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    Getting to grips amid coronavirus: Some wondering how WWE brings families together

    Synopsis

    Florida governor deems WWE an ‘essential service’, permits live telecasts.

    as in all staged dramas, the willing suspension of disbelief helps spectators turn a Nelson’s eye to a rehearsed half-nelson.Getty Images
    As in all staged dramas, the willing suspension of disbelief helps spectators turn a Nelson’s eye to a rehearsed half-nelson.
    The coronavirus pandemic’s pause button has been hit on the Tokyo Olympics, the Indian Premier League and the iconic cyclothon, the Tour de France, among other events, but sport hasn’t been left totally high and dry at the time of global crisis.

    For, even as the world grapples with the health and economic repercussions of the virus, the governor of Florida has declared a different kind of grappling, as represented by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to be an essential service and has allowed live-action telecasts of the full-contact sport that involves up close and personal encounters like body slams and drop kicks.

    While audiences will not be allowed at the venue and will have to watch the televised bouts in their homes, the organisers of the tamasha said, “WWE and its Superstars bring families together and deliver a message of hope, determination and perseverance.”

    WWE, as its name suggests, is more entertainment than sport, with colourfully named dramatis personae like No Way Jose and Hunk Hogan who play their roles of ‘good guy’ and ‘bad guy’ according to a carefully choreographed script, has a huge fan following and has been described by aficionados as ‘ballet with brawn’.

    And, as in all staged dramas, the willing suspension of disbelief helps spectators turn a Nelson’s eye to a rehearsed half-nelson.


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