WWE Changes Plans: Raw, SmackDown and NXT Will Now Be Live Again Each Week

Raw, SmackDown and NXT will return to live weekly shows from the Performance Center starting next week, according to Dave Meltzer, PWInsider and more.

WWE originally planned to tape about five weeks worth of each show starting this weekend and going into next week, which would have taken them up to the May 10 Money in the Bank PPV, but at some point on Friday, Vince McMahon changed his mind and decided that the shows will be done live again.

Florida still currently has a stay-at-home order in place, but the state is apparently allowing WWE to get around it.

Several wrestlers traveled to Orlando today to prepare for the tapings, but many will now go back home and travel to the live shows weekly instead.

Many in the company were “shocked” at the decision, according to Dave Meltzer, but “those close to the situation” defended it, saying that it was “the correct economic decision.” Post Wrestling added that many wrestlers were (understandably) upset about the decision and some people were given a letter stating that they were “essential media” in case they were questioned by police.

Meltzer speculated that WWE’s TV contracts may have been a reason for the decision. WWE’s deals with FOX and NBC Universal (USA) only allow for a certain number of shows per year to be taped. For USA, it’s three, and the number is somewhere in that range for FOX also. Though the situation is obviously extenuating and the networks likely would not have terminated WWE’s deals, the fear, according to Meltzer, is that with advertising revenue down during the pandemic, WWE didn’t want to give the networks any opening at all.

It’s unclear if the networks specifically mentioned anything about that to WWE. It’s also not known if networks pressured WWE to go live because of declining ratings or if WWE made that decision on their own. Spoilers have not gotten out, so the declining ratings likely have much more to do with the empty arenas than the shows being taped.