Report: 'A Lot Of Frustration' With Vince McMahon's Scrapping Of World Heavyweight Title Match On WWE Raw
Frustration about Vince McMahon changes to WWE Raw
Jun 23, 2023
Vince McMahon's changes to the June 19 edition of Monday Night Raw caused frustration behind the scenes, according to a new report.
It was revealed earlier this week that Vince McMahon made wholesale changes to the first 30 minutes of WWE Raw, scrapping the planned World Heavyweight Title open challenge that would have seen Seth Rollins put the belt on the line. Instead, Rollins was attacked and beaten down by Finn Balor in an attempt to heat up The Prince ahead of their headline match at Money in the Bank on July 1.
Initial reports noted that Ciampa was scheduled to answer the open challenge but the returning star being Rollins' opponent was scrapped because Triple H didn't want Ciampa to lose in his return. Fightful Select has confirmed that Ciampa was set to face Rollins but they stated the change was actually made by Vince McMahon.
Ciampa vs. Rollins was set to receive "a ton of time" and would have ended in a non-finish but that plan was changed multiple times over the weekend before Raw and then a few hours before the show went on the air. Everyone originally scheduled for the match wanted it to go ahead as planned but McMahon decided to change it anyway.
Those backstage said those associated with the match were "clearly frustrated by the change" and Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful noted in a tweet that there was "a lot of frustration." Some backstage did argue, however, that McMahon's changes were better than the 30 minutes that were originally scheduled to open Raw.
McMahon has been the head of creative since April 3, returning to the top of the food chain after WWE announced their sale to Endeavor.