Last night was WWE’s SmackDown 1000 episode special. The show featured the return of several stars from WWE’s past. WWE Hall of Famers Edge, Ric Flair, and Kurt Angle all made appearances. Rey Mysterio made his return to WWE TV as a contracted talent, after reportedly signing a two-year deal recently.

Another star that was at the show and scheduled to appear was James Ellsworth. Unfortunately, Ellsworth didn’t appear on the show, instead doing an interview with Mike Rome afterward for WWE’s YouTube channel, voicing his frustrations with the company leaving a “SmackDown Legend” off the show.

Sources tell us that at least one segment had to be nixed from the show due to the Evolution angle with Triple H, Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Batista running long. Because of this, Rey Mysterio and Shinsuke Nakamura’s main event WWE World Cup qualifier bout had to be rushed. This was to allow The Undertaker to close out the episode with his promo, warning D-Generation X ahead of Crown Jewel.

For those of you wondering why they didn’t do a three-hour show, WWE had obligations to Facebook for the Mixed Match Challenge. WWE’s contract with Facebook states the Mixed Match Challenge must be a live show starting at 10 P.M. ET. For that reason, SmackDown Live couldn’t go over two hours.











