If you think Vince McMahon is going to stay away from WWE creative then you’ve got “no chance, no chance in hell” of getting what you want. Fightful is reporting that, in light of several changes made to the Raw script, McMahon’s involvement in creative was a hot topic backstage last night.
As of 7 pm EST, Piper Niven vs Candice LeRae was reportedly planned for the show, along with a backstage segment featuring Trish Stratus and the duo. However, both the match and the segment were completely pulled from Raw. Taking the place of Niven vs LeRae on the show was a match that saw Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander take on The Street Profits.
These were not the only cuts from Raw that featured the women of WWE. Apparently, there was supposed to be a backstage segment featuring Adam Pearce and some of the women that was also cut from the show. The regularity of female segments being removed from the card in recent weeks looks to have upset some backstage, as several of the women have become vocal in regard to their division’s segments constantly being cut.
Male WWE stars were also affected by changes last night as Mustafa Ali and Chad Gable’s match, which was already short, had time cut from it. This was on top of several other matches that were cut for time, had their finishes changed, or were altered in a way that affected the setup to finishes.
There were still matches and segments on the show that went off as planned, but there were “plenty” of changes that affected the flow of the show. On top of that, the card for the show, containing the final order of matches and segments, was not posted backstage until much later than usual.
Stay with Haus of Wrestling for all the latest on Vince McMahon’s return to the WWE fold.