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Breaking News: WWE Hires Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff As Executive Directors of Raw and Smackdown

By John Canton • Published 27th June 2019
TJR Wrestling

There is some huge WWE news today. Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated has reported this morning Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff have been hired by WWE as Executive Directors. The new positions mean that Heyman is going to run Monday Night Raw and Bischoff is going to run Smackdown Live. They will both report to WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. Barrasso reported that a spokesperson from WWE has confirmed the news.

There are apparently no plans at the current time for this to be introduced as a storyline on WWE television.

Here’s the official announcement from WWE:

WWE 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 to 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.

Seth Rollins is excited about it.

There is also more information from PWInsider as well.

It is being reported by PWInsider that WWE wanted Heyman to re-join the creative team since February around the same time as when Bruce Prichard returned to the company as a Senior Vice President. Heyman has been working behind the scenes with specific talents, but this move puts him back in a big role on the creative team on Raw.

The Bischoff deal, according to PWInsider, happened in the last several weeks. Bischoff was working on the Hulk Hogan/Netflix/WWE biography film. Bischoff had been doing personal appearances, but then he canceled those and took this job with WWE.

We will update this as we learn more about it.

TJR Thougths: My initial thoughts are excitement. A change in the WWE main roster product was needed. I think a lot of us can agree that WWE’s on-screen product was getting stale this year. Whether Vince really lets Heyman and Bischoff loose or not, I don’t know. All three men have a lifetime of experience in the wrestling business, so hopefully we get to see a better product in the weeks and months ahead.