McMahon Not Backstage at WWE Smackdown, Reportedly “Tears Up Script”

Despite Vince McMahon not being backstage for tonight’s episode of Smackdown Live in Baton Rouge, the boss was apparently unhappy with the way the show was laid out, and was “tearing up the script”, reports F4WOnline.com. According to Dave Meltzer, the show was “heavily influenced” by McMahon following a last minute rewrite.

Smackdown Live saw Mustafa Ali defeat Buddy Murphy to advance in the King of the Ring tournament in a heavily praised match, as well as Lacey Evans return to the ring against Bayley, and a wild brawl between WWE Champion Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton that opened the show.

In terms of creative, there was nothing wildly out of the ordinary and the episode largely followed the storylines and pacing of the last few weeks.

The major angle, continuing the story between Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns, was the most involved and saw Reigns rolling footage of somebody that looked a lot like Eric Rowan attacking him a month ago on Smackdown. The “Big Dog” then speared Bryan, even though he claimed he had no idea and slapped Rowan in the face numerous times, calling him a “liar”.