Two Shows, Two Nights, Same City, Same Arena
The WWF will be running Raw and Smackdown on consecutive days in the same city for the first time in September. WWF.com reports that "tickets for the Raw is War on Sept. 11 at the America West Arena in Phoenix went on sale Saturday and sold out in 90 minutes. Federation officials immediately scheduled SmackDown! in the very same arena the following day - Tuesday, Sept. 12.
It's the first time in history that the Federation has held two huge television events in back-to-back nights in the same city. Tickets to SmackDown! go on sale this Friday, and the Undertaker will be on hand from 9 to 11 a.m. at the America West Arena Box Office to greet fans who purchase seats for this historic event.
Several hundred fans who were turned away Saturday at the America West Arena now have a chance to attend a live event after all. Federation employees are also ecstatic about their extended stay in Phoenix. Production crew members who are normally the first to arrive at the arena and the last to leave can now get a more decent night's rest because they don't have to travel several hours to the next city.
Superstars also don't have to worry about spending several hours driving to the next town. "I've been begging for this for a long time," said Steve Taylor, vice president of event operations for the Federation. "Instead of loading (the equipment) in at 8 a.m. and having to work all day to get it set up by 7:30, we can probably do it all in about four hours. Right after the show we'll probably just shut down, and everybody will go back to their room for a good night's sleep."
Normally, the production crew spends the entire day setting up, only to take everything down (a process which takes about three hours) and load everything into about 20 large vehicles - trucks and buses - to go to the next city. They start all over the following morning at 8 a.m. But in this case, they'll just have to make some relatively minor configuration changes.