WWE Smackdown: Will Double-Taping Ruin the Show?

For a while now Smackdown has been recording two of their shows on one night in an attempt to save money. Linda McMahon is trying to cut $20 million out of the WWE’s budget in light of the recent economic crisis, and this should save them around $700,000.

This may seem a really good idea, as the more money WWE has the less likely they are to get rid of more talent. But putting money aside for a moment, how will double- taping affect the show itself?

If the Smackdown roster has to perform twice in the same night to the same audience, there must surely be some energy lost in the show. Not only physically will the Superstars’ be drained for the second taping, but the crowd may not react the same way to their second appearance.

As well as this, there must also be a knock on affect to the length of each show. If you take away all the disclaimers, the ads, the vignettes, and flashbacks, the show itself lasts for about an hour. A chunk of that will be entrances too, and with entrances like Undertaker’s that could be quite a big proportion. I can't see it getting any shorter than this, but does it really leave any possibility for there to be more wrestling in the show itself?

A lot of wrestlers are potentially due to come to Smackdown, e.g. Christian Cage, Gail Kim, Kizarny, Tomko, Kennedy, Umaga, and Hurricane Helms recently returned. Personally I don’t want to see stars like these, assuming they come, get poor air time and not give their talent its due credit.

I think my personal gripe with the whole situation is just the idea itself. I want to watch Smackdown knowing that it’s new and exciting. I don’t want to be able to read what has happened two weeks before it’s supposed to even air.

I could just about cope with it being aired three days after being filmed, as has been the case for a while, but I think it will take a lot away from the show.

Some have been saying how the superstars will appreciate the extra time off, but I don’t know how true that is. The time off that they get is time that they could be getting paid for. Sure people like the Undertaker or HHH might not notice a few thousand dollars out of their $2 million salary, but some at they lower end of the scale may feel the difference.

It’s not sure how much longer they will be going on for, but its sounds like it should go on until at least after WrestleMania, then may face a review to weighh how it’s going. I hope that more than money is considered however.

Smackdown had been getting a lot of bad reviews recently, until perhaps the arrival of Freddy Prinze Jr., who had seemed to have a positive impact on the show. I just don’t want to see the WWE lessen the quality of their show for the sake of money. But—who knows?—it might not affect it at all.