Here’s your first look at the Capitol Wrestling Center (Video)

The WWE has re-tooled their WWE Performance Center into a new mini-arena that they’re calling the Captial Wrestling Center

Named after the Capitol Wrestling Corporation founded by Jess McMahon in 1953, the new NXT arena will be dubbed the Capital Wrestling Center, whose name will honor promotion that pre-dated the WWE. The new arena was built within the WWE’s Performance Center and will fill the space that RAW and SmackDown once filled in the earlier part of the year before both shows moved over to Orlando’s Amway Center under the “Thunderdome” moniker.

The Captial Wrestling Center will serve host for NXT TakeOver 31 and all future NXT events henceforth, until further notice. The WWE was filming at Full Sail University for years, making use of student labor to put on their weekly developmental shows. The move from the college campus to the Performance Center had to do with Full Sail not allowing students on campus yet, nor would they have allowed spectators for shows; something the WWE has been trying to do since the global pandemic started.

Despite their desire to cram people into an arena during a spike in new cases, the WWE has gone out of their way to ensure that people are protected, in theory.

While the video doesn’t show it perfectly, the chain-linked fence that surrounds the ringside area is also erected in front of a plexiglass wall, akin to a hockey game. Gone are conventional risers that fans are used to seeing and instead all seats are now floor seats in confined areas that will allow only so many people per box. Some boxes have only two seats, while others may have six or eight.

These plexiglass booths in the audiences, the enforcement of social distancing, and masks should be helpful in protecting audiences. However, it should be noted that WWE has had a few Covid-19 outbreaks since April, so it may be best to limit how often fans are brought in.