WWE is officially under new creative leadership in Paul “Triple H” Levesque and between SummerSlam and this past week’s lineup of weekly TV programming, changes in booking philosophy have already started popping up. But a few wrestlers have suddenly vanished from TV, leading to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select to post an update regarding three of them over the weekend. The first, and the most accomplished of the trio is Kevin Owens. The former NXT and Universal Champion hasn’t been seen since the July 18 episode of Monday Night Raw where he hosted The Kevin Owens Show and continued the storyline between Seth Rollins and Riddle leading into SummerSlam.ย
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Owens isn’t injured according to Sapp, but he reportedly has creative “being cooked up for him for plans moving forward.” So expect him back on TV once those plans are fully constructed.ย
Then there’s Lacey Evans, who has been dealing with sudden face/heel turns and roster shifts since first coming back to TV in April. She apparently has no immediate creative plans and wasn’t considered for the women’s gauntlet match on this week’s SmackDown. And while she was a “personal favorite of Vince McMahon,” her return from hiatus was described as “chaotic and directionless.”
Finally, there’s Omos, who hasn’t wrestled a match since July 18 but was still at this week’s Raw for the latest Main Event taping. He is reportedly among multiple wrestlers who are waiting to learn what their creative direction will be under Triple H.ย
One person who has seen an immediate shift in their creative direction is Ciampa, who went from not wrestling on Raw for months to winning back-to-back matches on this week’s Raw (including a pinfall victory over AJ Styles) for a shot at Bobby Lashley’s United States Championship tomorrow night. He spoke with ComicBook about Vince McMahon’s departure and Levesque taking over during SummerSlam weekend.ย
“Yeah (I’m excited to work with him) and I was excited for what we were doing too,” Ciampa said. “I never worked with Vince, and the little I got to work with him I was like ‘ah, this guy is a genius. This is interesting, I want to pick his brain.’ I worked with Hunter (and I said), ‘This guy is a genius, I want to pick his brain.’ It’s exciting to be on the inside of what, 20 years from now, we are likely going to look back on and go, ‘Whoa, stuff started to shift there.’ It’s just natural. To me, that’s cool. I don’t know what to expect, all I can do is what I’ve been doing. I can control what I can control. I’ll look good, I’ll be in shape, I can cut a promo if you want me to cut a promo. Aside from that, whatever you want I’ll do it to the best of my ability.”
