Who Was Responsible For Raw's Gauntlet Match?
You won't believe who suggested it...
According to PWInsider, it was none other than Vince McMahon who proposed the epic Gauntlet match on this week's episode of Raw.
Braun Strowman outlasted John Cena, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Finn Bálor, Elias and The Miz (pinning the latter) to win the Gauntlet, and the entire segment ate up close to two hours of TV time. That kind of focus on actual wrestling over promos is not something fans would typically associate with McMahon.
It's unlikely we'll see a similar experiment from WWE any time soon. Even if Vince did believe the match was a success, which initial ratings reports suggest it was, McMahon has long favoured his own soap opera style over in-ring work.
That only makes it more surprising to learn he was the one to pitch a near two hour match for Monday's show. PWInsider's source told the site that Vince's suggestion came "out of nowhere" and left the rest of WWE's creative team stunned.
Hopefully, McMahon's recent openness to such lengthy matches will make his writers more confident about pitching their own wrestling-centric segments on core programming going forward.