Finn Balor‘s attack on Seth Rollins on the June 19 episode of WWE Raw prevented the advertised open challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship. The original plans for the show called for something drastically different, though.
Fightful Select (subscription required but recommended) reported that Tommaso Ciampa was originally planned to challenge Rollins for the title and receive “a ton of time,” but the plans changed multiple times, including just a few hours before the show started. The plan was to also have a non-finish for the match.
Vince McMahon initiated the changes, which “clearly frustrated” those around the match, according to Fightful.
As seen, Balor attacked Rollins, and Ciampa made his return by facing The Miz, whom he had been aligned with before he had to take time off due to an injury.
Rollins and Balor advanced their feud with this angle prior to their match at Money in the Bank. Plus, the title was defended the following night on NXT in a match against Bron Breakker. Ciampa secured his victory and everything proceeded smoothly for him.
Ciampa could have benefited from a title match off the bat upon his return, making his return from injury more special, even if he didn’t win. Rollins would have highlighted himself as a working champion, and Balor could have gotten himself involved to further his story. Moreover, these two could have brawled again the next night on NXT, after Rollins’ match with Breakker.
Since his return to an executive role, McMahon has made changes multiple times and will probably continue to do so in the future. So however fans may have thought of how things played out, it has his fingerprints all over it.
Perhaps Rollins has another open challenge at some point and plans revert to Ciampa responding, but for now, this match that won’t happen any time soon.