Call it a Christmas miracle come early, at least for the WWE roster!

According to Jeff Whalen of Rajah.com, the WWE will return to pre-taping both RAW and SmackDown for Christmas and New Year’s Day after experimenting with air live broadcasts last year.

Dates have already been scheduled for the recordings this December (meaning that Lana actually gets to spend Rusev Day with her Bulgarian Brute at home this Christmas). As it stands the tapings for the December 24 episode of RAW will take place December 17, while SmackDown Live’s Christmas episode will tape on the December 18. The New Years’ shows for both programs will be taped over the weekend of December 29 and 30.

It’s been speculated that television distributor USA Network insisted on the WWE delivering live programming for both holidays last year, and not old Scrooge McMahon. The move raised the ire of many fans at the time, including YouTube star Joe Cronin, who felt sympathy for those involved and was angered over the WWE forcing their superstars to spend the holidays away from family for the sake of working unnecessary live shows before year’s end:

https://youtu.be/eOezYJWTjak

The 2017 live broadcast itself suffered only a 3% drop in viewing figures from the week prior, according to Wrestling Observer Online, seeing it peak at 2.69 million viewers on Christmas Day. Nevertheless, a small drop in rating is still a drop nonetheless. And airing holiday episodes live has never really been a big ratings factor in the past, especially considering the strong competition from other sports like the NFL and NBA.

Luckily for everyone involved, both in front of and behind the camera, this Christmas … YOU GET A RUSEV DAY! AND YOU GET A RUSEV DAY! EVERYONE GETS A RUSEV DAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!

Does it make a difference to you if WWE broadcast live over Christmas? Let us know in the comments.

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• usa network
• Christmas
• SmackDown Live
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