WWE bringing WrestleMania back to Tampa's Raymond James Stadium

This story was updated at 2:40 PM Eastern.

WWE is hoping the second time is the charm in their attempt to hold WrestleMania in Tampa, Florida, as they are planning to host their biggest show of the calendar year there in 2021.

WWE had Raymond James Stadium scheduled for this year’s mega-show, but it was canceled due to the pandemic and run over two nights at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, instead. The date is unknown.

The news was first reported by Inside The Ropes’ Gary Cassidy and confirmed by our Dave Meltzer. WWE did release a brief statement to several media outlets, including ours: “We have nothing to report and given the current environment, we continue to monitor locations for all of our potential events.” 

It would appear likely that WWE will sell tickets to WrestleMania, but just how many is unknown. In late-August, Florida governor Ron DeSantis paved the way for fans to return and both the Miami Dolphins and University of Miami allow up to 13,000 fans at their respective home games. AEW has been running at 15% capacity in Jacksonville for several weeks.

All of this would mean Los Angeles’s SoFi Stadium is out for next year, but given the situation with the pandemic in California, hosting an event with fans seemed unlikely — even with roughly five months of preparation time.

How WWE would handle the entire week of traditional activities, and how the rest of the wrestling business that descends upon the host city to run events will react, remains to be seen.