More Details On WWE Double Taping Raw and Smackdown Next Week

A new report has some more detail on WWE doing double tapings of Raw and Smackdown next week. As noted yesterday, WWE announced that next week’s episode of Raw will start at 6 PM ET instead of the usual 8 PM ET. The company will film Smackdown immediately after, and the following week’s Raw and Smackdown will film on Friday, August 28th.

After Fightful Select reported yesterday that the taping was being done to give the talent and crew some time off between their summer run and the South American tour that starts on September 9th, a new report from F4W Online has a bit of additional context. The site reports that having all main talent in the building at the two tapings allows for “easy access” to load the shows with additional top stars.

The regular live schedule will start back up with the September 7th Raw in Birmingham, Alabama followed by Smackdown on September 11th in Mexico City, the first night of TripleMania in Las Vegas the same night, TripleMania 34 night two on September 13th in Mexico City, and the September 14th episode of Raw also in the city. Roman Reigns will defend the World Heavyweight Championship against the winner of the currently-ongoing #1 contenders match at the latter episode of WWE Raw.