Raw to be broadcast live on Christmas Day
 

Because clearly the wrestlers on the road 300 days a year want to give up one of their few guaranteed breaks a year and not be able to see their families for the holiday. Why do that when you can work a sparsely attended show?

Nothing says Christmas night like rounding up the family to watch three hours of a niche TV show.

Good.

Wrestling has always traditionally been featured on Holidays. Holiday Star Wars, Starrcade, Survivor Series.

People bitch either way.

By "always" you mean before the 90's when live wrestling was white hot, right?

STDs Irish ancestors died so wrestlers can't see their families on Christmas Day.

It happens once every 7 years. Im sure it wont be mandatory. Theyll get enough guys who dont want to be home for the holidays and put on a show just like there will behundreds of indy shows on Christmas like there are every year

Lame.

They should let talent-crew-staff have Christmas and New Year's Eve off. Neither show will do well in ratings either.

Wonder if at least the Smackdown brand gets the day off since they hold house shows on Mondays.

So, should we cancel the Christmas Day football games, too?

Football players aren't on the road 300+ days a year.

A lot of people dont want to be home for christmas. On top of that there are a lot of people who dont have families to go home to. Some people not only want to work on christmas/thanksgiving but also really need a distraction from all the family centric tv and imagery that they are bombarded with during the holidays.

There's nothing wrong with getting together the guys who want to do this and putting on a show. No one is a villian for this...geezus

I'm willing to bet that participation is mandatory, not optional.

And they're doing this despite the fact that they will get murdered by the NBA in the ratings that day.

Vince is a Scrooge who should be visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future in his sleep.

Unfortunately he doesn't sleep.

It hasnt been in the past

Not since wcw folded anyway.

Also theyre doing about 320 shows a year with 2 brands. Guys get more time off now than ever

How many times has WWE run events on Christmas since WCW folded?

the ghosts appear in his morning, afternoon, and evening steak wraps.

They should do a Christmas special with claymation and singing

Braun Strowman learns the true meaning of Christmas

Once in 2006 but that was a Tribute to the Troops show taped well before.

If you count Christmas Eve, then they had 3 shows during those days but all taped or some special event instead.

Lost my post but several counting raw and sd if you include eves. (And you should)

I had all the dates but my window timed out...not doing that again.

01 was a live show and 2012 was as well.

I don't mean what shows have they aired on Christmas. I'm asking how many times they've actually run a live show on Christmas.

Neville as the Christmas Goblin trying to ruin Christmas

Yep I hate everything about Christmas and wanna be as far away from people as I can during it. My fave part of the holidays is the end.

Both were taped episodes although think 2012 was taped earlier in the day. Not sure about when 2001 was taped.

Just to be clear a bit, are we talking about live as it happens on tv like sports or just holding a show in general that day(s) but not aired at the same time?


Sorry. This would be the first time RAW would be live and not taped earlier.

He means live events/live tv shows genius.

Just holding any live events on Christmas. I'm trying to find the precedent for Destor's comment that they haven't made guys working on Christmas mandatory in the past.

I hope someone throws a Teddy Bear at someone

http://imgh.us/Untitled-1_12.gif

Oh. I was looking at it with a sports mentality as RAW being live on tv as it happened.

Just in general, its happened a handful of times since the fall of WCW but mostly for Smackdown.

Plot twist: Vince McMahon re-enacts the plot to Scrooged during the show, but we only see it from the POV of the IBC television audience, not the actual "visited by three ghosts" context.

"What kind of an asshole makes his employees run a live show on Christmas Eve?"

"Only you, Mr. Cross!"

"Yesterday, I would have fired him... but he's right."

Beth Hardy (Jeff's wife) took to Twitter to complain about the decision but said USA were the ones pushing for it, not WWE.

Even still, WWE television is consistently the highest rated programming on USA. They're not just gonna cancel Raw if Vince is all "nah, I really don't want to make my talent work on Christmas."

WWE have bent over backwards for USA and are giving them 5+ hours of live programming a week. Triple H and Stephanie have openly admitted they hate having a third hour of Raw because it makes the show worse - but they do it because it's what the network wants. Wanting to run a live Christmas show that will be sparsely attended and blasted by the NBA in the ratings is just a moronic request on USA's part and I'm still gonna give some blame to Vince for not putting his foot down.

I don't see the problem here. If Christmas falls on s Monday than the show must go on. Talent have plenty of time before the show to do Christmas with the family. They chose that career and know that it might include working a holiday.

This isn't the first time it's been on Christmas right?

So the Christmas show will still suck and being live is the only difference.

:yes: Yep. Exactly.

Why is this even news?

I think people kind of miss the point that it's not about Raw coming on, its about it being live, when they can easily pre-tape a raw for the holiday.