WrestleCon Cancelled, Dispute with Marriott Leads to $114K Damages Demand

WrestleMania Cancellation Would Do Event Harm

The organizers of WrestleCon were answering questions Monday, one of which included the following from Peter:

WM36 is gonna be at Performance Center without crowd, does that mean y’all are finally in the clear with your contracts? wishing the best so you can continue planning for future WrestleCon events and have less contract worries

Convention organizers responded that if WWE would"ve canceled WrestleMania, it would have put them in a bad situation with their venues. Instead, WWE decided Monday to relocate the April 5 event to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.

WrestleCon"s Dispute With Marriott

Part of the response was correspondence from a local Marriott representative (as edited):

I sincerely appreciate your communication today regarding your client, HighSpots / WrestleCon 2020[‘s], cancellation due to the “impossibility clause" of our agreement.

We are respectfully in disagreement with your client"s position. It is neither illegal nor impossible for “WrestleCon 2020" to occur as previously agreed.

I further add that Marriott International"s Cancellation and Refund Policy extends exclusion for groups booked during periods with special events restrictions or peak demands.

WrestleCon 2020 is a special event booked over heavy demand dates. Since our hotel is prepared to perform as agreed, your client"s cancellation will cause damages to the hotel.

The liquidated damages due [to] the hotel is 80% of total revenue owed [to the] hotel, or $114,202.00.

An Outpouring of Support in Defense of WrestleCon

In response to the demands for damages, some wrestling personalities and sports journalists took to berating Marriott"s actions:

So, @MarriottIntl@Marriott – you can all do something about this, right? No gatherings over 10 people and you expect one individual to use the entire space they rented? This is absurd.

Ian Riccaboni, ROH Commentator | 6:50 PM – Mar 16, 2020

You"d think @Marriott would have insurance that would cover something like an act of nature like a GLOBAL pandemic. What you"re doing to @wrestlecon is particularly cruel. This beyond their control and your unwillingness to budge could put a company out of business. For shame!

Brian “The Blue Meanie" Heffron, retired wrestler | 11:21 PM – Mar 16, 2020

Hey @wrestlecon, no court in the world would force u to pay this bill AND if we go into city wide lockdowns, they won’t have a leg to stand on anyway. In the meantime shame on u @Marriott for taking this stance in such an uncertain time! I have tons of fans who feel the same way.

Chris “Le Champion" Jericho, AEW wrestler | 11:04 PM – Mar 16, 2020

Refunds are currently in progress for the 2020 WrestleCon. For more information, the statement about the decision to cancel and all refunds are available on their website. WrestleCon sold over 3,500 ticket sales for the Tampa event.

ROH, Impact, AEW, WWE, New Japan, Stardom and other wrestlers were on the schedule to appear in Tampa.

Los Angeles is home of the 2021 WrestleCon and will be running throughout WrestleMania Week leading up to WrestleMania 37. WrestleMania 37 will be on March 28, 2021, inside the SoFi Stadium, joint home to the NFL"s Los Angeles Rams and Chargers.

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