WWE has announced a significant change to their creative process.
In a statement issued today, it was announced that WWE has consolidated their creative teams from Raw and SmackDown into one group. Bruce Prichard will lead the group, while Paul Heyman will now focus on his role as an on-screen performer.
"In an effort to streamline our creative writing process for television, we have consolidated both teams from Raw and SmackDown into one group, led by Bruce Prichard," WWE announced. "Paul Heyman will concentrate on his role as an in-ring performer."
It was announced in June 2019 that Heyman had been named executive director of Raw. Eric Bischoff was named executive director of SmackDown then but was replaced by Prichard in October.
The decision, obviously, was a Vince McMahon call. One source noted that Vince McMahon had been "very upset" and openly "frustrated" with Monday Night Raw of late. That series has taken the hardest hit in terms of viewership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Back in April, McMahon commented on WWE's ratings being down during the company's 2020 first quarter earnings call, noting, "In terms of the why, it goes back to the product itself, and we are the only, you're right, sports environment at the moment. But again, it's a different feel completely than in front of a live audience. We were the first sports to have interaction with live audience as many, many years ago, it was yay, boo. That's the first interaction, and we don't have that now. But we're doing really well, I think, beyond anyone's expectations actually by doing the show without an audience, and everything we do is about the audience and how they react and what you read them and to fund and what have you that they all have by coming to WWE event. So that's really I think why and we need to be able to figure out ways, which we are in that, we will hear the performers putting the bad mouth on each other and so forth, which you never hear before, minimize some of the more creative words, we will say, but nonetheless, there are advantages and we can go outside of the environment too. So we don't want to stay there for two or three matches. You need some relief there. In one form or another, we're figuring that out as well. A lot of things to figure out in this sort of environment, what can you do and what resonates and things of that nature. So it's really, it's brand new for us and for anyone. So there is no audience and it's a different show, completely different show, and I think we're going to get there with...we may be able to take this negative and already turned it into somewhat of a positive as far as ratings and what have you concerned. SmackDown has virtually seen no change, very little. Raw has suffered, but not necessarily because of the environment. It's suffered because we bring in a lot of new talent into Raw and it takes a while to get these new talents over. We no longer have Brock Lesnar obviously, but we have a new champion and a lot of new performers coming out, it takes a while. So that's the reason. And how you use those performers in this story or that story, what have you. So with new talent, it's just going to take a little while. And then, so the Raw's ratings are kind of bounced back considerably."
Thus far, Raw's ratings have not bounced back.
Heyman was named the Executive Director of Monday Night Raw in June 2019. Eric Bischoff was named the same for Friday Night Smackdown, later replaced by Bruce Prichard. At the time, WWE announced that the Executive Director positions had been created to free up Vince McMahon so he did not have to be deep "in the weeds", so to speak, for the weekly WWE broadcasts. At that point, McMahon was also ramping up the return of XFL, which has shuttered in the wake of the pandemic with its parent company Alpha Entertainment filing for bankruptcy.
With Heyman's exit from his position on Raw, Bruce Prichard rises up to become one of the top executives for the company, which was always the plan.
There is no word yet whether consolidating the creative teams will lead to additional cuts to creative. WWE had been seeking a new Lead Writer in the wake of Christopher DeJoseph's exit from the Smackdown team and was in the process of new hires for creative within recent weeks.
In a statement issued today, it was announced that WWE has consolidated their creative teams from Raw and SmackDown into one group. Bruce Prichard will lead the group, while Paul Heyman will now focus on his role as an on-screen performer.
"In an effort to streamline our creative writing process for television, we have consolidated both teams from Raw and SmackDown into one group, led by Bruce Prichard," WWE announced. "Paul Heyman will concentrate on his role as an in-ring performer."
It was announced in June 2019 that Heyman had been named executive director of Raw. Eric Bischoff was named executive director of SmackDown then but was replaced by Prichard in October.
The decision, obviously, was a Vince McMahon call. One source noted that Vince McMahon had been "very upset" and openly "frustrated" with Monday Night Raw of late. That series has taken the hardest hit in terms of viewership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Back in April, McMahon commented on WWE's ratings being down during the company's 2020 first quarter earnings call, noting, "In terms of the why, it goes back to the product itself, and we are the only, you're right, sports environment at the moment. But again, it's a different feel completely than in front of a live audience. We were the first sports to have interaction with live audience as many, many years ago, it was yay, boo. That's the first interaction, and we don't have that now. But we're doing really well, I think, beyond anyone's expectations actually by doing the show without an audience, and everything we do is about the audience and how they react and what you read them and to fund and what have you that they all have by coming to WWE event. So that's really I think why and we need to be able to figure out ways, which we are in that, we will hear the performers putting the bad mouth on each other and so forth, which you never hear before, minimize some of the more creative words, we will say, but nonetheless, there are advantages and we can go outside of the environment too. So we don't want to stay there for two or three matches. You need some relief there. In one form or another, we're figuring that out as well. A lot of things to figure out in this sort of environment, what can you do and what resonates and things of that nature. So it's really, it's brand new for us and for anyone. So there is no audience and it's a different show, completely different show, and I think we're going to get there with...we may be able to take this negative and already turned it into somewhat of a positive as far as ratings and what have you concerned. SmackDown has virtually seen no change, very little. Raw has suffered, but not necessarily because of the environment. It's suffered because we bring in a lot of new talent into Raw and it takes a while to get these new talents over. We no longer have Brock Lesnar obviously, but we have a new champion and a lot of new performers coming out, it takes a while. So that's the reason. And how you use those performers in this story or that story, what have you. So with new talent, it's just going to take a little while. And then, so the Raw's ratings are kind of bounced back considerably."
Thus far, Raw's ratings have not bounced back.
Heyman was named the Executive Director of Monday Night Raw in June 2019. Eric Bischoff was named the same for Friday Night Smackdown, later replaced by Bruce Prichard. At the time, WWE announced that the Executive Director positions had been created to free up Vince McMahon so he did not have to be deep "in the weeds", so to speak, for the weekly WWE broadcasts. At that point, McMahon was also ramping up the return of XFL, which has shuttered in the wake of the pandemic with its parent company Alpha Entertainment filing for bankruptcy.
With Heyman's exit from his position on Raw, Bruce Prichard rises up to become one of the top executives for the company, which was always the plan.
There is no word yet whether consolidating the creative teams will lead to additional cuts to creative. WWE had been seeking a new Lead Writer in the wake of Christopher DeJoseph's exit from the Smackdown team and was in the process of new hires for creative within recent weeks.
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