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Backstage Notes For This Week’s WWE TV Tapings, Last Minute Change on Taping Schedule, Trainees Standing for Most of the Day

May 26, 2020 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
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– It appears this will be another long week for the WWE roster, with a hefty amount of TV content being taped throughout this week. PWInsider has a report on WWE apparently changing plans for this week’s TV tapings. Yesterday, WWE had planned to tape two weeks worth of Monday Night Raw. However, WWE later opted to change plans and instead taped the Raw episode that was broadcast last night USA, along with this week’s episodes of Friday Night Smackdown, 205 Live, and Main Event.

Per the report, yesterday’s TV tapings ran about 9-10 hours total. So, it was a long day for the roster in attendance. The NXT talents who were there and standing around the ring for yesterday’s Raw also had remained standing for the other shows that were taped that day as well. Per the report, there were short breaks, so people did apparently have time to sit down in between matches. For the breaks, chairs were brought out for the trainees. However, they still had to spend most of the day standing up.

The report notes that the process was “exhausting” for the people playing the fans in the crowd to create that fan energy for WWE for the entire day. That said, some trainees were reportedly happy to be there, since they weren’t involved with anything related to WWE for the last several weeks. Additionally, this TV taping session was the first time some of the trainees had been inside the Performance Center in a while.

Attendees at the Performance Center had their temperatures checked prior to entering the building. Also, their temperatures were checked again later on that same day.

The report notes that WWE has another long TV taping session scheduled for today. Today’s TV tapings are scheduled to include next week’s episodes of Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live, and Main Event. Meanwhile, Wednesday’s tapings will be for several hours of NXT. This will apparently set NXT TV up to TakeOver: In Your House, which is scheduled for June 7. The plan is to reportedly have the trainees around the ring again for the NXT tapings to make it feel like more of a “traditional live event experience.”

PWInsider’s report also states there was talk backstage about the plexiglass used for this week’s tapings becoming the norm for future WWE live events for when WWE is able to resume touring again for TV programming and pay-per-view cards. The plexiglass would act as an additional barrier between the fans and the wrestlers.

article topics :

RAW, Smackdown, WWE, Jeffrey Harris