Unscripted nature of RAW promos revealed, Reason why Ric Flair is reportedly unhappy
The latest episode of RAW ended with Ric Flair being written off TV as Randy Orton delivered the punt kick on the WWE Hall of Famer.
However, the promos from Randy Orton and Ric Flair that preceded the assault stole the show and garnered praise from all corners.
The entire segment always expected to happen sooner rather than later. Tom Colohue has now revealed more details of it on Sportskeeda's Dropkick DiSKussions podcast.
Tom reported that Ric Flair was still supposed to be in Randy Orton's corner at SummerSlam. It was reportedly a last-minute decision to take Ric Flair off TV, and it was made last week. This week's segment would have originally happened after SummerSlam.
Tom revealed that Ric Flair and Randy Orton weren't given much in writing with regards to their promos and what they said was pretty much unscripted. It helped as the promos, and the delivery came across as being quite realistic and natural in the end.
Here's what Tom Colohue revealed on the Dropkick DiSKussions podcast:
"I did report this on my own YouTube on the RAW review that came out yesterday. Essentially what I'm reporting is that Flair was still supposed to be there come SummerSlam. He should have been in Randy Orton's corner, and then after that, we would have had a segment similar to this but not the same. But with the health situation changing both personally which pertains to Ric Flair and company-wide, the decision was made last week, quite the last second, to write him off.
As such, we had quite a real promo from both men because they didn't have much to go on. They weren't given much writing to essentially say, 'go on out there and hit these exact notes'. So that's close to very real promos from both guys, with some editing where they would write off a few lines and so on and so forth."
Reason why Ric Flair was unhappy
It should surprise nobody that Ric Flair was particularly unhappy about being written off TV. The Nature Boy even referenced his satisfaction at being on RAW at the age of 71 and it's a known fact that Ric Flair wants to be involved on WWE TV as much as possible.
Tom concluded by stating that despite the segment being laid out at the very last second, Ric Flair and Randy Orton stepped up to the plate and nailed it with their respective performances.
"Ric Flair wasn't particularly happy about being written off at this stage, but I don't think he would have been particularly happy to be written off at any stage. He referenced that in the promo saying that he was just happy to be on RAW. It was laid out very last second, but I think both men absolutely nailed it."
We should ideally not see Ric Flair on WWE TV for the foreseeable future, however, what if the angle on RAW was just a precursor for a big SummerSlam swerve? Did Ric Flair's reaction to getting punted by Randy Orton give us a hint?
What's next in the storyline? Randy Orton, nonetheless, has his work cut out for the WWE title match against Drew McIntyre at SummerSlam.