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Backstage News On Why WWE Is Not Doing New Episode Of Raw On December 26th

By John Canton • Published 23rd December 2022
wwe raw best 2022

The final episode of WWE Monday Night Raw in 2022 will be a “best of” show and we have some information as to why WWE chose to do it that way.

On the December 19th edition of Raw, it was confirmed by WWE that the December 26th episode (the day after Christmas) will be a taped special called “The Absolute Best of 2022.”

What is interesting about the decision to run a taped show is that the Raw roster is actually working a live event on Monday, December 26th in Columbus, Ohio while the Smackdown crew will be at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Since tonight’s episode of Smackdown was taped on December 16th, that meant that most of the WWE crew has been off since Raw on the 19th.

That has left some fans wondering why WWE is choosing not to do a live Raw even though the superstars are working that day. According to Fightful Select, one talent told them that it was likely because WWE wanted to give some production workers some additional time off during the holiday season.

It was also confirmed by another source who said that when WWE does live events, they require way less than when they do a live or taped television show. That means that entire departments in the company don’t have to work during live events.

There was another WWE talent who told Fightful that they thought the time off was a good move since it’s going to lead into the December 30th Smackdown when John Cena makes his in-ring return to tag with Kevin Owens against Roman Reigns & Sami Zayn. That talent also said that while they would like even more holiday time off, they are reimbursed very well to work the live events from December 26th and the week ahead.

The first episode of Raw in 2023 on January 2nd will also feature Austin Theory defending the US Title against Seth “Freakin” Rollins while Bianca Belair will put the Raw Women’s Title on the line against Alexa Bliss as well.