John Cena walked out to the ring for today’s episode of WWE Raw to an entire arena booing him heavily. This was the first promo he did since turning heel at Elimination Chamber to start the build for his title match against Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41.
As previously noted, the segment did go over time, as it lasted 32 minutes. It caused other segments to be cut short. It also didn’t mention The Rock. For more on that, click here.
During the latest episode of WrestleVotes Radio on SportsKeeda’s Backstage Pass Patreon, it was noted the original plan was for the segment to go 15 minutes.
“After speaking to sources regarding this past Monday’s Raw, we are told the beginning of the show went longer than initially planned, as the opening segment with John Cena and Cody Rhodes was slated for just 15 minutes due to the overrun in segment number one, much of the content then featured on WWE social accounts such as The Maxine Dupree-Natalia Alpha Academy segment, along with the Bayley-Lyra Valkyrie spot, were indeed planned for the live broadcast. In addition, the now slightly controversial matchup between Jey Uso and Austin Theory was planned for eight minutes of in-ring action post-Jey’s commercial break entrance, which, of course, ended much shorter.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit WrestleVotes Radio on SportsKeeda’s Backstage Pass Patreon with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.