The New Day Didn’t Know the Usos’ Rap Battle Lines Beforehand

HipHopDX has an article about the rap battle on last week’s SmackDown, with a couple of interesting notes.

The Usos apparently “made a point” not to let The New Day see their lines (so Xavier didn’t know about the “rated R” line), but the Usos did see the New Day’s lines ahead of time, so were able to write rebuttals.

Although the producers of the segment requested both teams send in their rhymes for the script, only The New Day obliged. The Usos showed theirs to one producer, but made a point to not let The New Day see their bars, which referenced a salacious story involving Woods.

“[The Usos] were able to write rebuttal lines,” Ran revealed. “I felt it gave them an advantage. They might’ve gotten a little better crowd response, but they went a little below the belt to get it.”

Wale was supposed to rap to “kick off” the battle, but Big E said it wouldn’t work and others agreed, so that was scrapped.

The day of the show, Ran arrived at Phoenix’s Talking Stick Resort Arena with Woods, and met an assortment of wrestlers and crew members. The New Day were given their script for the show, which originally had Wale set to kick off the battle with his own rhymes. Big E, a member of The New Day, said it wouldn’t work. The other members and Ran agreed, which led to a change.