Backstage Details On Creative Problems At WWE Raw & WrestleMania Backlash
Chaos reigned in WWE's creative room for Raw and WrestleMania Backlash.
Sunday's WrestleMania Backlash pay-per-view and last night's episode of Raw were both subjected to last-minute rewrites and reshuffles.
Per PWInsider's Mike Johnson, WWE didn't make the decision on which match would headline WrestleMania Backlash until around 17:30-18:00 EST on show day, which would be minutes before the Kickoff Show commenced. The company ended up going with Roman Reigns' Universal Title clash with Cesaro over WWE Champion Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Braun Strowman.
The same outlet notes that there was a "ton of rewriting" for last night's episode of Raw. The show hadn't been completed by 17:30 EST.
In yesterday's Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online Daily Update, Dave Meltzer stated that the Raw script had been "torn up" several times throughout the door, with WWE making a bunch of changes.
Such stories are nothing new in WWE, which operates at the whim of an erratic, tempestuous billionaire. Barely a week passes without news of widescale rewrites or last-minute changes.
Zombies aside, WrestleMania Backlash was a well-received show nonetheless. The follow-up episode of Raw saw McIntyre cost Lashley a non-title singles match with Kofi Kingston, presumably to keep their long-running feud going.