Vince McMahon made significant changes to the format of last Monday’s WWE RAW episode, as well as the majority of the plans for SmackDown.
Several changes were made to the show, including advertised matches being pulled. A spot for the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match between Bayley and Shotzi, as well as Cameron Grimes vs. Baron Corbin and Santos Escobar vs. Butch vs. LA Knight, did not take place. Instead, Knight faced Rey Mysterio, with Charlotte Flair joining the card.
Dave Meltzer confirmed a previous report on Wrestling Observer Radio that there is frustration within the company about McMahon making changes at the last second and how people are trying to figure out a way to prevent McMahon from making the changes.
He said, “He redid the entire show. I heard rumors…everyone’s gotta be like treading on water because, I am sure, logic will tell you that there are many unhappy people and Paul Levesque has to be one of ’em. You go in there and you build, you know, these were matches that were built up with promos. They’ve been promoted for a week.They did the angles last week and then just take ’em away like nothing. So it’s gotta be frustrating for the writers. It’s gotta be frustrating for Paul Levesque.
“But the thing is, is that, you know, it’s Vince, right, and you can’t, like, you can’t say anything, you know, that’s what somebody brought up to me was like, if you’re a writer, you can’t say anything to Vince. If you’re, even if you’re Paul Levesque, you can’t say anything to Vince because it’s like, you’re, you’re f**ked if you say anything to Vince. So you can’t say anything.
“They’re trying to figure out a way to have him not do this. And like, one person noted me, like, if you, it would be a lot better if like you did it the day before or two days before, but he’s doing it like the day of the show and Monday wasn’t bad. It was only the, you know, he dumped the Seth Rollins-Ciampa match. And I know a lot of people who thought, you know, it was for the better because, you know, the Finn Baller attacking Seth Rollins, you know, it adds more heat to the pay-per-view. Yeah. You lost out on Seth Rollins, and Ciama, you know, would’ve probably had a really good match. I mean, Ciampa would’ve lost, but it would’ve been, I think he would’ve benefited a lot more losing to Seth than he would beating Miz.
“I mean, he didn’t get anything outta beating Miz. He’s not Vince’s priority, you know, just like this week, you know, like whatever they were gonna do with Shotzi and Bailey, Shotzi and Bailey aren’t Vince’s priority. Cameron Grimes and Barron Corbin aren’t Vince’s priority. You know, Vince has, whatever, Vince’s and then, you know, like they added, that Rey Mysterio-LA Knight match for LA Knight to get a win. So obviously Vince is, you know, gotta be somewhat high in LA Knight, and, and Rey is a guy, you know, in Vince’s eyes, Rey’s a guy that you always beat because people will always get into his matches and he is bulletproof and all that.
“I could see that, like when I saw that unadvertised match when I was watching it, it was kinda like, ‘Oh yeah, this is, you know, before I’d even heard, it’s like, this is Vince,’ I know Vince’s mo with Ray, and, you know, and almost all the things that are advertised that don’t happen in the last couple weeks, I mean, they’re, they’re always, or 90% of the time or more they’re Vince and this, but this one was the most, because it was, yeah, three matches advertised, all pulled, like hours before the show. So it was a lot of, a lot of frustration. It’s Vince and, I mean, I’m sure there’s gonna be people who are going to try to figure out a way to ask him nicely, but it’s Vince. It’s like, he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
