The Rock & Roman Reigns Cause WWE To Make SmackDown Changes
There were changes made to WWE’s SmackDown broadcast due in part to top stars like The Rock and Roman Reigns.
At WWE SmackDown in Glendale, the show opened with the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns joined by The Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa, Jimmy Uso and the “Wise Man” Paul Heyman.
The promo from Reigns saw the Tribal Chief tell the crowd to acknowledge him, which led to loud booing. Reigns was frustrated by the booing, so he wanted to leave, but Heyman said they couldn’t go yet because of what was next after a commercial break.
That led to a lengthy promo by The Rock that saw The People’s Champion counter Cody Rhodes‘ request for a match by suggesting a tag team match instead. The Rock wants to team up with Roman Reigns against Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins at WrestleMania Night 1 and will wait until the March 8th Smackdown episode for an answer.
After Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s lengthy promo that involved insults towards the fans, Reigns requested that Rock acknowledge him as the Tribal Chief and Rock did it because he said they were family.
Due to the length of the promo segment, it was about 45 minutes into the show when the bell rang for the first match between Tiffany Stratton and Naomi.
What Did WWE Change On SmackDown Due To The Rock & Roman Reigns Promo?
It has been reported by Fightful Select that Rock & Reigns’ promo segment went ten minutes longer than it was supposed to go.
The report added that Stratton and Naomi were supposed to go a combined two segments, and ended up getting about nine minutes including the commercials from entrances to the finish. For the match, Naomi’s entrance was not shown on television at all while only the end of Stratton’s entrance was shown.
On Fightful’s rundown of Smackdown before the show aired, they mentioned a video segment featuring Bobby Lashley and Karrion Kross was supposed to be on the show. Due to Rock and Reigns going long with their segment, WWE posted the Lashley/Kross video as a Digital Exclusive video instead.
While the segment with The Bloodline did run long, WWE still posted the full 31 minutes of content on their YouTube channel.