First hour of Raw & SmackDown to air commercial-free next week

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Dave Meltzer | @davemeltzerWON | Dec 21, 2017 10:51 am


As part of USA Network's week of limited commercials, both Raw and SmackDown this coming week will be commercial-free for the first hour of each show.

WWE made the announcement earlier today, also noting that Monday's show will be the first time Raw has ever aired live on Christmas. In previous years, when Christmas fell on a Monday, the show was taped ahead of time.

John Cena will return on Monday's Raw from the All-State Arena in Chicago. SmackDown will also be from the same venue.

When it comes to live attendance, historically, Christmas was one of the best days to draw a crowd, but WWE has not booked live shows on Christmas in recent memory. The week after Christmas house show tour is also traditionally WWE's strongest week of the year, drawing well above usual crowds and playing mostly major arenas.

A week after the Christmas episode, Raw will also air live on New Year's Day.

[XIV]

Less Commercials. More wrestlers in stupid christmas outfits having "candy cane on a pole" matches and stuff. I wonder how that will affect UK airing.

[Serujuunin]

Just another RAW I won’t watch.

Can we drop the silly Christmas gimmicks and just have a regular wrestling show please? -_-

[cero2k]

lol, you guys think this time will go to the wrestlers, it's probably gonna be another Stephanie McMahons revolutionizes the world segment

[XIV]

lol, you guys think this time will go to the wrestlers, it's probably gonna be another Stephanie McMahons revolutionizes the world segment

How many subtle or unsubtle WWE merchandise plugs will be in that first hour?

[cero2k]

lol, you guys think this time will go to the wrestlers, it's probably gonna be another Stephanie McMahons revolutionizes the world segment

How many subtle or unsubtle WWE merchandise plugs will be in that first hour?

not even WWE merchendise, tons of times we've seen Enzo promote KFC, so we may as well see tons of skits as commercials and sell those to companies, but technically, RAW went commercial free

[XIV]

lol, you guys think this time will go to the wrestlers, it's probably gonna be another Stephanie McMahons revolutionizes the world segment

How many subtle or unsubtle WWE merchandise plugs will be in that first hour?

not even WWE merchendise, tons of times we've seen Enzo promote KFC, so we may as well see tons of skits as commercials and sell those to companies, but technically, RAW went commercial free

The network is commercial free... WWE sponsor's will be all over product placement.