After giving talent and crew off for the holidays, with recent episodes of Raw and SmackDown being best-of episodes while the last two weeks of NXT television have been taped, things are getting back to normal.
2024
WWE presented the Day 1 edition of Raw on Monday with a stacked show, headlined by World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns defending against Drew McIntyre and a surprise appearance by The Rock. Friday’s episode of SmackDown will be the New Year’s Revolution show.
Tonight’s NXT will be the New Year’s Evil special with NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov vs. Trick Williams, NXT Women’s Champion Lyra Valkyria vs. Blair Davenport, and the NXT Men’s Breakout Tournament finals.
The issue
Dragon Lee, Joaquin Wilde, and Cruz Del Toro vs. Drew Gulak, Charlie Dempsey, and Damon Kemp were originally booked for this show, but Lee has announced he had to pull out due to a visa issue. It’s unclear who will replace him on the broadcast.
Pwinsider reports there are no imminent issues with Lee’s new work visa for WWE in the United States and that it has been approved. Because of the holidays, it did not arrive in time for him to travel back to the United States for NXT.
They were told that “Lee is expected back in the States relatively soon and could even be back as soon as Friday’s Smackdown. It’s just a matter of the visa being physically in his hands.”
