The following are backstage news and notes from Friday night’s WWE SmackDown, courtesy of PWInsider.
The creative direction of Friday night’s Smackdown was “100%” Vince McMahon and his “vision and edicts.” The matches not taking place as advertised on the show, was Vince McMahon.
Vince McMahon arrived later than usual and did not address “or sell” the latest news about him paying $12 million to four women over a 16 year period It was described that once again the elephant in the room was being ignored.
Bruce Prichard was back after having taken some time off the road following shoulder surgery.
Stephanie McMahon and Paul Levesque were not present Friday night’s show.
Jason Jordan, who oversees all the Producers, was not at Friday night’s show. It is being said that he missed the show due to he and his wife expecting a new baby any time now. With Jordan not there, there was a lot more work spread out among the others Producers with Adam Pearce taking the point position for the team.
It was also noted that WWE made budget cuts again and that Curtis Axel and Ariya Daivari, who had been working as producers on a probationary basis, are no longer being brought in, which made everyone’s night even harder from a production standpoint. There had been a big push by WWE for more producers to be added right after Wrestlemania, which was due to the “insane” workload and the time the company expects of its producers. With lack of producers, the current backstage producers are saying they are “extremely overworked.”