Chaos ensued at the recent WWE tapings with lots of changes made to the already-written shows. As a result, next week’s Smackdown taping was postponed to August 13. The August 3 and 10 episodes of RAW were taped, as well as tonight’s SmackDown.
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One of the main reasons for this was due to a combination of poor ratings and Vince McMahon (reportedly) being questioned by investors about the dwindling ratings. The angle for Shane’s return and RAW Underground was created prior to the investors call. There was also an angle with Randy Orton and Ric Flair that won’t air until next week.
On the morning of the show, those were the only segments he approved of and a show was written without his approval. There was a meeting on July 30 before the investment call that was described as ‘brutal’, because he wouldn’t approve anything. Another meeting on July 31 lasted four hours.
To further elaborate on the issue, after the RAW taping was finished, more chaos ensued as with the SmackDown taping after Vince McMahon ‘blew up’ the scripted show as a result of several people being unavailable at the last minute. This move led to many changes being made at the last second. For starters, next week’s episode getting postponed, and will be taped on August 13 with the August 17 RAW. NXT will tape next week for August 12 and 19. No decision has been made on the August 21 SmackDown. Other than NXT Takeover XXX and SummerSlam, no other dates have been planned at this time.
Friday Night SmackDown could be taped on its own that Friday, since the production team will be working in Florida anyway that weekend. However, no one in the company has been told of any TV tapings after August 13.
