One of the things that can be seen as troublesome when the WWE goes to the UK is that it is pre-recorded. When RAW is pre-recorded it more like SmackDown as opposed to WWE’s flagship show in RAW. The tapings take place early in the day due to the time difference and it’s as easy to get spoilers for the night’s taping as it is for SmackDown. While with a regular RAW, everything happens live, there’s no risk of spoilers, and the audience genuinely has no way of knowing what is going to happen next, a taped RAW does take away that live element that makes RAW stand out from the rest.
Even in today’s market where there seem to be more professional wrestling options than ever, most of them are pre-recorded. From TNA to Lucha Underground and Ring of Honor and even SmackDown itself, the matches were recorded weeks and maybe in some cases even months earlier so it’s easy to find out the winners by doing a simple Google search. That’s an advantage that RAW has in that it is almost always live and as unexpected as can be. While the other companies run differently due to their respective circumstances, the WWE is lucky to be in a position to have such a popular weekly episodic live professional wrestling program. It’s such a different experience when RAW itself is taped, but it also serves as a reminder to how spoiler we may be with RAW’s live television aspect and how it can easily be taken for granted. Wrestling is wrestling, but when the unexpected is added to the mix (such as forgotten lines, injuries, and events as dramatic as the fans interrupting one of the matches during Tuesday’s UK tapings of SmackDown) a new dimension is given to the show.
-Celine
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