When the latest brand split era began back in 2016, WWE began running SmackDown house shows against Raw tapings. The red team worked Friday - Monday; the blue team Saturday - Tuesday. Each wrapped their week filming live for USA Network.
That began to change even before we learned of the Wild Card Rule. Vince McMahon’s “genius” invention provides a kayfabe reason for wrestlers to appear on both shows (reportedly done to boost ratings, and allow McMahon to tell USA & Fox they’d both get his biggest stars once SmackDown moved to the latter in October). With live attendance down anyway, we’ve already seen the company “postpone” one Monday house show. Now, they’ve outright cancelled another.
The Mon., May 20 live event scheduled for Lowell, Massachusetts will not be happening. Here’s the announcement from the venue, the Tsongas Center:
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WWE is planning to rearrange their traveling schedule anyway when SmackDown moves to Fridays on Fox this fall, and they may do it such that house shows don’t compete with television anymore. Until then, don’t be surprised to see more blue brand Monday night events moved or cancelled.