We noted before how the AEW mention was edited off the YouTube replay, but it was left on the USA Network website and app replay. The mention was also left in the Hulu replay, which is usually heavily edited.
While multiple sources are now reporting that the line was scripted, many if not most people within the company were told otherwise. It was previously reported that Vince McMahon “flipped out” backstage when Sami made the mention, and he did act like he was freaking out, according to the Observer. The Observer notes that since the buck stops with Vince in WWE, either his behavior was a miscommunication, which is what the Observer was told, or an attempt to “work the boys” backstage.
Stephanie McMahon released a video from WWE HQ this afternoon to address what happened with Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman on this week’s RAW.
Lesnar and Heyman were set to announce who he would be cashing in his Money In the Bank title shot against – WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins or WWE Champion Kofi Kingston. That announcement never came and the angle ended with Lesnar just realizing that he had one year to cash in the briefcase. Stephanie says they will take action against Lesnar and Heyman.
“WWE renounces and in fact condemns the behavior of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman on Monday Night RAW this past week,” Stephanie said. “Brock Lesnar walked to the ring with the Money In the Bank briefcase fashioned as some kind of boom box, let alone making promises about announcing who they were going to face and cash in the Money In the Bank briefcase against, which they did not do. But they also disrespected what the Money In the Bank contract represents, they disrespected both the Universal Champion as well as the WWE Champion, and in fact, I think they disrespected the entire WWE, as well as the WWE Universe.
“So, on behalf of our organization, on behalf of all our fans, I’m going to take this matter up officially with both the McMahon Family as well as our executive team, and we are going to take action.”
It will be interesting to see where the storyline goes on Monday’s RAW. Lesnar is scheduled to be at next Friday’s WWE Super ShowDown event in Saudi Arabia, but no opponent has been named. He could participate in the 50-Man Battle Royal, but there’s been no talk of that happening. Rollins is scheduled to defend against Baron Corbin at Super ShowDown while Kingston will defend against Dolph Ziggler.
WWE has announced that The Undertaker will be returning on next Monday’s RAW from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.
This will be the final RAW before WWE Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia, where Taker will face WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg for the first time. There’s no word yet on if Goldberg will be at RAW to help promote the match.
This will be Taker’s first WWE appearance since the post-WrestleMania 35 RAW from Brooklyn back in April. That show saw Taker destroy Elias in an in-ring segment.
There have been conflicting reports over whether or not Sami Zayn’s AEW name-drop on last night’s WWE RAW was scripted. Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that the line was scripted, but co-host Bryan Alvarez said he heard otherwise. PWInsider then reported that several sources said Zayn’s AEW line was not scripted, and was likely something that Zayn improvised as he is known to pitch his own verbiage for promos. PWInsider also pointed to how WWE could have used their 15-second delay to bleep the plug out, if they had a real issue with it.
In an update, Alvarez noted on Wrestling Observer Live yesterday that Vince McMahon was furious when AEW was mentioned live on RAW. Alvarez fueled the speculation with stories from multiple sources.
“These are two facts about the situation, alright? There are absolutely people who insist that Sami was given the OK to mention AEW, alright?,” Alvarez said. “I’ve even heard from one person who said that in the script that went around in the morning yesterday, it was in the script that he was going to mention AEW. One person said that. I had another person say, and Dave had people tell him that it was a scripted line. Now, with that said, I heard from multiple people, far more people in fact, and people that heard from other people, that all said, the line was not scripted, the line was not supposed to be said.
“I was also told from multiple people that when it happened, Vince flipped his lid. He was furious that this happened, OK? So, that’s literally… those are the two things that I can tell you. So, however you want to figure out what the hell is going on here, there’s various ways that you could explain this. The one that people seem to think is the most likely, is that a small number of people were told that he was given the OK, and that they’re working the boys and flipping out about it. I don’t know what the answer is, all I know is that some people were told that he was given the OK, but most people said that he wasn’t, and that Vince flipped out. I wasn’t there, I don’t know how the flip out occurred, I wasn’t there to witness it, but I do know that the people there who absolutely 100% believed that he was very angry, that this was not him putting on a show for people, that this was not him trying to work the boys, that he was angry when this got on the air. I don’t know how to explain everything, I just know that’s what happened last night.”
If the line was not scripted, it’s believed that Zayn could face some sort of consequences. Meltzer speculated that he could be suspended. Stay tuned for updates on the situation and check out the name-drop in the clip below. As we’ve noted, WWE did edit the AEW mention out of the segment that was posted to YouTube, seen below.
Sami Zayn name-dropping All Elite Wrestling on Monday’s RAW episode was reportedly scripted, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. As seen below, WWE edited the line out of the video that they uploaded on their YouTube channel.
Sami was a guest for a new segment on RAW called “Electric Chair”, where a wrestler sat in an electric chair while Charly Caruso, Kayla Braxton and Sarah Schreiber took questions from fans in the crowd. After several questions, Sami ripped on the crowd for what he was being asked. Sami said that they could ask him about anything, including about his love life, if he was a good kisser and “even about AEW.” The crowd popped for the AEW reference and Seth Rollins’ music immediately hit.
The questions in the segment were from real fans, however their questions were screened. Meltzer said a backstage source noted that the AEW mention “was so f–king stupid.” Meltzer’s co-host, Brian Alvarez, said that he heard from a different source that the line wasn’t scripted, however Meltzer noted that the person who he spoke to was in the meeting before the show.
You can hear the name-drop in the Twitter clip below:
AJ Styles was pulled due to injury from last night’s WWE RAW Fatal 4 Way Elimination match with Braun Strowman, The Miz and Bobby Lashley, with the winner going on to face WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins at Super ShowDown. Styles was replaced by Baron Corbin, who ended up winning the match.
Styles later appeared in a backstage RAW segment with Charly Caruso and noted that he felt his back pop during the recent Money In the Bank loss to Rollins. That was the last time he wrestled. Styles was dropped by Corbin in that backstage segment, but that’s the only physical action he saw this week. When asked how long he will be out of action, Styles noted that he still has more tests that need to be done.
There’s been speculation on Styles’ injury being a work, but apparently he has been working hurt. PWInsider reports that word going around RAW was that Styles is “banged up” but there’s no word on the nature of his injury beyond that.
WWE United States Champion Rey Mysterio took to Instagram this week and revealed that he has a separated AC joint in his left shoulder. Mysterio noted that he has been having trouble lifting his arm.
Mysterio is scheduled to be on Monday’s RAW to address the injury and the controversial finish to his win over Samoa Joe at WWE Money In the Bank earlier this month. Rey won the title in that match, which was rushed due to Joe’s busted nose, but he did not appear on RAW this week. Rey was seen in Birmingham, Alabama earlier this week, likely visiting with WWE doctors over the shoulder injury.
Mysterio noted that he’s been doing physical therapy at The Lab in Riverside, CA, and he hopes that will improve his range of motion, which has been really bad since the match with Joe. Rey blamed it on taking the Uranages from Joe.
USA Network officials have reportedly been complaining for some time about the drop in ratings for RAW, in particular the third hour. The network has continually pushed Vince McMahon to try and fix the third hour as the 10-11pm hour of the show was always the highest rated, until recent years.
The third hour dropped so bad in recent weeks that WWE officials recognized they had to do something.
The move goes back to the idea of allowing top SmackDown Superstars to appear on RAW, and to make sure the blue brand show doesn’t become a secondary show while it’s preparing for the move to Fox in October.
USA officials have reportedly been sending WWE all sorts of ideas as of late, in an attempt to bring up the third hour numbers. One source close to the situation described the ideas as all terrible, but their best ideas was the 24/7 Title and Vince knew he had to take one of them.
WWE made some changes to the look of the third hour of RAW last night.
As seen in the video above, Mick Foley announced that starting this week, the third hour will be getting “downright mean and nasty” and a “little bit dirty.” As he said that, the bright red and white logo on the tron switched to a more basic red logo on a black background. The house lights were dimmed and the LED lights were turned off on the ring posts.
You can see the visual changes occur at the 1:30 mark in the video below.
When RAW first moved to three hours weekly in 2012, the third hour was the highest rated hour for the first several weeks. That quickly started to change, and the third hour is now almost always the least watched hour. Over the past four weeks, the audience has dropped an average of 19% from the first hour to the third.
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