
the first time that we were scouting locations.
And it was like a knickknacks store from like a importer from like Korea or
something then it was all these like shelves to the ceiling of these
knickknacks as far as you could see.
And I remember walking in there and just rows and rows and rows,
rows and rows and rows of all this stuff, and
if you would've said to me at that moment in time, it's a nice building, right?
We'll have WrestleMania in here in a few years.
>> [LAUGH] >> You're out of your mind.
>> Yeah.
>> But here we are.
>> Like what you hear?
Catch full episodes of After the Bell on Apple Podcast.
Subscribe now and never miss an episode.
[MUSIC]