Monday Night Raw opened in an atypical manner, with The Miz and Logan Paul brawling straight away – and this was all planned by WWE to hide Paul’s fan reception.
The first edition of the red brand following Vince McMahon’s retirement didn’t open with a long-winded promo, as would be traditional of the McMahon-fronted company but instead, SummerSlam opponents The Miz and Logan Paul were seen fighting in-ring.
Dave Meltzer has addressed the reason behind this on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, stating that WWE made this production decision to cover up the negative fan reaction to Logan Paul:
“So, the deal here, the reason that they did this, aside from a hot open, Logan Paul, you know, celebrity and everything like that. If you noticed, they opened – obviously you noticed – they opened with them brawling as opposed to, let’s say Logan Paul in the ring going, ‘Miz, get out here, let’s fight right now’, which he actually tried to do later in the show.
The reason they did it is because they figured that people were gonna boo Logan Paul when they saw him – a lot. So, they would have him come to the ring and do all this with no cameras on so you don’t see it. His coming to the ring with music and everything like that happened off-screen before Raw started, and in fact, he was booed very heavily, so they figured he’ll do that, he’ll do the thing with The Miz.”
Monday Night BRAWL!
Looks like @mikethemiz and @LoganPaul can't wait for #SummerSlam this Saturday!!#WWERawpic.twitter.com/gXo5NQfp7U
— WWE (@WWE) July 26, 2022
The booking of Logan Paul has been done to present him as a babyface ever since The Miz turned on him at WrestleMania 38, with Paul taking a more comedic tone at times to poke fun at ‘The A-Lister’. They’ll collide in Logan Paul’s first singles match at SummerSlam on Saturday, 30 July.
Paul was first brought into the sports entertainment giant to serve as Sami Zayn’s cornerman at WrestleMania 37, where Zayn wrestled Kevin Owens. Eating a Stunner from ‘The Prizefighter’ that night, Logan Paul returned to the fold earlier this year as The Miz’s surprise partner to face Rey and Dominik Mysterio.
The Sidemen member signed a WWE contract at the end of June, which will see him wrestle on an undisclosed number of premium live events across 2022 and 2023.
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