Report: Reason WWE Is Returning To Live Shows Revealed

Over SummerSlam 2020 weekend, WWE will reportedly be resuming live shows. The go-home edition of Friday Night SmackDown is scheduled to take place at the WWE Performance Center but all events from SummerSlam 2020 will be broadcast from the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. 

This marks a big change for WWE as the company has taped most of its programming since April with the exception of pay-per-views and TakeOver events which have still been broadcast live. 

Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the wrestling behemoth decided to resume live shows from the Amway Center in a bid to turn around Raw and SmackDown's TV ratings. NXT will still be taped at Full Sail University on a fortnightly basis. 

WWE reportedly believes the decline in viewership has partially been caused by the shows not being live. The company also thinks ratings have fallen because the Performance Center is too dark and too small and officials backstage have pointed to AEW: Dynamite, which has been taped outside at Daily's Place and, therefore, has not suffered such a drastic decline in viewership.