6. The Number Of House Shows Were Cut Down Significantly
In the 80s and early 90s, it would be common to have a WWF live event every day. The roster would be split into two traveling halves, and both would conduct live events once a day, with both rosters coming together to tape a few episodes of Superstars, Wrestling Challenge, and Monday Night Raw over the course of a weekend once a month. Wrestlers back then would be on the road upwards of 300 days a year. 1997 was the year where the number of live events made a steep decline. Perhaps it was the cyclical nature of the business, and WWF was on a downswing before the rise of the Attitude Era. Perhaps it was because the roster wasnt big enough to split in two. Toward the end of the year, there would be no house shows on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. Some weeks, there would be no house shows at all between two Monday Night Raw tapings. Even though live gate revenue was going down, this was more than likely keeping the wrestlers fresh. This would be the start of the schedule we are used to today where house shows take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, followed by television tapings on Monday and Tuesday, and getting Wednesday and Thursday off.
