WWE Raw Will Air Live On Two Major Holidays For The First Time Ever

WWE likes to celebrate that Raw is the longest-running weekly episodic television show in history, or something to that effect. But in the rare cases when Christmas Day and New Year’s Day have fallen on a Monday, WWE has always given their wrestlers time off, by airing a clip show, or a version of Tribute to the Troops, or some other way around actually putting on a three-hour show of completely new content.

Well, that’s all going to change this year. On Monday, WWE announced that there will be a new, live, all-new episode of Raw on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day this year. That’s unprecedented, and if history is any indication, it likely won’t make a huge difference in the ratings, which will likely be down anyway.

The past two years, for example, the July 4th edition of Raw has reached historic lows, because people tend to go out barbecuing and drinking, rather than staying in to watch wrestling. Christmas and New Year’s Day are — sorry, fans of America — slightly bigger deals than the Fourth of July.

Wrestlers and their families are already voicing their displeasure about the situation. But according to Jeff Hardy’s wife on Twitter, it looks like this decision came down from USA Network, rather than being WWE’s call.

That is a rough, rough couple of dates to add to your calendar, especially considering how much of the year WWE Superstars are on the road as it is. We expect WWE will try to do something very nice for the wrestlers and their families as a bit of a make-good, but