Fans were left somewhat confused by a segment on Monday Night Raw last night between former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax.
For those that haven’t seen it, Baszler said that her and Nia Jax deserved a title rematch, which Nia said was a good idea. However, Byron Saxton made it seem like Nia didn’t agree with Shayna, and we now know why.
On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that the segment didn’t make much sense because Nia Jax was supposed to sound more sarcastic. This is why Bryon Saxton’s commentary left some people confused.
This opened up the conversation about how the commentary team in WWE are told to fill the gaps and make sense of things if there is a botch in an interview segment or promo on TV:
“She (Nia Jax) botched her line because she was supposed to make us think that she was mad at Shayna for saying it, but she didn’t say it sarcastically enough, so it just sounded like she agreed with Shayna.
“He (Byron Saxton) may have been told by Vince, ‘Cover up for her’. That’s what the announcers do all the time.
“It could have been him (Saxton), but I doubt it was him. When the announcers look like idiots, the general rule is that they’ve been told to say something to clean up the mess.
“Mike Tenay used to do that with Hulk Hogan (in TNA)… he would be forgetting all these things and then Mike Tenay would be saying them afterwards. And I remember that was Mike Tenay’s job. Hulk Hogan’s gonna do his interview, he’s gonna forget half of what he’s supposed to say, and then Mike says all the stuff that Hulk Hogan forgot.
“That’s what the announcers have to do here. Somebody doesn’t do their line well, the announcers have to tell us where the storyline is, and that’s what happened there.”
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Because it’s just their favourite thing to do right now, WWE has been teasing a split between Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler on Raw for the last few weeks.
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