More Changes Made To Last Night's WWE Raw
Travel issues contribute towards another week of wholesale WWE Raw changes.
WWE Raw experienced its second week of major script changes last night, with travel issues the culprit for at least a portion of them.
Several, including Fightful and Andrew Zarian, reported prior to Raw that talent were having difficulties travelling to Seattle, Washington for the show. Around 32 minutes prior to Raw hitting the airwaves, Zarian tweeted that around 50% of the roster still hadn't arrived at the venue:-
Piggybacking on @SeanRossSapp’s initial report here regarding tonight’s show.
50% of the raw roster has still not arrived to Seattle, due to travel issues, and there have been major re-writes for Monday night raw this evening. #wweraw pic.twitter.com/EM8Cy8LSyV
Advertisement— Andrew Zarian (@AndrewZarian) April 10, 2023
Elsewhere, the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer noted that a large portion of the locker room wasn't going to be at Raw. Others were arriving late, resulting in WWE making changes and coming up with backup plans:-
The changes in tonight's Raw are due to travel issue, not the idea of the script changing. But a large percentage of the roster wasn't there, some weren't going to make it and others were getting in late so a lot of changes and backup plans were put in place in recent hours.
Advertisement— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) April 11, 2023
Fightful Select's report states that The Miz and Bianca Belair were among the wrestlers originally scheduled to appear on Raw that ended up missing out. Sami Zayn and Matt Riddle made it in the end, appearing in Raw's final segment despite Paul Heyman's prior assertion that they had been hit with travel issues.
But "travel issues" may not have been the only thing at play with the Raw changes. Fightful states that a number of talents were flown to Seattle, only to be told they weren't needed for the broadcast, with some informed of this "almost right after they landed."
Per multiple reports, including Fightful's and Meltzer's, Vince McMahon was not at the show. The 77-year-old Executive Chairman made swooping changes to last week's Raw, rewriting portions after the broadcast had started, seemingly cratering backstage morale in the process.