Prior to recent events, WWE had been uncertain about what direction to take the Mr McMahon angle, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Vince himself had changed his mind about it several times, unsure whether to stretch it out into 2008, end it within a month or two, or scrap it altogether. It had been his call to bring back Stephanie McMahon as an on-screen character and, according to Meltzer, she was not overly keen on doing it. The actor Daniel Beck, who played the chief investigator, had only been hired until the 25th June episode. The entire angle arose because many within WWE were of the mentality that Raw’s rating determines the strength of their entire product. Its recent stagnation had a far greater effect than when Smackdown’s collapsed last year.
The recent story about the limo explosion originally being written for Carlito and Teddy Long in 2005 was not entirely accurate. That storyline was going to end with Long firing Carlito, leading to Carlito arriving on Raw. The limo explosion was originally intended to be the way Eric Bischoff’s character was written out. The idea was credited to Brian Gerwitz, yet it was nixed by Vince as he didn’t want Bischoff’s profile being raised because of it. He was instead chucked into a garbage truck.
A few more notes on the supplemental moves made in the Draft Lottery, courtesy of the Wrestling Observer:
Paul London and Brian Kendrick were moved to Raw as a partial punishment for London. He has a lot of heat on him, mainly for being seen as a security risk. He talks to fans a lot and seems to have no filter for information that should not be revealed. A recent example is telling a fan at an airport about how Ashley was going to Survivor, which led to numerous Web sites leaking the story before WWE wanted anybody to know about it. London got more heat for laughing in the backstage segment prior to Mr McMahon’s limo exploding. The team’s new role is to put over both Cade & Murdoch and Cryme Tyme, who are currently planned to get a renewed push in the autumn.
Viscera is to be repackaged in ECW at the behest of the head writer, David Lagana. To quote Meltzer, “Vince liked the idea of a black man pushed like One Man Gang”.
Bob Holly was moved from ECW because he had a lot of heat with Lagana stemming back to earlier in the year, when he worked through a serious injury because he was promised a big WrestleMania push only to not get anything of the sort.
The Major Brothers were moved to Smackdown because Vince McMahon changed his mind again about the ECW Tag Team Titles. They did get the belts made but have no plans to use them.
Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 25th June 2007 (click here for subscription information)
