Backstage News On Liv Morgan's Move To The WWE RAW Brand And Original Plans
As noted earlier today at this link, Liv Morgan called out WWE on Twitter over her quick loss to Natalya on this week's RAW, but apparently her frustration goes back to when she was on the WWE SmackDown brand last year.
Liv reportedly went to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and asked if she could switch to the RAW brand before she made the big debut in the storyline with Rusev, Lana and Bobby Lashley several months ago, according to a new report from Gary Cassidy of Sportskeeda. Liv was apparently frustrated with how she couldn't get on TV while on SmackDown, much like Andrade, Zelina Vega, AOP, Aleister Black, Murphy, Humberto Carrillo and current WWE United States Champion Apollo Crews.
Vince said yes to Liv's request and while she moved to RAW, former red brand Executive Director Paul Heyman had ideas for how she would debut, but none of those pitches were approved by Vince, until the idea of the Lashley – Lana wedding angle was pitched with Liv's debut happening then.
Heyman apparently did not want to follow that up with a "lesbian" storyline between Liv and Lana as he simply wanted to debut Liv and build to the obvious mixed tag team match with Liv and Rusev vs. Lana and Lashley, then the Liv vs. Lana singles match to establish Liv as a babyface. The idea was that Liv could bump Lana around and capitalize on the heat she had at the time.
It was noted that a lot of things happened before the final stages of that plan could happen. The apparent plan was always to kickstart a babyface run for Liv on RAW, but it didn't play out as intended.
Lana and Lashley defeated Liv and Rusev on the January 20 RAW episode, and Liv would go on to defeat Lana in two singles matches, one on January 27 and the other on February 3.
It was reported back in April, via Wrestling Observer Radio, that there were never any real plans for the Lana – Liv storyline beyond the initial wedding segment as it was written by Heyman as a way to pop the crowd and get eyes on Liv.
Rusev was released in mid-April as a part of the company-wide cuts brought on by COVID-19, and the Lana – Lashley on-screen relationship is just now coming to an end. Liv lost to Natalya this week and looks to be entering into a new storyline with former tag team partner Ruby Riott.