WWE SmackDown Will Air Live On New Year’s Day

In recent years, holidays and professional wrestling television haven’t mixed well. WWE shows typically draw smaller numbers on television during the holidays like most of television, but it wasn’t always been that way. At one time, holidays and pro wrestling were synonymous with each other. NWA/WCW’s Starrcade and WWE’s Survivor Series use to air on PPV on Thanksgiving, while live events over the holidays used to be big ticket sellers in the industry.

This year, the holiday calendar has lined up with WWE SmackDown. Both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are on Fridays, and we are now starting to learn WWE’s plans for these broadcasts.

In particular, we now know (via a report from POST Wrestling) that WWE will present a live edition of SmackDown on New Years Day, January 1st on FOX. Talent will be called to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida to perform on the holiday.

This will differ from Christmas Day one week earlier. Gary Cassidy of Inside The Rope reports that SmackDown on Christmas Day will be taped earlier in the week so as to give the roster time to be with their families.

So while the SmackDown crews dodged a bullet in having to perform on Christmas, they will indeed be filming live on the first day of 2021.

WWE debuted the ThunderDome set at Tropicana Field on Friday evening with the December 11th edition of SmackDown. All WWE broadcasts will occur at the venue now for the foreseeable future as the Amway Center in Orlando, the previous home to the ThunderDome, was needed for the Orlando Magic as the NBA season begins.