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WWE News: Raw Creative Process, Other Backstage Notes, Jeff Hardy, Royal Rumble Possibly Having Fans, More

By John Canton • Published 1st December 2020

Here are some news and notes about last night’s edition of WWE Raw from PWInsider’s Mike Johnson, who is one of the most trusted sources for wrestling news. Read my review of last night’s Raw right here in case you missed it.

* The “Moment of Bliss” talk show segment with Alexa Bliss, Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt was “100% Vince McMahon’s vision” according to Johnson. Some people believed it was a weak segment, but it’s hard to argue against Vince.

* The creative process in WWE right now is based on the ideas of Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard. Johnson notes that some people in WWE describe Prichard as the “most powerful person in WWE Right” that’s not a McMahon family member. That means that everything flows through Prichard from a creative standpoint and it has led to frustration (as well as heat) from talent towards Prichard althoug most of that is likely kept private.

* Paul Levesque (Triple H) was at last night’s Raw while Prichard was not, which some people told Johnson was like a breath of fresh air. In other words, Triple H is well-liked by the talent.

* There are apparently strict time cues for the broadcasts. Talents were being told to stick with the times given for matches/segments and some of them were reprimanded at shows like Survivor Series as well as recent TV episodes. If talent goes over time, sometimes that heat goes to the producers of the segment as well.

* Drew McIntyre’s new entrance (as of two weeks ago) comes from Vince McMahon, who has been very hands-on with it. Vince made it clear to Drew how he wants him to carry the sword and then put it in the ramp in order for the pyro to go off. It does look like a spectacular entrance for McIntyre.

* There was a scary moment for Jeff Hardy on Raw when he did a Swanton Bomb off the top of the ring post onto Elias, who was laying on a table. They did the spot right near the ring steps with Hardy’s hit likely hitting the steps when he landed the move. Johnson notes that the spot was supposed to have Hardy clear everything in his path and land on the center of the table (on Elias) in a safe manner. Instead, Hardy missed by a few inches and nearly got hurt. Hardy is said to be okay with no signs of a concussion.

* There are two men that were drafted to Raw in October that haven’t been used: Dabba-Kato and Arturo Ruas. The feeling in WWE is that they still need more training before they can be considered Raw regulars. It wasn’t mentioned by Johnson here, but Ruas recently had a match in NXT as well.

* Shane Helms is back in WWE working as a Producer on Raw – here was there last night. He returned a few weeks ago. Fit Finlay also returned to a Producer role recently as well.

* Sonjay Dutt is also back in WWE working full-time on the WWE NXT brand.

WWE Wants Fans at the Royal Rumble

The Twitter account @Wrestlevotes shared some information that WWE hopes to have fans at the Royal Rumble in less than two months. Here’s the tweet about that.

The Royal Rumble is set to take place on January 31 and it will likely be at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg, Florida starting in less than two weeks. Of course, WWE could go for another venue for the Rumble event itself.

As is the case for everything in 2020, things are changing all the time and nothing is really ever locked in, especially when it comes to WWE. A lot of it depends on how things are going with COVID-19 cases, venues and things like that.