Why Vince McMahon Has Decided WWE Raw & SmackDown MUST AIR LIVE
There's some serious money at stake if the company chooses to violate their current TV contracts.
Dave Meltzer has confirmed via the Wrestling Observer that WWE will be airing SmackDown, Raw and NXT live for the foreseeable future. The decision was made in order to hold off any of their network partners trying to withhold money due to contracts being violated.
Originally, WWE had planned to tape as many as FIVE shows over the coming days. Now though, it seems that the fear of potentially violating their TV contracts has forced Vince McMahon into going back to live productions.
NBC Universal and FOX's current contracts with WWE call for only a certain amount of shows to be taped throughout the year. That number for Raw is three, meaning that 49 of the shows must be live. It's understood that FOX has a similar deal.
At this moment, WWE are depending heavily on their TV revenue due to not receiving any live event income right now and will therefore not want to risk giving any of their partners the legal right to withhold money or change their currently agreed deals.
It hasn't been stated whether the networks ordered McMahon to go back to a live product, but nevertheless, WWE will again be airing their three weekly episodic programmes live from the Performance Centre.
Will certain stars who live a long distance away from Florida now be written off television until the situation is resolved? Or does this new decision mean that WWE run the risk of being shut down as the UFC was earlier this week?