It looks like WWE may have removed a staple of their Monday and Tuesday night programming from the network schedule.
For most of the WWE Network era, there have been pre-shows included before every episode of Raw. They would start at 7:30 p.m. ET, and run for a half hour until the program began at 8:00 p.m. ET on the USA Network. Once SmackDown went live in July, they received their own pre-show on Tuesday nights. Both shows usually feature a cast of characters like Scott Stanford, Booker T, Lita, and Jerry “The King” Lawler providing insight and analysis.
Viewership doesn’t often come in for WWE Network content, but it’s safe to say the pre-shows aren’t large talking points around the water cooler and on social media. They don’t offer much, if anything to push further programming or storylines and seem to be there just for extra live content.
Well, it seems that WWE may have removed from the pre-shows. On their network scheduling for Monday, December 5 and Tuesday, December 6, the Raw and SmackDown’s kickoff programming is gone. Screenshots of the schedule for both days can be seen below.
No Raw pre-show, eh? Might not be the worst thing. SD's is gone too from the schedule listing, for now. Neither offered much value. pic.twitter.com/nlozWTu8nT
— Daily DDT (@FanSidedDDT) December 4, 2016
The Tuesday night content schedule. pic.twitter.com/QQulyj1UEr
— Daily DDT (@FanSidedDDT) December 4, 2016
It should be noted that WWE is also making a change in their pay-per-view kickoff panel. They’re adding Radio DJ Peter Rosenberg as a guest commentator for TLC, which may be the start of WWE bringing in guest panelists for these live specials. So, there could be something here with the company looking to spice up their usually lackluster pre-shows.
If this turns out to be true, it would limit the roles of Stanford, Lita, Booker T, and Lawler on WWE programming to just kickoff panel appearances. For Stanford, he has his “This Week in WWE” role on the WWE Network to go along with his hosting duties. Booker T and Lita may be fine without it, but Lawler’s role has been diminished over the past year, so he could be the most affected if programming is changing.
So, would you miss the pre-shows every Monday and Tuesday night? Or will you simply just tune in at 8:00 p.m. ET on USA Network, as usual?
More from Daily DDT
This article originally appeared on 
