The first mention of AEW (All Elite Wrestling) on WWE programming happened last night on Raw during a Q&A segment with Sami Zayn and Corey Graves.
Graves hosted an in-ring segment called “The Electric Chair” where Charly Caruso, Kayla Braxton and Sarah Schreiber fielded questions from fans to ask Zayn as he sat in an “electric chair.” They asked Zayn about teaming with Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch on Mixed Match Challenge, why he hasn’t won the Universal Championship, when he will retire and what it’s like to get beat up by Brock Lesnar.
Zayn was not happy with their questions as he said that they could have asked him anything, including AEW.
“You could ask me anything. You could’ve asked me about AEW,” Zayn said.
Immediately following his remark, Zayn had an exaggerated expression on his face. The fans at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri did a collective gasp as Graves quickly changed the subject.
You can watch Zayn say AEW in the clip below.
“You’ve could’ve asked me about AEW” – Sami Zayn #Raw pic.twitter.com/KOvt45SASa
— Randy Cruz (@randyjcruz) May 28, 2019
The mention was edited out of WWE’s video of the segment uploaded to YouTube and WWE.com.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Zayn’s AEW line was scripted for the segment.
“The AEW line was scripted then they pulled it from the video afterwards and I actually asked someone what’s going on and it’s just like all I heard was ‘it was so f*cking stupid,’” Meltzer said (h/t Ringside News).
“Okay, if it’s not scripted then [Sami Zayn] is gonna be suspended. If you go against the script on live TV and say AEW they’ll suspend you for sure. They’re not going to fire you because they won’t fire anybody, obviously.”
“I was just told and the person who told me should know because it’s in the meeting.”
Meltzer also noted that the questions in the segment came from actual fans, but their questions were screened in advance.
