AEW ‘Dynamite’ in Rochester Relocated to Jacksonville Due to Coronavirus

The March 18 edition of All Elite Wrestling’s Dynamite, scheduled to take place at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y., has been relocated to Jacksonville, the company announced Thursday.

Multiple sports leagues have suspended their seasons or decided to hold events behind closed doors due to the increasing concern over the coronavirus pandemic.

The Rochester edition of Dynamite had long been rumored as the expected debut of Brodie Lee (known in WWE as Luke Harper), a Rochester native whose non-compete clause with WWE expired on March 8.

AEW is scheduled to be at the Prudential Center in Newark on March 25 for a highly anticipated “Blood & Guts” multi-team match and on in Milwaukee on April 1.

AEW president and CEO Tony Khan held a meeting after Wednesday’s Dynamite to tell performers they can skip upcoming events if they feel uneasy about the outbreak and that their standing with the company would not be adversely affected if they did, Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio.

The virus has also caused WWE to move Friday’s SmackDown Live from Detroit to the company’s Performance Center in Florida. Irish promotion Over The Top was forced to cancel its highly anticipated Scrappermania show, headlined by Jon Moxley vs. David Starr, which was scheduled to take place in Dublin on Saturday.

There have been nearly 130,000 coronavirus cases worldwide, according to the New York Times, and over 4,700 deaths. There have been almost 1,300 cases and 37 deaths in the United States.