Warning! The following contains spoilers from the latest Monday Night Raw on Monday, August 30th. Read at your own risk!
WWE's Monday Night Raw featured a lot of unexpected twists with its most recent installment, and even what some believe to be an actual fight between superstars Charlotte Flair And Nia Jax. As good as some of the twists were, though, many viewers were left scratching their heads at various points in the telecast. Now we may have an answer as to why the latest post-SummerSlam episode was so bizarre, and it's apparently tied to Vince McMahon.
Multiple outlets such as PW Insider are reporting that the script for this week's Monday Night Raw was not completed until 6 p.m. ET, only a couple of hours before the show started. Allegedly, the reason for that was because Vince McMahon ripped up not only the original script that was written, but also the initial re-write. McMahon was described by unnamed sources to be "the loudest and angriest" he's ever been on the day of a show. Which sounds like a massive claim, to say the least.
What audiences saw on Monday Night Raw was apparently a culmination of ideas approved by Vince McMahon, and one piece evidence that the show was changed is backed by the advertised matches originally planned, which included The Miz vs. John Morrison, Eva Marie vs. Doudrop, and a non-title match between Bobby Lashley vs. Sheamus. Only one of those matches (Eva Marie and Doudrop) ended up happening as noted, while audiences witnessed a triple-threat match between Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, and Damian Priest for the United States championship title. As for Bobby Lashley, he tag-teamed with manager MVP to take on RK-Bro to close out the night. The matches were exciting in and of themselves, but at the same time, the came across as somewhat bizarre for being so largely disconnected to the prior week's set-up.
It's also noteworthy that while Charlotte Flair seemed to be on a collision course with Alexa Bliss in the prior installment, Bliss was not involved this week at all, and Flair took on Nia Jax. This match was definitely the most notable of the night, as it seemed the Raw Women's Champion and her challenger actually exchanged physical blows, due to a few botched moves in the match. Rumors that spread around after the taping claimed Jax and Flair did have an actual altercation in the ring, but it was seemingly tied to frustration and miscommunication in the match, and not some backstage drama between the superstars themselves. There's no evidence that Bliss was originally planned to confront Flair again, but if she had, that drama with Jax might have been avoided.
As far as why Vince McMahon was so upset with the early versions, that remains a mystery. It's possible McMahon feels the pressure from AEW after their latest high-profile signing of CM Punk, and alleged future signing of Daniel Bryan, captured the attention of the wrestling world. It's also notable that with the threat of another lockdown in the United States due to COVID-19 concerns, McMahon may be nervous about once again having to halt the company's touring schedule. WWE's attempts to stay in the green financially have resulted in the loss of several high-profile wrestlers already, and more could come in the future if any other setbacks would occur.. Of course, we can only speculate on such things, and McMahon could have been angry for entirely different reasons.
Monday Night Raw airs on USA on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. For more on the WWE, read up on the current plan for Brock Lesnar and why we shouldn't expect him to face off against Bobby Lashley in the near future.
