Gov. Ron DeSantis at a press conference on April 8. During a news conference on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was asked to explain a bizarre move: Classifying professional wrestling as an “essential service,” thereby allowing World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to continue to broadcast live shows from a facility near Orlando, despite the state’s stay at home order. His answer didn’t inspire confidence that good public health reasons underpinned the decision. “Obviously WWE, there’s no crowd of anything, so it’s a very small amount of people,” DeSantis said, overlooking that WWE announced last week that one staffer recently tested positive for Covid-19 , and that putting others in a position where they feel obligated to travel to and from work at the live shows during a pandemic puts people at risk. DeSantis went on to make a case that WWE shows will help people who are currently “starved for content.” “I think people are chomping at the bit,” he said. “I mean, if you think about it, we’ve never had a period like this in modern American history where you’ve had such little new content, particularly in the sporting realm. I mean, people are watching, we’re watching, like, reruns from the early 2000s, watching Tom Brady do the Super Bowl then, which is neat because he’s gonna be in Tampa and I think they have a chance to win a Super Bowl this year. But I think people, to be able to have some light at the tunnel, see that things may get back on a better course — I think from just a psychological perspective I think is a good thing.” “People have been starved for content … we’re watching, like, reruns from the early 2000s,” Gov. Ron DeSantis says of his bizarre decision to classify live […]
