Backstage News On Roman Reigns Plans Changing At Last Week’s WWE SmackDown

Paul Heyman and WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns reportedly changed creative plans for last Friday’s New Year’s edition of SmackDown on FOX.

WWE had been advertising that SmackDown would feature Reigns as he had made a special request of WWE management. SmackDown aired and that angle never happened. Reigns, Heyman and Jey Uso were featured in segments, and the main event saw Kevin Owens defeat Uso in singles action with Reigns destroying Owens after the match, but there was never a mention of the “special request to WWE management” storyline that had been advertised all through last week.

In an update, Reigns and Heyman reportedly had a hand in changing those plans, according to Ringside News. The “special request” segment was reportedly nixed in favor of what we saw instead. WWE reportedly fed the “special request” plans to the social media team well before the plans were changed. A source noted that once the changes were put in place, WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon didn’t even want to mention or work around the announcements that had already been made on social media and the WWE website.

“Once the changes were put in place, Vince didn’t want to even mention or work around the social postings,” a source reportedly said.

It was noted that a number of things can lead to creative changes in WWE, but when a segment involves people with a significant amount of creative pull like Reigns and Heyman, then sometimes their preference can also play into things. While the announcements had already went out on social media and the WWE website, it was too late to change so WWE acted like they never happened. It was described as just another instance of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is really doing.

There is no word on if WWE has dropped the “special request” angle or if it will be used again.