WWE Cancels Major SmackDown Match on the Last Minute 

This week’s episode of WWE SmackDown was the final stop for the blue brand on the road to Perth, since next week’s show will take place in Australia.

It was a stacked event and it seems that some of the plans were changed at the last minute. WWE released the lineup for the show ahead of time and as part of their own writeup, Damian Priest was set to be in action against an unnamed opponent.

The former World Champion was part of the show since he cost Aleister Black his match against Sami Zayn before putting him through the announce table with a Razor’s Edge. He was then part of a backstage segment when he attacked Kit Wilson, before challenging Black to a Last Man Standing match, which has now been made official for next week’s show.

It seems that there may have been a lot of changes made to this week’s show with a lot of NXT presence as the company continues to push NXT as their third brand.

WWE often makes last minute changes to major events

Last-minute changes were a big thing that happened throughout the Vince McMahon era, since it wasn’t uncommon for McMahon to appear at the show and decide to rip up the whole script and re-write it just hours before showtime.

It seemed that this kind of thing had been removed since Triple H has taken over, but fans have noticed several times that even announced matches have been removed from the show with little explanation.

It seems that some plans are just changed when there is a better creative direction. It’s unclear who Priest was supposed to face last night on SmackDown, but it seems that WWE opted to take him out of that match to set up a Last Man Standing match next week instead.