In a statement to ESPN Saturday, WWE addressed their return to live programming starting Monday, their first official acknowledgement of the move since the story broke Friday night.

The statement read:

"We believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times. We are producing content on a closed set with only essential personnel in attendance following appropriate guidelines while taking additional precautions to ensure the health and wellness of our performers and staff. As a brand that has been woven into the fabric of society, WWE and its Superstars bring families together and deliver a sense of hope, determination and perseverance."

On Friday afternoon following the taping of the later scrapped SmackDown, Vince McMahon made the decision to return to live Raws, SmackDowns, and NXT shows from the Performance Center despite the coronavirus pandemic that has most of the world on some sort of quarantine and/or social distancing measures.

It's still unclear how WWE is able to operate in Florida, a state is that only allowing essential businesses to remain operational through April 30th. The governor's office did not reply to ESPN's request for comment as of this time.

Conversely, the UFC was rebuked in their efforts to run a show on tribal land in Lemoore, CA, next Saturday by the governor intervening with their rights partner, ESPN via Disney.

On Saturday, it was reported and confirmed that a WWE on-screen personality tested positive for the coronavirus following the company's last set of tapings, but has since recovered.