WWE chairman Vince McMahon made the decision Friday to return to live programming with Raw every Monday, NXT every Wednesday, and SmackDown every Friday from the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
The decision to not do tapings all weekend as was previously scheduled came during the middle of the day while taping SmackDown as McMahon announced he was changing everything and that the show would be going as close to live as soon as possible.
While that was not the plan Thursday, it was something he was considering all along, hence why we were specifically told yesterday to make sure and say that plan was the current one.
Many in the company were shocked at the decision. Those close to the situation have defended it and that it was the correct economic decision even if every decision, and even running at all, has to be questioned right now.
Contracts with both NBC Universal and Fox call for a certain number of shows per year that can be taped. For Raw, that number is three which, at the start of the year, was earmarked for one show over Christmas week and two shows during European tours. In theory, that would leave them with 49 live Raws. Fox has a similar deal.
While nobody will say so publicly, the fear was that by violating the contract, it would give the networks the legal ability to withhold money or find a way to change the deals. With no house shows, the company, like all sports companies, is surviving largely based on television revenue, but the networks paying that are also taking in far less revenue than they projected at this point in time due to the pandemic.