5 WWE behind-the-scenes stories from this week: Paige, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, more
Lots of important storyline developments have taken place on WWE television over the last week, including the announcement that Daniel Bryan will challenge “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship at Survivor Series.
Off-screen, meanwhile, the biggest WWE story of the week occurred at the end of Tuesday’s episode of WWE Backstage, where CM Punk surprisingly appeared and announced that he will now be an analyst on the FS1 show.
In this week’s behind-the-scenes news, we not only learned how Paige reacted to Punk’s appearance, but Dolph Ziggler also told a fascinating story about how WWE originally planned to book his 2013 Money In The Bank cash-in.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at five of the most interesting WWE backstage stories that have been revealed over the last seven days.
#5 WWE’s original MITB plan for Dolph Ziggler
One of the most memorable WWE World Heavyweight Championship moments of all time took place in April 2013 when Dolph Ziggler cashed in his Money In The Bank contract on Alberto Del Rio on the post-WrestleMania 29 episode of RAW.
With Big E and AJ Lee by his side, Ziggler marched down to the ring and tried to take advantage of a wounded Del Rio, who had just defeated Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter in a 2-on-1 handicap match.
Unlike many Money In The Bank cash-ins, which can sometimes be over in mere seconds, Ziggler initially struggled to defeat his opponent and it even looked as though Del Rio might win at one stage after he locked in a cross armbreaker.
Ziggler picked up the victory in the end, escaping the submission to hit a Zig Zag and get the 1-2-3, and the man himself explained to talkSPORT this week that WWE originally wanted him to win in quick fashion instead.
“The best part was, I was supposed to come down there, smack him with the briefcase and one, two, three. I said ‘that’s not what Dolph Ziggler would do. Dolph Ziggler would almost lose that cash-in a couple of times’ and we made it special because Del Rio is a real pro, him and I had some awesome matches and he was fun to work with, but he knew it too and he said ‘They’re all going to buy you losing’.”