Wrestling Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff Named WWE Executive Directors of Raw & Smackdown, Will Run WWE TV

[SaysWho?]

https://www.si.com/wrestling/2019/06/27/wwe-paul-heyman-monday-night-raw-eric-bischoff-smackdown-live-vince-mcmahon

 

Quote

The two positions are full-time executive roles, with no plans at the current time for this to be introduced as part of a TV storyline.

 

Heyman overseeing the creative development of Raw is scintillating news for wrestling fans. Best known as a pioneer for his innovative work as ECW president from 1993-2001, Heyman took the company to unfathomable heights on pay-per-view and through a national cable television deal with TNN. He is a must-see attraction as an on-screen performer as the advocate for Brock Lesnar, but Heyman’s longest-lasting work happens off-camera with the character development of many on the WWE roster.

Bischoff will also work directly with executives from FOX, which will air SmackDown Live beginning this October.

 

This is VERY curious as I assume Bischoff will try to make Smackdown feel a lot different to Raw. That's what he said when critiquing the latest brand split:

 

 

[IdeaOfEvil]

What really, really odd news. Prichard is kinda understandable when he was hired back as another Yes Man for Vince to feel good about... But Bischoff? Weird.

 

Still, in the end Vince is the ultimate death knell for any decisions WWE tries to make to better their product, and he ain't changing. When the news says he's stepping away from creative decisions, then I'll be interested lol

[Chairslinger]

1 hour ago, IdeaOfEvil said:

What really, really odd news. Prichard is kinda understandable when he was hired back as another Yes Man for Vince to feel good about... But Bischoff? Weird.

 

Still, in the end Vince is the ultimate death knell for any decisions WWE tries to make to better their product, and he ain't changing. When the news says he's stepping away from creative decisions, then I'll be interested lol

 

 

Pretty much.

 

My first thought when I heard about Heyman was his first act should be to silently walk to the ring to open his first Raw with a bundle. Take out the 24/7 belt and a hammer and beat on it til it resembles the old Hardcore title. 

 

Get on the mic and say the 24/7 title is vacated, gone, dead. Whoever wants to be the new Hardcore champ can come to the ring and take it.

 

Until something like that is Paul's decision to make instead of Vince it basically might as well be a GM kayfabe "boss" dynamic. 

[SaysWho?]

1 hour ago, Chairslinger said:

 

 

Pretty much.

 

My first thought when I heard about Heyman was his first act should be to silently walk to the ring to open his first Raw with a bundle. Take out the 24/7 belt and a hammer and beat on it til it resembles the old Hardcore title. 

 

Get on the mic and say the 24/7 title is vacated, gone, dead. Whoever wants to be the new Hardcore champ can come to the ring and take it.

 

Until something like that is Paul's decision to make instead of Vince it basically might as well be a GM kayfabe "boss" dynamic. 

 

"ok vince this is what I want to do with ____ "

"no"

the end

[Spork3245]

#Desperation

[Spork3245]

[SoberChef]

Heyman & Bischoff both have immense experience in the behind the scenes area. That video showcasing Eric's "vision" is enlightening actually. Considering the pressure from FOX, the impending pressure from AEW's show this fall with TNT as well as the financial pressure WWE has, I am definitely intrigued as to what the future has in store for pro-wrestling in the next 6-12 months going forward. Eric more or less has a bit of leeway really to get his bearings and figure things out before beginning execution. He very well may in fact learn from AEW considerably and pivot to coincide with what he thinks they will do and in all reality, will have until the post-Mania "trades" between brands to fully begin to execute the initial salvo of what he wants to do with Smackdown.

 

Smackdown has always been and should always be, a very different show whereas RAW should maintain a sense of longevity/continuity in what one would expect to see from that brand. Smackdown, to me as a long time viewer, has always been sort of the "bastard child" of WWE that should NEVER have been something to try to shake off or be ashamed of, but be proud of, live up to an exceed in; regardless of the format it ultimately takes just because it IS NOT RAW! That, in an of itself, is what always made Smackdown a solid alternative. I'm intrigued and excited to be sure and foresee these moves as nothing but either A. A turnabout & righting of the ship going forward to give something to everyone one show or another (there is always 205 Live & also let's not forget NXT!) or B. The final death knell of Vincent K. McMahon as CEO of WWE.

[Mercury33]

17 hours ago, Chairslinger said:

 

 

Pretty much.

 

My first thought when I heard about Heyman was his first act should be to silently walk to the ring to open his first Raw with a bundle. Take out the 24/7 belt and a hammer and beat on it til it resembles the old Hardcore title. 

 

Get on the mic and say the 24/7 title is vacated, gone, dead. Whoever wants to be the new Hardcore champ can come to the ring and take it.

 

Until something like that is Paul's decision to make instead of Vince it basically might as well be a GM kayfabe "boss" dynamic. 

 

You want Paul to get things rolling with a horrible idea?

[Dodger]

I've always thought if they are going to do a brand split, Smackdown should become WCW since they own all the rights. Make it feel like it's actually different. 

[johnny]

Pointless with Vince still calling all the shots 

[Hurdyb1]

Won't lie to you, this news got me a little excited. Hopefully Vince will understand that these guys can do good things and that he has to focus on launching the XFL flawlessly. 

 

This only works if Vince lets go. We will see.

[SaysWho?]

Here's the thing I don't get, and I started thinking about this months ago:

 

WWE brought back Bruce Prichard (former right-hand man for Vince and also played Brother Love) to write for the WWE, which included shooting the footage of Batista's return when he attacked Ric Flair and asked if HHH was listening. Now they bring the former big guys from ECW and WCW. TNA brought Russo in the 2000s to write for the show.

 

My question is: are the only people who know how to write for wrestling people who were around in the 80s and 90s? Is there no other talent? Once they retire and die, will wrestling have no writing? Maybe that's why AEW let's wrestlers say whatever while I'm assuming giving them a few bullet points. People are excited because they know what these guys can do at their best, but shit, it wasn't like, "Oh shit, WWE brought Russo/Kreski to write!" in the 90s and early 2000s.

 

On Prichard's podcast, he talks about how Kreski didn't really do much or submit many ideas, and listening to him, lots of good stuff came from Brian Gewirtz. Well, Gewirtz, IIRC, became the lead writer of Raw after the first brand split. So did he run out of good ideas? Did his stuff just magically start becoming weirder after Kreski left? Cuz when Stephanie took over in 2000, the writing wasn't as good save early 2001, and Raw was inferior to Smackdown (which Prichard also says that the writers wrote for both shows, so Heyman wasn't the main reason SD was good but more to do with more exciting talent being on SD). 

 

Just all seems weird how the only thing that's exciting is when people who used to do things go back to doing those things.

[IdeaOfEvil]

To start, Prichard is so full of bullshit when he talks industry matters that I wouldn't really trust much what he says. Heyman and Dreamer were the reasons why Smackdown was so good in the early 2000's because they were able to make the talent shine, unlike Raw who was getting shafted by Vince and Trips and Gewirtz. And what's terrible is that ultimately it was Vince who screwed the entire company over when he wanted to turn the brand into World Wrestling Entertainment, and when he took Heyman off Smackdown to put him on WWECW, regulated that since Dreamer was a working wrestler that he couldn't also be a booker at the same time, and basically got rid of anyone who would stand up to him if he was going to make wrong decisions, that's when the company dug the hole it's still in today.

 

Jim Cornette has said that to really understand the business, you have to come up through the business. CM Punk even said on the Colt Cabana podcast that the WWE writers have no idea what it's like to be a wrestler, and they constantly fail when trying to write wrestling or communicate with the locker room. Even the notion of Triple H handling NXT so well is an example of there needing to be a person who came up in the business being the one in charge because they know the methodology of what fans want.

 

I think it was... 2004? 2003? ...when Vince first decided that he wanted to hire soap opera and tv writers while getting rid of traditional bookers like Heyman, Cornette (who had left already), and Prichard (etc). The idea to Vince, which he still practices today, was that he wanted to create a cleaner image for the WWF (not quite PG-era clean, yet) AND he was tired of putting up with his wrestling bookers that wanted to do traditional wrestling stories instead of entertainment stories (this is where Vince's dementia really started with him banning terms like "wrestling" and "title belt" and the such in his company). And I think the most notable named tv writer Vince hired was Freddie Prinze, Jr., which should set the tone in your mind of how far off course Vince was going with the WWF/E because he was chasing the fans he didn't have instead of doing all that he could to maintain the ones he did.

 

So, we see Vince basically padding himself with yes-men and non-industry writers who would never argue with him about how stupid his ideas were becoming. And since all of his competition was gone (WCW and ECW), Vince never had to be bothered with his company losing to another anymore, which essentially set the tone that he didn't have to try or care. Cornette says it best when he describes that time as WWE really trying to break into the mainstream by somehow ignoring the "wrestling" in World Wrestling Entertainment because Vince went public with the company by offering stocks based on his product being kid friendly. Then there was a real effort to put the focus on how great the WWE company was as a brand, and so they further hired public relations, writers, and a medical staff who could be promoted as being a family-friendly boon to the new WWE company. Plus the biggest events of that era all happened around the same time and dominoed on to each other. (in no specific order) Linda McMahon started running for the Senate, and that's when Vince went full blown pg-era because of the criticisms she was receiving for being involved with the wrestling product. Chris Benoit's Murder/Suicide was bringing in terrible news stories about wrestler health and violence from the media. And something not really stated is that Vince lost most all of his biggest superstars - Austin, Rock, Foley, etc - which propelled his current agenda of never letting any of his wrestlers get too big (bigger than the company) because they can just leave Vince. There's also Stephanie taking over the creative control during this time period, but so little is specifically exampled about what she's doing wrong. At best you can only kinda associate her with the time - when did WWF/E ratings started going down after the attitude era? The same time she was brought on as the head of creative.

 

I would say to your questions that it's when Vince decided to let go of the bookers and writers who know the wrestling business that the WWF/E started going downhill. Vince the business man has always relied on formulaic surprises, so promoting that he's bringing back Bischoff and putting Heyman in a bigger role is more of a storyline to get buzz than it is an actual fix - cuz he would never let them actually change any of his crazy rules. There's a clear difference between wrestling bookers and tv writers, and it's not that bookers are rare or only come from a specific era. It's that Vince doesn't use them, and his product suffers because of it. Even if you look at the modern backstage handlers in Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson, Fit Finley, Billy Gunn (etc), they would all be great bookers, but Vince doesn't want them in his ear all the time and it's why all of them have left the WWE/were fired (two are in AEW as bookers, even).

[Spork3245]

Pretty sure WWE was at its post-Attitude Era height when Freddy Prince Jr was writing for them iirc

[SaysWho?]

On 6/29/2019 at 7:20 PM, Spork3245 said:

Pretty sure WWE was at its post-Attitude Era height when Freddy Prince Jr was writing for them iirc

 

If that was 2011 and the first part of 2012, then yes, I agree. Plenty of things could have been improved, but the summer of Punk, the triple main event build to WM28, the pairing of Miz and Truth that actually worked, the Punk/Bryan feud and Rock/Cena when it was Once in a Lifetime were all really cool.

[The def star]

Well looks like Heyman Is doing what he does best and turning things around for WWE. Turning AJ heel and putting the club together is something everyone has been wanting. I'm actually excited to see what Heyman has planned for The Club and where Balor will fit into this 

Quote

 

 

[Dodger]

How the fuck they messed up The Club is just a huge mystery. Turn Finn Balor and put him in too. 

[IdeaOfEvil]

^^^

 

Probably because Vince has no plans for AJ, Gallows or Anderson, and keeping Balor away as an enemy is the best idea Heyman can come up with for the time being. Cuz once they're all together, then who do they feud with? Feud with and then get squashed by whatever crap idea Vince has for them. Plus, I doubt this change will be in time for Gallows and Anderson to want to stay with the company. There's just so much exhaustion knowing that at any time this farce of a "Heyman is in charge!" storyline will go away and Vince will be back Vincing the company again...

 

AJ and Balor will do a quality feud. AJ and Balor can fight over leadership of The Club. And AJ and Balor fighting each other won't piss everyone off like if AJ and Balor teamed up to feud with anyone else and were constantly losing.

[EternallDarkness]

could one of them get rid of the craptastic 24/7 belt? The moronic running joke just keeps getting worse and worse with each show. 

[Mercury33]

4 hours ago, IdeaOfEvil said:

^^^

 

Probably because Vince has no plans for AJ, Gallows or Anderson, and keeping Balor away as an enemy is the best idea Heyman can come up with for the time being. Cuz once they're all together, then who do they feud with? Feud with and then get squashed by whatever crap idea Vince has for them. Plus, I doubt this change will be in time for Gallows and Anderson to want to stay with the company. There's just so much exhaustion knowing that at any time this farce of a "Heyman is in charge!" storyline will go away and Vince will be back Vincing the company again...

 

AJ and Balor will do a quality feud. AJ and Balor can fight over leadership of The Club. And AJ and Balor fighting each other won't piss everyone off like if AJ and Balor teamed up to feud with anyone else and were constantly losing.

 

Why would you think there’s no plans for AJ? He’s had stuff to do literally his entire run. Including a fun short run with The Club already. Also Gallows and Anderson already resigned. And they could feud with whoever. Just like every other stable in history has. In fact, I think they might be feuding with Richochet right now. 

2 hours ago, EternallDarkness said:

could one of them get rid of the craptastic 24/7 belt? The moronic running joke just keeps getting worse and worse with each show. 

Yeah, it’s literally the hottest thing in pro wrestling right now. It’s a segment that has brought comedy and creativity something pretty lacking elsewhere. I can understand why it might not be someone’s cup of tea but it’s not going anywhere any time soon.  

[IdeaOfEvil]

1 hour ago, Mercury33 said:

 

Why would you think there’s no plans for AJ? He’s had stuff to do literally his entire run. Including a fun short run with The Club already. Also Gallows and Anderson already resigned. And they could feud with whoever. Just like every other stable in history has. In fact, I think they might be feuding with Richochet right now. 

Yeah, it’s literally the hottest thing in pro wrestling right now. It’s a segment that has brought comedy and creativity something pretty lacking elsewhere. I can understand why it might not be someone’s cup of tea but it’s not going anywhere any time soon.  

 

Because a Wrestlemania match with Orton means Vince has no plans for him. And Gallows and Anderson are speculated to have signed (as of 11 hours ago might I add), so nothing I said was out of line.

[Mercury33]

7 hours ago, IdeaOfEvil said:

 

Because a Wrestlemania match with Orton means Vince has no plans for him. And Gallows and Anderson are speculated to have signed (as of 11 hours ago might I add), so nothing I said was out of line.

 

They signed before you posted that so technically.....

 

So unless a star is involved an extremely involved 6 month long story arc then there’s nothing for them? AJ took time off right after Mania. It’s possible he was banged up before Mania. So instead of putting all their eggs in his basket and risk him getting further banged up. Maybe the plan was “hey we still need you at Mania so we’ll write a little story between you and Orton that’s low impact and if you can’t go for any reason it won’t kill the card if it has to be shortened/taken out. Not to mention Orton is one of the safest workers in the company.”  

[Spork3245]

18 hours ago, EternallDarkness said:

could one of them get rid of the craptastic 24/7 belt? The moronic running joke just keeps getting worse and worse with each show. 

 

It's not meant to be taken seriously, so if you're trying to, then that's likely the problem.  It's literally the most over thing in WWE at the moment, so it's not going anywhere any time soon.

What they need to get rid of is putting Becky/Seth's real-life relationship into story lines, as it's some of the most awkward stuff I've seen during promos and "after match celebrations" in a looooong while.

[EternallDarkness]

19 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

 

It's not meant to be taken seriously, so if you're trying to, then that's likely the problem.  It's literally the most over thing in WWE at the moment, so it's not going anywhere any time soon.

What they need to get rid of is putting Becky/Seth's real-life relationship into story lines, as it's some of the most awkward stuff I've seen during promos and "after match celebrations" in a looooong while.

 

oh I am well aware it's not meant to be serious, but it's like a little kid telling a stupid joke over and over again. The first time it might be mildly amusing, the 20th times it's just annoying and you just want to yell STFU kid and leave me alone! 

[IdeaOfEvil]

9 hours ago, Mercury33 said:

 

They signed before you posted that so technically.....

 

So unless a star is involved an extremely involved 6 month long story arc then there’s nothing for them? AJ took time off right after Mania. It’s possible he was banged up before Mania. So instead of putting all their eggs in his basket and risk him getting further banged up. Maybe the plan was “hey we still need you at Mania so we’ll write a little story between you and Orton that’s low impact and if you can’t go for any reason it won’t kill the card if it has to be shortened/taken out. Not to mention Orton is one of the safest workers in the company.”  

 

But they haven't re-signed yet. The news is they've agreed to sign new contracts (which was first reported only hours before I made my first reply), but as of right now they still haven't actually signed anything yet.

 

I'm not nitpicking here, but you're replying to my statements with some odd "You're wrong"-agenda... The question I replied to was about why Balor hasn't joined up with the rest of The Club. If you think I'm wrong about why he hasn't, then tell us. Don't just reply with "They can do whatever they want" responses that argue against me with no solid footing - as if Vince would ever let them do what they want.

 

[EternallDarkness]

turned on Raw tonight and just shook my head...they seriously have Brock as champ again 

[IdeaOfEvil]

The other day I was trying to remember when was the last time the WWF/E created the most new heavyweight champs in one year. It's easiest to remember when it was only one belt, so at best I can think of was 1998 and four new champions created: Austin, Kane, Rock, and Foley.

 

It's twenty years later and other than Kofi this year, who was the last newly created Heavyweight/World champion? Bray? Ambrose? One new champion per year?

[SaysWho?]

3 hours ago, IdeaOfEvil said:

The other day I was trying to remember when was the last time the WWF/E created the most new heavyweight champs in one year. It's easiest to remember when it was only one belt, so at best I can think of was 1998 and four new champions created: Austin, Kane, Rock, and Foley.

 

It's twenty years later and other than Kofi this year, who was the last newly created Heavyweight/World champion? Bray? Ambrose? One new champion per year?

 

98 wasn't Foley yet. 1999 was Mankind, Big Show and HHH.

 

2000 created Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho for about 20 minutes.

[IdeaOfEvil]

38 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

98 wasn't Foley yet. 1999 was Mankind, Big Show and HHH.

 

2000 created Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho for about 20 minutes.

 

Foley in '99 is a technicality I guess. Wikipedia says he won it on December 29th 1998, but I guess it was a tape delay that didn't air until January 4th of 1999 (?? - I don't remember it myself)

 

Still, Raw's title has been rotating ONLY between Lesnar, Rollins, and Reigns for two years now. The last "new champion" that held it was Goldberg in 2017, and the last "first time/new champion" that held it before that was Kevin Owens back in 2016.

 

The Smackdown belt is much better handled, but not that great overall. For three years we've seen 8 champions (Ambrose, AJ, Bray, Mahal, Orton, Cena, Kofi, and Bryan); four of which were brand new (Bray, Mahal, Ambrose, Kofi); one of which no one wanted at all (Mahal at 170 days); two of which fans were long sick of (Randy and Cena combined for 22 days, but won at the big ppvs - Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania);  and two of which fans were pissed at how wasted their runs were (Bray and Ambrose - 49 and 84 day reigns respectively).

 

No wonder wrestling has been stale. We get one or two first time WWE champs almost every other year during non-big ppv shows, who either hold the belt too long or hold it too short, and then have to pass it over to someone fans have no interest in seeing as champion during a big ppv's instead of to the wrestlers who fans want to get behind (Joe, Mcnityre, Balor, Roode, Bray, Strowman, Zayne, Ricochet, Aleister, Owens, Rusev, Nakamura, etc)

 

[Mercury33]

During Wrestling’s height the belt also basically rotated between 3 people. This isn’t something new.

[SaysWho?]

3 minutes ago, IdeaOfEvil said:

 

Foley in '99 is a technicality I guess. Wikipedia says he won it on December 29th 1998, but I guess it was a tape delay that didn't air until January 4th of 1999 (?? - I don't remember it myself)

 

Still, Raw's title has been rotating ONLY between Lesnar, Rollins, and Reigns for two years now. The last "new champion" that held it was Goldberg in 2017, and the last "first time/new champion" that held it before that was Kevin Owens back in 2016.

 

The Smackdown belt is much better handled, but not that great overall. For three years we've seen 8 champions (Ambrose, AJ, Bray, Mahal, Orton, Cena, Kofi, and Bryan); four of which were brand new (Bray, Mahal, Ambrose, Kofi); one of which no one wanted at all (Mahal at 170 days); two of which fans were long sick of (Randy and Cena combined for 22 days, but won at the big ppvs - Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania);  and two of which fans were pissed at how wasted their runs were (Bray and Ambrose - 49 and 84 day reigns respectively).

 

No wonder wrestling has been stale. We get one or two first time WWE champs almost every other year during non-big ppv shows, who either hold the belt too long or hold it too short, and then have to pass it over to someone fans have no interest in seeing as champion during a big ppv's instead of to the wrestlers who fans want to get behind (Joe, Mcnityre, Balor, Roode, Bray, Strowman, Zayne, Ricochet, Aleister, Owens, Rusev, Nakamura, etc)

 

 

Yeah, Foley kicked off 99 with a title switch. That was the infamous "butts in the seats" moment. While it happened in 98, audiences were supposed to see it in 99, so... eh, it's more a 99 thing since that was the Rock/Foley feud.

 

The mid and late 90s were an interesting time because first, the old guard -- Macho Man, Warrior, Hulk Hogan -- left, so they had to make new stars in Bret and Shawn and Diesel. Then they left or had a back injury, so they had to make new stars again in Stone Cold, Foley, Rock, Taker, HHH, and Show. Then their mid card improved tremendously, so instead of permanent midcarders like Val Venis and Godfather and D-Lo, you had guys who could go up the chain like Eddie Guerrero, Benoit, Jericho and Angle. I feel it mostly stayed on the same people: 2000 was HHH-Rock for the first 9 months. But it was sooooo fun, and we got to see great feuds with Cactus Jack.

 

I feel like we haven't really seen that as much? They haven't had a time where everyone left at once, far as I remember. That's actually why the early 2000s post-Invasion was so frustrating. Austin stormed out and Rock was no longer full-time, but you had fucking HHH the whole time.

[IdeaOfEvil]

35 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

During Wrestling’s height the belt also basically rotated between 3 people. This isn’t something new.

Mmmm, depends on the era. And any era other than today was so much better with their story telling.

 

Even when the title was rotating between Bret, Sid, and Shawn in '95/'96, the story line was so great and the title switches were so immediate that it wasn't bad at all.  Plus, the spill off from them went immediately to '97/'98 with Taker getting the title, then back to Bret, to Shawn, to Austin, and then the flood gates opening to Kane, Rock, Foley, Trips, Show, Angle, Jericho etc. And all that done in the span of two years each.

 

Compare that to today with Lesnar being gone while being champion, dropping it to Reigns who absolutely no one likes, then back to Lesnar who takes off again, and (only now) getting it on Rollins because Reigns is "sick" - and those three doing it in two years as well.

 

There's a big difference in quality between the eras, imo. Even Hogan's era was more entertaining with Warrior, Savage, Slaughter, Flair and Yoko when compared to today

 

So yea, nothing new, but definitely more entertaining in the past =)

[SaysWho?]

I actually feel like Lesnar is closer to 80s wrestling in terms of, "Big guy with belt for a longass time and doesn't defend it much." I wasn't a fan of the 80s despite its popularity.  

[nublood]

The problem with today's wrestling is today's wrestlers. The reason Bischoff was successful in WCW was the personalities he had access to. Steiner, Goldberg, Hall, Nash, Sting, Flair etc etc. There's nothing even close to those guys in terms of grittiness and general charisma today. I'd be real interested if Bischoff can turn it around because at this point, what do they have to lose. The ratings are continually spiraling downward.

[Spork3245]

7 hours ago, nublood said:

The problem with today's wrestling is today's wrestlers. The reason Bischoff was successful in WCW was the personalities he had access to. Steiner, Goldberg, Hall, Nash, Sting, Flair etc etc. There's nothing even close to those guys in terms of grittiness and general charisma today. I'd be real interested if Bischoff can turn it around because at this point, what do they have to lose. The ratings are continually spiraling downward.

 

Lol no. It’s the booking. Guys like Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, The New Day, The Miz, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, etc are incredible in terms of charisma and in-ring talent.