Disney is putting pro wrestling inside one of its oldest theme park attractions. The Walt Disney World announcement on May 28 confirmed a full overhaul of the Magic Kingdom’s Carousel of Progress, and the third act lands on New Year’s Eve 1999, where the family’s grandmother sneaks the TV over to wrestling when no one is looking.
The detail is straight from Disney’s own description of the reimagined show, not fan speculation. Act 3 centers on the countdown to the year 2000, with the internet arriving and Grandpa nodding off before midnight. Grandma quietly flips the channel to catch her wrestling fix.
The timing matters for wrestling fans. The late 1990s were the peak of the Attitude Era, when WWE, WCW, and ECW all fought for screen time and the genre hit mainstream numbers it hadn’t seen before and arguably hasn’t matched since. Setting a nostalgic 1999 scene without wrestling would have left out a defining piece of that cultural moment.
It also lands at a notable point in the Disney-WWE relationship. ESPN, owned by Disney, became the exclusive U.S. streaming home for all WWE Premium Live Events starting in 2026 under a five-year, $1.6 billion deal announced in August 2025. WrestleMania 42 was the first event to stream on ESPN’s new service this past April. Wrestling sitting inside a flagship Disney attraction reads differently now that WWE’s biggest nights live on a Disney platform.
The current version of the attraction closes July 6, 2026, with July 5 as the last day to ride. Disney expects the refreshed Carousel of Progress to reopen in 2027.
For more on the latest Carousel of Progress overhaul:
