After Sami Zayn dropped a reference to AEW on Monday's Raw, many wondered if it was scripted or an off-the-cuff remark. Strangely, it was planned.

Before mentioning AEW, the segment that involved Sami Zayn in the final hour of Raw on Monday was already strange. An "Electric Chair" interview was meant to sell the idea Zayn would answer controversial fan questions. They weren't controversial at all and according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, it's because the questions in the segment were from real fans, however, screened.

Meltzer also noted that the entire thing was scripted and planned and that his source was in a production meeting when the idea to mention AEW was brought up. The thought by his source and many others in WWE was that it "was so f--king stupid." and that people in WWE were wondering why the company would do such a foolish thing.

You can see from the video below, WWE must have re-thought how good the idea was because that portion of the YouTube video was removed:

What This Means

When Zayn said, "You could have asked me about anything! You could have asked me about AEW!" He was more right than anyone could have imagined.

WWE could have done anything in this segment. Instead, they chose the dumbest idea possible. The "Electric Chair" segment was produced as an excuse to drop AEW's name and do so in a way to disparage the new upstart wrestling company. Only, it didn't work.

Meltzer's co-host, Brian Alvarez, said that he heard from a different source that the line wasn't scripted, however, Meltzer knows someone was in that meeting when it was planned and the only logical reason for doing so was that WWE is rattled.

AEW isn't even on television yet and WWE is already making mistakes when it comes to how to deal with their competition.

Next: Maria Hints She and Mike Kanellis' Contracts Up, Leaving WWE