WWE’s plans for their TV schedule has been something that has changed a few times in the last week.
The company had plans to tape several episodes of Raw, NXT, and SmackDown over the course of a week that would get them through next month.
That changed on April 10 when Vince McMahon decided to air shows live each week after they were deemed an essential business by the Governor of Florida.
Initial reports stated that WWE was trying to stay as close to live as possible in order to keep within the agreements that they had with NBC Universal and FOX.
There was a belief that if WWE was taping too many shows then those contracts could be changed as WWE wasn’t keeping true to what they had agreed upon.
It was then reported this past Friday that WWE is planning to film shows in advance over the next few months from the closed-set WWE Performance Center. This is being done to limit the travel for wrestlers. You can check out the new schedule here.
Despite all the changes and safety measures that the company is taking, WWE has still received criticism for pushing forward as the coronavirus continues.
Dave Meltzer talked about these changes on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio. While not confirmed, the belief is that both networks told McMahon this past week that they wouldn’t cut WWE’s money as long as they air first-run programming on their weekly TV shows.
Thus, WWE made the call to go back to taping shows since their revenue wouldn’t be impacted by it.
