Eric Bischoff Gone From WWE After Being Replaced by Bruce Prichard on WWE SmackDown

WWE broke the news on Tuesday that Eric Bischoff had been replaced by Bruce Prichard as the executive director of Friday Night SmackDown. The news came as a shock given that Bischoff had been rehired by the company just four months ago to take over the new position for the Blue Brand. The press release did not specify whether or not Bischoff was completely gone from the company, though both PWInsider and Fightful reported shortly after the news broke that Bischoff was completely gone from the company. The former WCW executive producer and president has yet to comment on his departure on social media.

“A WWE representative has confirmed to PWInsider that Eric Bischoff is no longer with the company,” PWI’s Mike Johnson wrote.”

WWE’s press release for 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.”

Bischoff refrained from going into detail about his weekly responsibilities with SmackDown during his 83 Weeks podcast, though he did say he viewed it as a bigger opportunity than his roles with WCW.

“The magnitude of this opportunity and the challenge and the commitment that goes along with it is not lost on me,” Bischoff said on his podcast back in July. “There’s been a couple of times over the last few days where I’ve been driving around in my truck or taking my dog for a hike and going, ‘Wow!’”

“It’s not maybe, this is the biggest opportunity I’ve ever had in this industry,” he added. “Granted when Bill Shaw made me president of WCW, obviously that was a very, very big moment. But I was learning on the job there. I had nothing to lose there. I was taking a company in WCW that had never turned a dollar of profit, that was such a distant number two to WWF at that time that we weren’t even really number two, a company that was fraught with a bad history and all kinds of internal issues. So I had nothing to lose. In this situation, this is an entirely different ballgame here.”