With WWE touring the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the European continent over the next ten days, fans in that part of the world not only get a chance to see their favorite stars in an arena near-ish to them — they also get episodes of Raw and SmackDown that don’t start really late at night and run until the wee hours of the morning*.
Nowadays, WWE’s partnerships with global streaming companies gives viewers all over the world more options on when to watch shows — regardless of what time zone they take place in. They also present new opportunities and challenges for WWE.
Anyone watching Netflix as it streamed live on the service in most of the world outside the United States saw Logan Paul suckerpunch John Cena as he ran past Cena left-to-right in a 3Arena tunnel. Or should I say, pretended to see Paul punch his Clash in Paris opponent…
Because at more than a glance, you can see a lot of daylight between Logan’s fist and Cena’s jaw in the footage that streamed live. By the time the scene rolled on USA Network for SmackDown’s domestic airing, the Media Megastar marched down the hallway behind Aldis to cold-cock the retiring 17-time WWE World champ. Cena is careful to not be looking over the General Manager’s shoulder as Paul approaches, but the new version isn’t without issues. At least it’s not a phantom punch though.
Here they both are side-by-side:
And with the Netflix version slowed down:
Definitely more of an interesting production note than a big deal, at least in my opinion. Creating live television is really hard, and its a testament how good the teams behind most of the pro wrestling on our screens) are that we don’t see bigger gaffes more often.
The folks at WWE were probably glad for the second shot at this one being in Ireland provided.
* Unless they plan on watching AEW Forbidden Door London live tomorrow… then they get to experience one of Tony Khan’s past-midnight main event finishes that we domestic sickos are treated to roughly once a month.
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