9 Live Observations From WWE SmackDown Holiday Tour Peterborough
What went down in the Liftlock City, and what it means for SmackDown Live.
While the superstars of Monday Night RAW begin to congregate in Pittsburgh for their brand-exclusive PPV, Roadblock: End Of The Line, the SmackDown brand took its talent north of the border for a Holiday Tour. Likely hoping to capitalize off of Survivor Series buzz, the tour is taking place across smaller markets in Southern Ontario, including, for the first time in 6 years, my hometown of Peterborough.
The show wasn't exactly monumental, nor would it be for the smaller market. That being said, if you want to see what's ahead on the tour should you choose to go, or you want to see what implications the live event may have on televised programming, you have come to the right place.
***POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR FUTURE EVENTS***
9. Before The Show
Whether it was due to the snowfall and freezing rain, or due to ticket sales, the Peterborough Memorial Centre was only at 65-70% capacity. There were a lot of empty floor seats near the entrance ramp. The most populous areas of the arena were ringside and the nearby bowl seats.
If you want to get merchandise before the show, be prepared to wait. There was only one merch table set up, which resulted in a large mob at the front of the arena, making it quite difficult for anyone trying to get to their seat to pass.
The set was WWE's typical house show set, with some added decorations, like presents and inflatable snowmen and Santa's. The only thing close to pyrotechnics in the show were smoke machines (A la Becky Lynch). The crew tested their cameras, even busting out the mistletoe cam for couples.
One lucky family got their tickets upgraded to ringside seats in what was a nice moment.
Eventually, 7:30pm rolled around, and the SmackDown Live intro played on the titan tron, leading to our first match.