Massive WWE news broke out this morning via Sports Illustrated — WWE is hiring Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff to serve as executive directors of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live, respectively. This means the creative mind behind ECW and the early days of SmackDown will be in charge of Raw’s creative in the near future, and the mind behind some of WCW’s most successful Attitude Era angles will be running the Blue Brand just in time for it to make the jump to network television on FOX.
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“In their executive roles, Heyman and Bischoff will oversee the creative development of WWE’s flagship programming and ensure integration across all platforms and lines of business,” WWE wrote in a press release shortly after the news broke. “The creation of these roles further establishes WWE’s ability to continuously reinvent its global brand while providing two distinct creative processes for its flagship shows.”
Based on their reactions on Twitter, wrestling writers and fans alike were utterly delighted by the news.
The Heyman/Bischoff news is pretty wild (and seems to course correct the disappointing “sameness” of Raw and Smackdown as of late) but it’ll only work if they actually have real creative say in their shows. Otherwise, the problems will remain the same.
— Christian Hoffer 🔜 GenCon (@CHofferCBus) June 27, 2019
“Freaking LOVE THIS!” ComicBook’s Matt Aguilar tweeted. “Both of these guys know the business in and out & both have shown they know how to tell compelling stories. If they’re allowed to actually make impactful decisions about the brands, this could be something great, especially Bischoff & #SmackDownLive”
Paul Heyman is the new creative director of #RAW
Eric Bischoff is the new creative director of #SDLive
AEW’s TV show is close to beginning production
And NJPW’s #G129 Climax is to kick off on July 6thIt is time to be excited to be a pro-wrestling fan!!! pic.twitter.com/OO9muwJVlz
— TheMMATrader (@TheMMATrader) June 27, 2019
“WHAT?! Eric Bischoff is running #SDLive, Paul Heyman is running #RAW! WOW,” Twitter user @HEELBuddy wrote.
Heyman and Bischoff behind the scenes at WWE again. With this and them putting up a PPV to steal viewers from an AEW charity show, I’d say that Vince is in full on war mode. I also want to bring up that WWF & WCW had enough respect to not run PPV’s at the same time. pic.twitter.com/DPY6kF1R4s
— WWERibTape (@WWERibTape) June 27, 2019
“Wow. Huge news. If Vince allows Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff to do their jobs and use their ideas, the shows can improve,” Paolo Esparza wrote. “Although I see Eric Bischoff more of a fit on Raw and Paul Heyman to Smackdown but that’s just me.”
Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff are running pro wrestling shows on TV. WWE has a competitor on TNT. Toy Story is the biggest movie in the country. The year is obviously 1995. https://t.co/VNAtlVhAi2
— Derek Montilla (@Cap_Kaveman) June 27, 2019
A few Twitter users were a bit more cautious about the news, including ComicBook’s own Ryan Droste.
Paul Heyman has a track record with WWE creative, albeit years ago, of success. That hire is intriguing. Eric Bischoff is seemingly out of nowhere and a questionable decision in 2019. I can make a case for Paul. For Eric? I really can’t. And he gets the show headed for FOX, too.
— Ryan Droste (@ryandroste) June 27, 2019
“Paul Heyman running Raw means absolutely nothing if Vince still micromanages everything and rewrites the shows himself last second. If he doesn’t do that(and i’ll believe it when it happens) that could be good news. Eric Bischoff running smackdown though…. Thats a yikes,” @Morselmouth wrote.
No word yet on when WWE’s new hirings will take effect
