No matter how long you think it feels, the whole quarantine business has only been going down for a few months, and companies like WWE are still adapting to these strange times. Case and point, they recently shifted around their taping schedule several times over, settling on taping two weeks of shows at a time. They’re also trying to keep the roster on hand as small as possible, which has led to the company taking on unique technical challenges.
As first reported on Wrestling Observer Radio, this includes the commentary on weekly NXT programming. Starting this week, the team of Beth Phoenix and Mauro Ranallo are calling matches from home rather than traveling to Orlando bimonthly. This is why Tom Phillips joined in as the third man on the booth, and we could be seeing other virtual guests in the weeks to come.
Since the commentators don’t show up as much as they would on RAW and Smackdown, WWE felt they were able to make this change without interfering with the show too much. Considering all the in-depth cleaning needed between recorded matches, it probably provides more active commentary from the announce team to bypass those large gaps.We’ll have to see if this unusual situation continues into WWE’s next set of recordings, set for May 11.
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