Report: Police Tried To Close Down Tapings At The Performance Center Before WWE Was Named An Essential Business

On April 10, Vince McMahon decided out of the blue that WWE would no longer go ahead with mass tapings of episodes of Friday Night SmackDown and Monday Night Raw, and the company would instead return to producing live programming. This decision was made the day after the Florida Governor's office published a memo which added "professional sports and media production" to the list of essential services in the state.

Mayor of Orange County, Florida Jerry Demings explained in a press conference on Monday that the county initially deemed WWE to be a non-essential business, but they were forced to overturn this decision after "some conversation" with Governor DeSantis. 

Investigative journalists Stephanie Coueignoux and Jon Alba revealed on Twitter that before April 9, local police visited the Performance Center multiple times in March and April to advise them to close down. The company ultimately ignored these orders and Ron DeSantis added WWE to the list of essential services days later.

Coueignoux tweeted: "@OrangeCoSheriff telling @MyNews13 deputies responded to @WWE Performance Center in Orlando in March & April. Advised business "they were not in compliance w/Executive Order and advised them they would have to close down." @GovRonDeSantis amended order days later. @JonAlba."