WWE Hall Of Famer and WWE Raw commentator, Jerry Lawler recently spoke about the back to back WWE Raw tapings on his latest podcast.
WWE opted to tape two episodes of the show back to back in order for the talent to not have to travel so close to Christmas. WWE taped both the 16th and 23rd episode on the 16th with the Iowa crowd getting to see both shows in one night.
It created a long evening for those involved, with the tapings lasting for five hours, and Jerry Lawler spoke about that
“That was a long night. We had 20 matches. So the fans that came to the show that night in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday night got to see 20 matches. We had one dark match and then the two Raws consisted of 19 total matches and you’re right, it was a long night. We started, and I bet a lot of people didn’t realise… it would be hard to realise it but ordinarily, we were on central standard time so central time, the show would’ve started live on the air at 7 o’clock, but instead, we started live in the arena at 6 o’clock.
He also spoke about how the situation was for the commentators as well, and how their voices became strained as it was rushed:
“To get both of these shows done in one night, we did the shows without commercial breaks, which made it even tougher on the announcers because a lot of the time, you depend on those commercial breaks to get a second wind or maybe clear your throat or whatever and just let your voice take a break during the little two minute commercial breaks, but we had no commercial breaks… Everything was so rushed. It was so crazy.”
H/T to Cultaholic.com for the transcriptions.
The Jerry Lawler Show