More On Eric Bischoff's SmackDown Exit, WWE Creative Team News

As has been well publicized by now, Eric Bischoff was released by WWE as the executive director of WWE SmackDown earlier this week.

The move by WWE shocked many from the outside as Bischoff had only been with the company for a little more than three months. The former WCW president had even moved his family from Wyoming to Connecticut in order to be closer to WWE headquarters and, seemingly, dive headfirst into the role.

However, Dave Meltzer notes in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Bischoff's release was largely expected from within the company. The report notes that Bischoff wasn't familiar with the talent or the ways that WWE operates in 2019, making his tenure a struggle from the get-go, and notes that Bischoff (age 64) likely wasn't up to the rigors of Vince McMahon's creative process.

McMahon is known for keeping insane hours when it comes to creative team meetings, with the meetings sometimes running until 3:00 a.m. The Observer story notes that Bischoff would often become hard to reach after 7:00 p.m., seemingly unwilling to put in those extra hours after working a full day prior. In reality, that would probably describe most people in that situation, and it will be hard to find someone with the stamina to work those kinds of hours.

The Observer goes on to note that with Bischoff's firing largely expected from within the company, the curiosity among staff was how it would be handled given the WWE made such a big deal out of his hiring to their investors and FOX just a few short months ago.

The Observer states, "When Ryan Ward burned out as the head writer of Smackdown, and Ed Koskey from Raw was moved over, a lot of people expected Bischoff to be the next casualty."

As an aside, ComicBook.com can report that the characterization here in the Observer as it relates to Ward's exit as head writer of SmackDown several weeks ago is inaccurate. Classifying his current situation as being a "casualty" is false and he is expected to return to the creative team at some point. In fact, Ward is simply on leave from the company for a personal reason that has nothing to do with being "burned out." This story has continually been reported inaccurately by numerous sites, including but not limited to the Observer, which has already corrected a false report on the matter once.

Let us know what you think of WWE's recent moves in the comment section below or give me a follow on Twitter @ryandroste for all things WWE and AEW.