5 WWE finishes that Vince McMahon altered at the last minute
Anybody who has an interest in behind-the-scenes WWE stories will probably know that the segments and matches that take place on Vince McMahon’s shows are often finalized at the last minute.
In 2019, for example, Braun Strowman was scheduled to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble in a match that had been in the works for several weeks, but Finn Balor replaced him at short notice and ended up taking on “The Beast” instead.
On rare occasions, last-minute alterations have also resulted in McMahon changing the finish of a WWE match, even when the original winner had already been told that they were supposed to earn the victory that night.
In this article, let’s take a look at four times that Vince McMahon changed the outcome of a match on the day of a show, as well as one example of the WWE Chairman keeping the same outcome but agreeing to a different finish.
#5 WWE SummerSlam 2010 main event
The main event of SummerSlam 2010 saw Team WWE (Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, Edge, John Cena, John Morrison and R-Truth) defeat Team Nexus (Darren Young, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Michael Tarver, Skip Sheffield and Wade Barrett) in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match.
In the weeks building up to the pay-per-view, The Nexus had established themselves as one of the most dominant heel factions that WWE had seen in years, and they were originally supposed to defeat Team WWE – led by John Cena – in the final match of the night.
Speaking at an Inside The Ropes event in 2017, Wade Barrett revealed that The Nexus had been told one week before SummerSlam that they were going to win the match, but the finish changed on the day of the show.
“We were pulled to one side and [former WWE producer] Arn Anderson says, ‘Hey guys, here’s the finish.’ We get down to the final three, which is myself and Justin Gabriel against John Cena. And then we’re told, ‘And Cena’s going to beat you both and go over.’ At which point, I kind of thought he was joking just to gauge our reaction, and then we realized, ‘No, he’s not joking. This is serious; John’s going over.’”
Barrett added that Vince McMahon explained the match finish by saying he wanted to send WWE fans home happy after SummerSlam, which is why the babyfaces were chosen to win.