WWE faced an embarrassing moment during the latest SmackDown broadcast.
The company presented the the Blue Branded Show from Saudi Arabia this week. The show opened with King of the Ring finalists Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton coming face to face before their big match at the Night of Champions PPV.
Halfway through this segment, however, the Netflix international feed went out, and a message saying that the broadcast would be back online soon was displayed for almost half an hour before the show resumed.
PWinsider reports that the broadcast issue was a result of a power outage in Riyadh that affected WWE production. Both the control room and the gorilla position were affected and the officials lost the ability to control the show.
What Happened During SmackDown Outage
A fan posted a two-hour video that covers the Main Event tapings that happened before SmackDown went on air, as well as how things played out during the power outage. The video shows the big screen above the ring glitching halfway through the Cody Rhodes-Randy Orton segment.
Though the two continued their war of words despite the issues. There was no physicality in the segment, and it ended with The American Nightmare leaving the ring. The Viper was informed of the outage by this point and he stayed around.
His music played in the arena as the Legend Killer went around the ringside greeting the fans for a while to kill time. Cody then made a second entrance as Orton headed to the back. The WWE Quarterback told the fans about the technical difficulties and started working the crowd.
Carmelo Hayes then made his entrance in his street clothes and cut a promo on the former Undisputed Champion. Cody ended the segment with a CrossRhodes on the former NXT star. Both the competitors then left the ring before the feed came back on with the backstage segment of JC Mateo and Solo Sikoa.
