In the hours before it was reported that Vince McMahon was backstage on SmackDown, a move that usually means changes are on the way.
Since taking a more prominent position within WWE creative in April — or at least admitting his role publicly — McMahon has largely stayed away from tapings, instead making changes remotely. While the amount of changes has varied wildly, on June 23rd, McMahon caused the majority of SmackDown to be rewritten.
However, it appears he had much less of an impact on July 7th with the blue brand back at Madison Square Garden.
According to a report from Mike Johnson of PWInsider, the changes to the show were minimal and it went off largely as planned. Any changes to the broadcast were made due to the opening segment involving Roman Reigns and The Bloodline running longer than scheduled, this led to time being taken away from other parts of the show.
Update On Vince McMahon’s “Creative Intervention”
Following Vince McMahon’s involvement on the June 23rd episode of SmackDown, speculation began to run wild that some backstage had become frustrated with the tinkering and were trying to come up with ways to limit McMahon’s impact. This sparked another rumour that there would be a meeting between McMahon, Triple H, and Nick Khan to iron out the perceived problems.
However, according to a new report, no such meeting has taken place or is planned to take place in the future.