Below are some backstage notes from Smackdown 1000 on Tuesday night. This comes via a report from Mike Johnson of PWInsider.
– According to Johnson, the original plan was for Shinsuke Nakamura vs Rey Mysterio to open Smackdown. There was apparently a lot of shuffling of segments in the hours leading up to the show, which led to this being changed.
– Johnson says that Batista arrived late to the show. He apparently didn’t show up until 7:40 PM (EST), which is 20 minutes prior to the show going on the air.
– The Undertaker promo was always scheduled to go on last but was supposed to be much longer.
– The Nakamura vs Mysterio match was also cut for time.
– Some planned backstage segments got cut from the show. This included an appearance from James Ellsworth, who appeared in a WWE Youtube video after the show went off the air.
– Zack Ryder was backstage for the show but wasn’t used.
– The segment with R-Truth and Carmella was apparently supposed to be later in the show but was changed to be the opening segment.
– The match between the Miz and Rusev was always planned to be short. The match didn’t get cut for time.
Overall, it looks like a lot of things were changed at the last minute.
In other news, here are our match predictions for WWE Crown Jewel.