WWE To Pretape WrestleMania 37 Go-Home Raw & SmackDown

With the ThunderDome on the move, WWE's pre-Mania Raw and SmackDown will be pretaped.

by Andy H Murray
WWE Thunderdome
WWE

WWE will pretape the final episodes of Raw and SmackDown before WrestleMania 37 prior to its ThunderDome lease at Tropicana Field expiring on 2 April.

Spectrum Sports 360's Jon Alba reported the impending ThunderDome move yesterday, describing the 2 April end date as a "hard out." The expectation is that WWE will then head across town in Tampa, Florida to the University of South Florida's Yuengling Center with its 'Dome set-up.

Leaving Tropicana Field on 2 April would mean WWE having to find a solution for the 5 April Raw and 9 April SmackDown, the company's two WrestleMania 37 go-home shows. Per POST Wrestling's John Pollock, the promotion will pretape them at Tropicana rather than shooting the shows at a new location, doing so across Tuesday 30 March and Thursday 1 April.

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Raw will be captured on the Tuesday and SmackDown on the Thursday. The 2021 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will also be recorded across these nights, making for a busy couple of tapings.

An interesting facet of this is that the 9 April episode of SmackDown will be taped before the 2 April episode goes out live.

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Channel Manager
Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.