More Details On Backstage Chaos At WWE Tapings This Week

As we reported earlier this week on August 3-4, there was chaos at the recent WWE tapings with lots of changes made to the already-written shows. As a result, next week’s Smackdown taping was postponed to August 13. The August 3 and 10 episodes of RAW were taped, as well as tonight’s Smackdown. This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter had more details on what happened at the WWE TV tapings this week.

The reason for the chaos was said to be due to the poor ratings for the July 27 show and Vince McMahon being questioned by investors about the ratings (as well as negative articles about the numbers in the financial and entertainment worlds). As we noted, the idea of Shane’s return and RAW Underground was created prior to the investors call. There was also an angle with Randy Orton and Ric Flair that won’t air until next week. Beyond that, McMahon wouldn’t commit to other outside ideas.

On the morning of the show, those were the only segments he approved of and a show was written without his approval. There was a meeting on July 30 before the investment call that was described as ‘brutal’, because he wouldn’t approve anything. Another meeting on July 31 lasted four hours.

After the RAW taping, the Smackdown taping was also in chaos as Vince ‘blew up’ the scripted show as a result of several people being unavailable at the last minute. That led to next week’s episode getting postponed, and will be taped on August 13 with the August 17 RAW. NXT will tape next week for August 12 and 19. No decision has been made on the August 21 Smackdown. Other than NXT Takeover and Summerslam, no other dates are planned yet.

The idea is that Smackdown could be taped on its own that Friday, since the production team will be working in Florida anyway that weekend. But no one in the company has been told of any TV tapings after August 13.