Professional Wrestling Discussion

>Watch WWE RAW with /wooo/ in /wooo/tube - http://taima.tv/r/wooo and /wooo/alt - http://taima.tv/r/woooalt at 8pm Eastern//1am London. WWE The Bump airs at 6:30pm//11:30pm in /wooo/alt. After RAW, RAW Talk airs at 11pm//3am. On tonight's show:

>Two current Champions will clash on WWE RAW

>Could Shayna Baszler make a big return to RAW this week?

>Could Randy Orton betray his own mentor on WWE RAW?

>Will a big Extreme Rules match be made official on RAW?

> After a COVID-19 outbreak that has greatly affected the promotion, WWE has made a number of changes. The biggest change was in the schedule. WWE had planned to tape two weeks worth of Raw, Smackdown, Main Event and 205 Live on 6/26 and 6/27. However, with the outbreak and a large number of talent unavailable, the decision was only to tape the necessary shows for this week. Smackdown was cut back to about an hour of new content with numerous stars missing, with the show built around a tribute to The Undertaker, which, through airing The Undertaker vs. A.J. Styles boneyard match at WrestleMania, did its best numbers in months.

> Advertised segments including an A.J. Styles vs. Drew Gulak IC title match and a Sheamus toast to Jeff Hardy were pulled from the show when Styles, Daniel Bryan and Sheamus weren’t there. The latter was being advertised for the 7/3 Smackdown show that was being taped on 7/2. Raw was missing a lot of big names as well, but did three hours and drew one of the lowest numbers in the history of the show.

> The outbreak caused a change in the tapings schedule and more taping this week. NXT was to tape its shows for 7/1 and 7/8 on 7/1, which it did. It was supposed to tape 7/15 and 7/22 on 7/2, which has been moved to an upcoming set of tapings. Smackdown and 205 Live for 7/3 and 7/10 was taped on 7/2, while Raw and Main Event for 7/6 and 7/13 was to be taped on 7/3. It was noted that it was a lot safer keeping the Raw brand tapings on one night and Smackdown on the other, because taping both the same night and doing different weeks on different days led to an outbreak that hit both brands hard. Keeping the brands on separate days means, in theory, if there is another outbreak, it would only affect one brand.

> The WWE outbreak affected AEW, as Jon Moxley, on his own, decided it wasn’t prudent to come for the taping on 7/2 for the second night of Fyter Fest, where he was to face Brian Cage for the AEW title. Moxley took a second COVID test on 6/26 in Las Vegas. He got the test result on 6/30 or 7/1 and it was negative. Moxley is expected to return on the 7/15 live show, called Fight for the Fallen, provided he tests negative on a third test that will be taken in a few days.

> Even with the two negative tests, Moxley noted he was around someone who tested positive for several straight days and after talking to doctors felt there was still a risk he could have it in its early stages where it would not come up in a test but could be contagious. He didn’t want to risk the safety of the AEW locker room or be responsible for a new outbreak. Renee Young, his wife, has been doing much better. As of midweek, she still felt funny and her chest felt heavy but overall felt a lot better.

> The COVID issue in the U.S. now back to setting new records of cases and with Florida as a hotbed, has led to other changes. Masks are required in indoor buildings in Orange County, where WWE runs. WWE has gone from not wanting anyone wearing a mask while shooting television, to having it allowable after much criticism on 6/26 for Smackdown, to making them mandatory at the tapings starting on 6/27.

> But even on both 6/27 and the 7/1 NXT tapings, while almost everyone was wearing a mask, there were exceptions. Kona Reeves had a mask but was not wearing it on 6/27 and there may have been others, including those who did have masks covering their mouths and not their noses. On the 7/1 taping, they moved the crowd and had far less crowd shots, and the crowd was also darkened. But there was one woman very noticeable in a number of shots with no mask and others with masks that weren’t on.

> For AEW on 7/1, they had almost nobody on camera with masks. And both WWE and AEW had people much closer than six feet apart at ringside. Granted, there are the obvious differences. WWE just had a major outbreak and has just started actually testing, while AEW has tested weekly from the start, and to this point it is believed that nobody in attendance at an AEW event has ever tested po…