Beyond Wrestling Owner Discusses The Impact of COVID-19 On His Promotion

In an interview with The Milford Daily News, Beyond Wrestling owner Drew Cordeiro spoke about how the Coronavirus outbreak has impacted his promotion and wrestling in general. Here are highlights:

On Beyond’s planned return being halted: “We were actually planning to return to Worcester at the end of April to open a wrestling school. That was going to be in conjunction with the return of our weekly series ‘Uncharted Territory.’ That would’ve culminated with our signature ‘Americanrana’ event in early July, and it was going to be the biggest thing we would’ve run up to this point. Our agreement was that we would’ve been running weekly events for the entire year, but obviously that’s not realistic now.”

On how they’re adjusting: “So, we’re still able to reach fans with digital content, and then we also work hand-in-hand with Independent Wrestling TV (IndependentWrestling.tv), which has increased their programming with streaming. We’re trying to find any shows that haven’t previously been released and get them over to IWTV, and if people sign up using promo code ‘Beyond’ we’d get a kick back from that, which helps us pay for some day-to-day stuff. With that in mind we’re in a bit better shape than most.”

On Wrestlemania weekend being cancelled hurting things: “It’s gotten to the point where WrestleMania is the one event that everyone involved in wrestling works towards all year. For example, one of our wrestlers, Chris Dickinson, he was at one point scheduled to wrestle four different wrestlers from four different promotions in Japan, and it’s always been his goal to wrestle in Japan full time. … When you get to those networking opportunities at events like ‘WrestleMania’ or ‘Summer Slam’ – to work your entire career for that break and to have it taken away by something they have no control over is catastrophic for some careers.”