Reports Differ On Whether Sami Zayn's AEW Mention On WWE Raw Was Authorized

Hour three of Monday Night Raw proved to be livelier than normal, thanks to Sami Zayn dropping the initials of new alternative All Elite Wrestling during an interview segment with Corey Graves.

The mention was edited out when

, possibly indicating an ad-lib undesired by WWE. The

immediately after the promo justify WWE's choice to scrub the verbiage.

So was the AEW mention authorized by WWE? That's not clear.

were each apparently given conflicting information on the matter, with Meltzer saying the line was WWE-approved, while Alvarez claimed the opposite. Each man cited a different source from the production meeting, while not ruling out that WWE could be "working the boys" by scripting something and then later claiming that it wasn't scripted.

That wasn't the only mention of AEW on the Raw broadcast. At one point during a commercial break, the Kansas City

, with Shane McMahon standing in the ring.