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BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

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BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby Messiah » Jun 27, '19, 8:25 am

https://www.si.com/wrestling/2019/06/27 ... ce-mcmahon

WWE has named Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff as Executive Directors, Sports Illustrated has learned.

Heyman is set to become Executive Director of Monday Night Raw, while Bischoff will fill the same role for SmackDown Live. Both will report directly to WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon.

WWE confirmed the news with Sports Illustrated, with an official announcement expected later today.

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.


Now, these two have to report to McMahon so that doesn't necessarily guarantee things will get drastically better. But would Heyman, who has said he wouldn't work with McMahon creatively again, do this if he wasn't given some assurance he would have a lot more leeway? And really, McMahon's gotta start preparing for retirement at some point.

WWE has been terrible for a long time, but by all accounts its even been worse these last 6 months or so. At the very least, this is the kind of change that will spark up something. I don't care much for Bischoff, but it isn't present-day McMahon at least. And Heyman, if Heyman is allowed to do Heyman, could create an insane show on Raw albeit 3 hours will make it hard to watch no matter what

The source also says when SmackDown comes to Fox, Bischoff will work directly with the network. And it makes sense. WWE can't fuck around with Fox. You can tell WWE is desperate to find a solution to their declining popularity/attendance/creative/etc.
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby Messiah » Jun 27, '19, 8:40 am

This is insane news if you think about it. I woke up and was like WTF, I'm pretty excited.

Fall is about to be crazy for pro wrestling fans. AEW debuts on TV on TNT. Heyman in charge of Raw creative. Bischoff in charge of SmackDown creative. NXT still exists. And of course there is NJPW, which I don't watch but everyone says is awesome so there ya go.

LIS, this doesn't mean Raw and SmackDown will suddenly get better out of nowhere and really there is no guarantee Bischoff will be much better than McMahon, but its still the fact that it is a different mind that isn't McMahon that is exciting. Because lets be honest, with the talent the WWE has, it shouldn't take much to make a great show. I mean look at NXT. NXT is still great, but the stories aren't as good (right now anyway) as they were 2-3 years ago. But its still a very good show because they tell simple enough stories over a reasonable amount of time and let guys compete in matches that have purpose behind them. No reason Raw and SmackDown shouldn't have that same kind of flow.
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby Hanley! » Jun 29, '19, 4:28 am

Vince finally responding to people who think he's out of touch by hiring two guys who ran wrestling companies that went out of business 20 years ago. Fuck, that's funny.

I mean, Vince is the worst so if they have any real creative power, the show will have to get at least a little better. But they probably won't have any real power. WWE just want to generate a buzz; to make people think that things will change. That's why they've hired the most famous creative minds in wrestling (with the highest price tag) rather than the best wrestling minds. They want fans to think things are going to change without having to actually change anything.

Heyman has been working there in a creative capacity for the last couple of years so he has already broken that promise. This won't be much different than when they told fans that "you are the authority" last year. It means nothing.

And even if it did, the last thing WWE needs is to cling even harder to the 90s. Move with the times for fuck sake. How appropriate with Bischoff back in the picture that WWE are doing whatever they can to present themselves as the Millionaires Club to AEW's New Blood, wrongly thinking that the Millionaires Club should be the heroes of that story.
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby Messiah » Jun 29, '19, 1:32 pm

I understand what you are saying and to an extent I agree, but I don't think there is an issue going back to the well with Heyman and Bischoff.

Triple H is a 90s guy and barely younger than Heyman (4 years), and yet NXT is still some of the best product in wrestling around. I know it's different in the fact Triple H was a wrestler before he got behind the scenes, but it shows that you don't need to reinvent the wheel to produce a good wrestling show. NXT doesn't do anything overly unique. They just have a good grasp of stories and logical booking (although lately I've been soured on it because of the repetitive main events - with so few TakeOvers, we don't need to see the same main event 3 straight times regardless if the stipulation is changed).

By all accounts Heyman and Bischoff will have the same power over Raw and SmackDown as Triple H does in NXT, as in McMahon will definitely have a say to some extent (Heyman isn't just going to not push someone like Reigns for example) but otherwise will have control over presentation and creative direction. You could be right that hardly anything changes, but I don't know. I think it is worth having hope. WWE's collection of talent is by far the best in the world. If Heyman and Bischoff can bring forth personality to the group of wrestlers on their roster and combine it with logical stories? The show will be 100x better off that alone.
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby Hanley! » Jun 29, '19, 4:32 pm

I agree that NXT has lost something. The weekly show doesn't sound very interesting these days and while the Takeovers are still consistently good, they don't have the spark they once did. I used to be dragged in by the characters and emotional storylines, but nowadays it seems to be good wrestling action without anything more behind it. The last time I really felt invested in NXT was the show with the first Gargano v Ciampa Takeover match.

By most accounts, Vince just isn't that interested or engaged with NXT. That's why Triple H has freedom to do what he wants with the product: Vince is occupied with Raw and Smackdown. I don't think Heyman and Bischoff will ever have that kind of freedom with the main roster, because Vince is going to interfere and overrule them constantly. Heyman already quit as head of creative for a WWE brand twice for this very reason. I wouldn't be surprised to see him do it again.

But if they do have input, I believe they can make the shows better. Bischoff is actually pretty terrible at logical storytelling, but he's been good in the past at big picture ideas so he might at least be able to come up with some ideas to freshen up the brand. But he'll have to be given licence to do so, and WWE seem even more restrictive about their branding these days than their storytelling. Heyman is a great creative mind when given a chance, so if he's given full control (and I don't think there's any hope of that) he'll make it a good show through force of will. Though I don't think he's going to break any new ground. He'd just give us a good traditional wrestling show, similar to how you described NXT.

I do agree that WWE has the best wrestling roster probably of all time right now. Though in terms of the absolute elite, New Japan blows them away. But even with a great roster, it's been ages since WWE delivered a great product, or even just a standard of wrestling action that showcases their rosters talents. I spent years hoping WWE would get better, and while I still think it would be good if they turned things around, it's not something that I feel I need to worry about anymore. It is just too easy to access good wrestling right now.

AEW getting a live weekly show on prime time provides a direct substitute to the likes of Raw. New Japan has been killing it and is more accessible than ever. There are even a bunch of great indy promotions with their own streaming services. So I'm just going to presume from now on that WWE is going to suck for the foreseeable future. But as soon as it gets a buzz again and I see you and vader and others talking about the great stuff on the show, I'll come back and give it a try. I do want the product to be better.

That being said, if we are entering another wrestling war, the bullying attitude of Vince McMahon along with slimy bullshit like the Saudi Arabia shows is going to make it very easy to support the other side.
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby Messiah » Jul 01, '19, 9:23 pm

Well, FWIW, apparently Raw was great tonight.

I didn't watch it but I just caught AJ Styles heel turn and I must say, they pulled it off incredibly well. The Club running Raw in pursuit of taking Ricochet's US Championship (which they seem to be making a big deal out of) could be a lot of fun.

I will admit I'm rooting for the WWE. I definitely get what you are saying though about so much wrestling being available and I agree the business is in a great spot right now. But with so many of my favorites in the WWE I'm pretty biased towards them.
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby Everlong » Jul 05, '19, 2:23 pm

This is nuts. It's different, for sure, but not necessarily the kind of different where I'm like, "this is going to be better."

I'm actually interested in checking out AEW when it debuts on TNT. It's been a long time since there's been a company that I thought could actually have an interesting product on TV. TNA did it for a very brief amount of time but that company was run so poorly. Heck, does Impact even exist any more?
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby The Legend » Jul 06, '19, 3:02 pm

In addition to Heyman and Bischoff, WWE is also in the process of abandoning the PG TV rating as well to try and grab the teenage audience ahead of AEW entering the frame. This week on RAW, Lashley and Strowman crashed through the set to massive pyro explosions (apparently, WWE is also designing new sets to be debuted soon), which made Corey Graves shout out Holy Shit! on air. Then on SD, Samoa Joe demanded that Kofi shake his hand, instead Kofi flipped him off, in a move that was originally obscured by Joe's head in front of the camera, but was then shown briefly.

I'll give WWE credit, for a company that has been blissfully ignorant about issues connecting with fans for a while now, they really seem to be acknowledging their issues. They put on one of their better PPV's in a while with Stomping Grounds (it was brilliantly booked almost from top to bottom) and have since done a lot to try and improve the product.

Not all of it has hit the right notes for me. For example, Kofi is probably the last person on the roster who should be flipping anyone off from a character stand point, and on RAW they did this random and weird pregnancy angle with Maria and Mike Kanellis, where Maria said she was pregnant, but then said Mike wasn't man enough to get her pregnant and that Becky probably got her pregnant. That was probably all of the worst attributes of the Attitude Era wrapped up into one, but it also was apparently just petty, because the Kanellis' didn't tell WWE that she was pregnant again in real life before signing five year deals with the company.
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby AkydefGoldberg » Jul 16, '19, 4:54 am

Out of the two, you'd back Heyman's story direction than Bischoff's, the latter might be more valuable from an executive position in terms of engagement with TV partners and stakeholders etc but this might just be Vince showing he's keen to change but really, it's business as usual.
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby The Legend » Jul 18, '19, 8:05 am

I'm not sure what to make of this for RAW or Heyman, but apparently Bischoff on SD isn't a creative position and he doesn't have anything to do with storylines. Instead, he's more of a liaison between WWE and Fox on business terms as they switch networks this fall.
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Re: BREAKING NEWS: Eric Bischoff to run SmackDown, Paul Heyman to run Raw (in real life, not storyline)

Postby Hanley! » Jul 27, '19, 5:56 pm

I'm excited to hear wrestling fans credit Paul Heyman with every half decent episode of Raw, and then blame Vince when the show sucks again the following week.
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