The opening segment of WWE Raw changed Monday, and we've learned more about what was planned.
Tommaso Ciampa returned on WWE on Monday night defeating The Miz, but he was actually supposed to answer the open challenge of Seth Rollins. The match between Rollins and Ciampa was set to happen, but was changed multiple times over the weekend prior, and a few hours before the show.
Internally, the match was listed as TBA vs. Seth Rollins, but was changed to have Rollins attacked and Ciampa to face the Miz. We're told that the move was a Vince McMahon move and all of those originally planned for the match wanted the match to go through as planned. We haven't heard that it was so Ciampa wouldn't lose his first match back, as there was a plan in order that would have been a non-finish. Those backstage said that those around the match were clearly frustrated by the change.
There has been an internal plan to reunite Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano, and Gargano was backstage, but he wasn't planned for the show by the time the night of rolled around.
Smackdown is not excluded from heavy changes.
Most of the WWE Smackdown script was changed ahead of the show on Friday, June 23.
One talent even asked -- "Did Smackdown get Vinced?" Many of the matches that had been promoted ahead of the episode of Smackdown were adjusted and cut, and there were significant changes to the version of the show that existed Friday morning.
We can confirm WRKD Wrestling's recent tweets that several talent were frustrated by all of the changes. This was the case for the start of WWE Raw the prior Monday, as well.
The originally planned LA Knight triple threat match was changed to a singles match, and a previously unplanned Charlotte Flair match was added to the card. Bayley vs. Shotzi was scrapped after Bayley was in town and did local media for the show.
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