The latest COVID-19 Omicron outbreak has had a massive impact on WWE Raw/Smackdown house shows. The company looked forward to returning to their yearly Holiday Live Events after a hiatus of a year. A return to Canada was also slated which has been pushed back until the Wrestlemania season in 2022.
As per the latest reports, no WWE Raw/Smackdown taped or house shows will be returning to Canada until next year. Ticketmaster has confirmed that the December 29 live event from the Coca-Coliseum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada has been postponed until Sunday, March 27, 2022. Ticketmaster is still offering tickets for that March show while all originally purchased tickets will be honored in that upcoming show.
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The December 29 show was scheduled to be WWE’s first event in Canada since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus was set to be the special guest host from her hometown but there’s no word yet on if she will be appearing in that March show. It had also been announced that the Toronto show would run at 50% capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions in the country.
WWE Raw/Smackdown house shows affected by latest COVID-19 hit
Now, WWE Raw/Smackdown shows will return to Toronto, a day after they run a show in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. It was recently announced that WWE will host a show at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, March 26 as a part of the Road to WrestleMania Tour. A WWE live event scheduled for Thursday, December 30 from Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada was postponed until Sunday, March 6.
The changes in WWE’s Live Events came after WWE postponed a RAW taping, a SmackDown taping, and two Supershow live events in Canada in the last week of 2021. The final WWE event to be held in Canada remained February 24, 2020, WWE RAW episode from Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg, Manitoba which was on the Road to Wrestlemania 36.
Reports confirmed that several WWE talents and crew members have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last week of 2021. This led to the changes for the WWE live events while some re-writes were also needed for the final WWE RAW edition of the year 2021 from Detroit. It was noted by PWInsider how a group of main roster producers have been affected by the latest COVID-19 wave.
