Behind WrestleMania itself , Wrestlecon may be the second largest wrestling event booked to take place that first weekend in April, but that doesn’t mean it has the same quantity of staff. Michael Bochicchio is the owner of the WrestleCon event and one could only imagine the feedback he’s been getting with WrestleMania having a big question mark by it courtesy of the Coronavirus pandemic. With the exception of WWE, the concern has caused all major sports companies to halt or cancel their seasons and with the unknown still in the air for WWE, WrestleCon is feeling such reverberations. Earlier this week the convention took a poll to gauge how many people still would attend the smaller events in Tampa that weekend if WrestleMania did get postponed and the results were 60/40 in favor of not attending.
Just to get feedback that may relate to our decision making. If all WWE events were cancelled, yet it was somehow still possible that smaller groups like Wrestlecon, The Collective, ROH, were permitted to continue with events in Tampa. Would you?
— WrestleCon (@wrestlecon) March 11, 2020
This however didn’t seem to stop the panic on social media with comments thrown at the family-operated event, so much that Bochiccho’s wife Kristi opened up to readers about the concerns attendees have about that uncertainty. Kristi gives a detailed behind-the-curtain look at the WrestleCon operations and tells fans to rest-assured about whatever happens, they will do right by their customers:
“My name is Kristi. If you’ve attended Wrestlecon before, you’ve likely met me at the door. If you’re new, you’ve probably seen me on Twitter. I’m a college profession. Wrestlecon is my side hustle. I’m married to Michael; he owns Wrestlecon. He started a company in his college dorm room over 20 years ago, and that company and its small staff run Wrestlecon each year. We live in Charlotte with our three dogs. We are regular people, who work hard each day to bring you Wrestlecon each year.
“Michael is the hardest working person I’ve ever met. Most days I feel like I’m married to a wrestling convention. Whether it’s booking talent, promoting shows, creating new aspects of the event, designing logos, you name it, Michael is thinking about it 16-18 hours a day.
“I mentioned we are small. There are about 8 of us who work in some capacity throughout the year to bring Wrestlecon to the fans. Those 8 people also bust their asses day in and day out. Those 8 people are also frustrated, emotionally overwhelmed by the current situation regarding COVID-19.
“I’m writing this because I want you to understand a bit more about our company. We do the best work we can each year, and I am so damn proud of the event Michael created. We’ve gained your trust along the way, and that means the world to us; we have no intention of breaking that trust. You have so many choices for Mania weekend, and you choose to spend your money with us. We don’t take that lightly.
“We also don’t have enough information right now to make a decision. We know you have questions. I wish we had answers. Me and Michael spent hours last night talking through various scenarios. Not in a big corporate office, but at our kitchen table. We are using the information we have and attempting to make the best decision we can. We just don’t have one yet.
“Wrestlecon takes a full year of planning. Before things got crazy last week, we were already working on LA. We’ve signed venue contracts in LA, etc. This is a large scale event run by a small group of people. We can’t easily just say let’s reschedule or we will postpone it. It’s just not that simple.
“There are a lot of things right now that we don’t know. But there is one thing I know for sure: we will do right by our customers. I don’t know what that means exactly, but we are honest hardworking people: we know you are too. We will not keep your money if it’s owed back to you. We will refund those who can’t travel. We will address all of those things. We just can’t address them today. And probably not tomorrow. We need a bit more time to sort through this.
“I’m writing this from my couch. Michael will be home from work soon. We will eat a quick dinner and get back to work. Lots more to discuss at the kitchen table tonight. You’ll know what we know just as soon as we know it. Thanks, K”
Mrs Wrestlecon was upset after reading some twitter comments today, thought this is worth a read. https://t.co/xpP6jxtAt5
— WrestleCon (@wrestlecon) March 13, 2020
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