Eric Bischoff Breaks His Silence After Being Replaced as SmackDown Executive Director

Within hours of WWE announcing that he was no longer the executive director of Friday Night SmackDown, Eric Bischoff took to Twitter to comment on the situation. The former WCW executive gave his full support to Bruce Prichard, who is replacing him on the Blue Brand, while retweeting a story that he was leaving the company just four months after WWE had rehired him for the job.

“Bruce is a great producer, good friend and I am certain he is going to thrive in his position,” Bischoff wrote. “He’s going to be working with a great team of the most dedicated and hard working people I have had the pleasure of working with and getting to know.

WWE’s initial statement on Prichard’s new role read, “WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced that it has named Bruce Prichard the Executive Director of Friday Night SmackDown, reporting directly to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon. Prichard will oversee the creative development of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX and ensure integration across all platforms and lines of business, replacing Eric Bischoff.

“Prichard brings nearly 40 years of experience in sports entertainment with an extensive background in character development and creative storytelling,” it continued. “Over the course of his career, Prichard has served in a variety of roles including announcer, producer, agent and on-screen personality. Earlier this year, Prichard returned to WWE as a member of the company’s creative team.”

WWE representatives confirmed with multiple outlets shortly after the release that Bischoff was completely gone from the company and was not simply transitioning into another role. Bischoff was originally hired alongside Paul Heyman to take on the new positions on the creative teams for SmackDown and Raw, respectively. Bischoff even moved his family from Cody, Wyoming to Stamford, Connecticut after being hired.

While he didn’t provide many details about his week-to-week duties on his 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff did say that he felt the role was a bigger opportunity for him than when he served as executive producer, and eventually president, of WCW. During his brief tenure Bischoff’s only televised appearance took place during the Raw Reunion special in July.