WWE Accidentally Leaks Rehearsals Due To YouTube Glitch & Our Childhood Is Officially Ruined
According to a report by Vice, WWE seems to have committed a pretty clumsy slip-up, accidentally releasing an internal production feed of the NXT UK tapings from November 16. The recordings contained hours of footage from closed-door pre-show rehearsals, and was discovered as an unlisted video on the official WWE YouTube channel.
via GIPHY
While there's been no shortage of leaks and sneak-peeks through the years, one thing the WWE has been pretty tight about has been rehearsal days - that is, until now.
The eight-hour production feed featured:
● 35 minutes of rehearsals
● Almost 150 minutes of a black screen
● The entire taping of the event
● Announcers Tom Phillips and Nigel McGuinness's off-air banter
● Phillips, McGuinness, and ring announcer Andy Shepherd re-recording lines
● Every word said into staffers' headsets and earpieces by their producer
While wrestling fans have known that the 'sport' is primarily just entertainment (it's in the name, folks), WWE themselves have been entirely open about this ever since the eighties, and have released several documentary-style productions through their history. This is the first time however, that we've actually caught the system with its pants down.
Through the 35 minutes of rehearsals, several interesting things began to go down. NXT coach Shawn Michaels helped set up a brawl between Gallus and Imperium. Additionally, there are rehearsal segments in an empty arena. Wrestlers were also instructed where to stand during their introductions.
Over the sound channels, we could also hear NXT UK producer Jon Briley speak to the crew using a headset. Apparently, there was even a moment where Briley imitated the voice of WWE CEO, Vince McMahon - taking the lead and directing crew members in a pretty admirable way.
via Gfycat
While the contents of the leak were pretty interesting to see, the video was quickly swiped off YouTube - where it began to mysteriously show up on wrestling fans' autoplay lists.
According to one Reddit theory, the video was briefly public on WWE's YouTube channel and indexed at one point and was not taken out when it was switched back to unlisted - either way, it was a fun sneak-peek while it lasted.