WWE issued the following:
WWE® NAMES PAUL HEYMAN AND ERIC BISCHOFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS
Stamford, Conn., June 27, 2019 – WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced that it has named Paul Heyman as Executive Director of Monday Night Raw and Eric Bischoff as Executive Director of SmackDown Live, newly created positions reporting directly to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon.
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. 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.
With more than 30 years of experience in the sports entertainment industry, Heyman served as President of ECW from 1993-2001, securing pay-per-view distribution for the company as well as a national cable television deal with TNN. After his time with ECW, Heyman joined WWE’s Creative team and is widely credited with helping launch the careers of many current and former WWE Superstars.
Bischoff is a former WCW President and New York Times bestselling author. During his WCW career, Bischoff oversaw the signing of some of the biggest names in sports entertainment and helped create and develop the NWO storyline. He was also instrumental in securing a television deal for WCW Monday Nitro on TNT and WCW Thunder on TBS. After WCW, Bischoff co-founded Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment, a production company that launched TV reality shows and mobile games.
The announcement today that Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff have signed on with WWE to become Executive Directors of the Raw and Smackdown brands is a legitimate announcement, not a storyline situation.
WWE has been pursuing Heyman to come on officially in their corporate circles as far back as February,. An offer was issued to Heyman to come on board full-time as a top member of the creative team around the same time Bruce Prichard was brought back as a Senior Vice President. Heyman had been working on certain storylines and with certain talents, including Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar and others dating back far before then. He's been in the inner circle when it comes to the creative process for some time without an official title. He and WWE have been circling around this deal for a long time.
The Eric Bischoff deal came together within the last several weeks. Bischoff has been working on pre-production of the planned Netflix Hulk Hogan biography film and had a slew of personal appearances booked. Over the last week, he quietly began canceling those appearance dates, so that is likely when he came to terms with WWE. We are told he will be working directly with FOX as WWE builds their relationship with Smackdown's new home. To say this is a massive return to form for Bischoff is a grand understatement. We are told that WWE approached him about the role.
We are told that they will be overseeing all aspects of their individual series, answering directly to Vince McMahon. They are now the top of the pyramid, respectively, for Raw and Smackdown. Heyman is expected to continue his role as Brock Lesnar's advocate. There is no word yet whether Bischoff will appear on camera, but given how good of a performer he is, one would think it's just a matter of time.
