WWE Rumor Roundup: Top Champion to lose title, TLC match cancelled, Robert Roode suspension update - 13th December 2019

#3. Changes to the RAW script

As revealed by Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE was forced to make a few big changes to the card and script of last week's RAW.

The Street Profits, for one, were never even scheduled to take on The Viking Raiders for the RAW Tag Team titles. The originally planned match was between Seth Rollins and Cedric Alexander, however, the company pulled Rollins from the match as he broke his pinky finger at a recent house show.

WWE replaced the match with The Viking Raiders vs. The Street Profits instead.

However, WWE had to make another major alteration.

It was reported that the Divorce segment that opened the show went on for too long and WWE had to make up for it by cutting down the RAW Tag Team titles' match time.

Viking Raiders and Street Profits were actually supposed to have a 15-minute match that would have been a competitive contest. The idea was to book Ford and Dawkins to take Erik and Ivar to the limit before the Tag Team Champions retained the titles and endorsed the Profits after the match.

The match sadly ended up being just three minutes. Erik and Ivar did put their opponents over after the match but it meant nothing as the booking didn't warrant the post-match segment.

Meltzer noted the following in the WON:

The show had a couple of timing issues. The opening segment went way long as did a few other things early. So they were cutting back on time and the make-up was Vikings vs. Street Profits who were supposed to have a 15:00 competitive match and were cut to 3:00 with no time to tell the story of the Street Profits hanging with the tag champs, coming close and the respect endorsement from the champs at the end. That match was not on the original schedule but was a replacement for a planned Rollins vs. Alexander match that was pulled due to Rollins’ injury.