Was The Paige Reference In The SmackDown Rap Battle Cleared By WWE?

Last Tuesday night The Usos and The New Day set the wrestling world on fire with their entertaining rap battle. The rap battle was hosted by Wale, but Wale wasn’t the only rapper involved. Mega Ran appeared as part of New Day’s entourage, as he happens to be friends with Xavier Woods, and he recently spoke to Hip Hop DX about what was going on behind the scenes with the battle.

Related: WWE Removes Paige Reference From Rap Battle Video

According to Mega Ran, Xavier Woods is the one who came up with the idea to do a rap battle, and he pitched the idea to WWE creative a few weeks ago. When Ran arrived at the arena, The New Day were given scripts, and original plans called for Wale to kick off the battle with some rhymes of his own, but Big E said that it wouldn’t work and everyone agreed.

Mega Ran says he didn’t help The New Day with their rhymes, but he did help them a little with their flow.

“For everybody who’s asking me, I did not write rhymes,” Ran tells HipHopDX. “I just kinda sat and listened. I helped them with their deliveries and getting down the cadence and stuff.”

The producers of the segment apparently requested that each team hand in their rhymes for review before the show went live, but Ran says only The New Day obliged.

The Usos were the ones that got everyone talking when they dropped the following line: “Big E, let’s just keep it PG, you know what’s good. Just don’t get all rated-R, like your boy Xavier Woods.”

So was the reference to the infamous Paige tape approved ahead of time?

As noted, The New Day handed in their rhymes, but The Usos did not, and they made it a point not to let The New Day see what they were going to say. As far as the line goes, Mega Ran says that The Usos showed their rhymes to only one producer, so it appears that at least one WWE official was aware of the reference ahead of time.

Even though The New Day were declared the winners, many fans feel that The Usos won the battle, and Mega Ran thinks that they had the advantage.

“[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.”