Stop us if you’ve heard this one before – chaos behind the scenes at a WWE TV taping and another script completely overhauled just before showtime.
Sunday’s SummerSlam pay-per-view was very well-received. Fans on social media and wrestling pundits alike gave the show high marks. The next WWE PPV, Payback takes place this Sunday. WWE had a lot of pieces to put in place with less than one week before two special events. Whatever WWE had written for Monday’s Raw, those plans were discarded with very little time before the show went on the air.
According to veteran wrestling journalist Mike Johnson, WWE boss Vince McMahon arrived at the ThunderDome around an hour before Raw as was set to go live. Vince reviewed the script and ‘ripped it up’ around 7:20 PM.
“WWE pretty much ripped up the entire show around 7:20 PM, PWInsider.com has been told. Vince McMahon arrived at the taping around that time and at that point, began changing “just about everything” that was planned.”
The company is said to have changed most of the things that were planned for the episode and plans for the second and third hour were still not locked until very late.
This is not the first time we are hearing such news. Reports of things being changed late on the day of the shows have become somewhat common for WWE.
While many times these last-minute changes end up working in the favor of the company, more often than not they result in inconsistencies in the storylines and create confusion among fans.
This week’s episode of the Red Branded Show featured the build-up for the upcoming Payback PPV with the company booking almost half the card for the event in one night.
What did you think about this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw after the late changes? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.