Late on Thursday, WWE announced they were “streamlining their creative writing process
for television” and “have consolidated both teams from Raw and SmackDown into one
group.”
Which was a fancy way of saying Bruce Prichard - who’s been heading up SmackDown since
October - now oversees Raw as well, and Paul Heyman is out of a job.
Heyman was first announced as the Executive Director of Raw just under a year ago in late
June, along with Eric Bischoff becoming the Executive Director of SmackDown.
Even with the excitement around Heyman getting such a prominent creative spot, which fans
have wanted for the decade and a half since he was fired from the ECW revival in 2006,
there was a heavy dose of speculative pessimism.
We’ve been here multiple times before, where Heyman starts off well, but, over time, keeps
butting heads with McMahon.
Eventually Vince finally decides he’s had enough of Heyman’s abrasive persona, and
gets rid of him.
PWInsider, WrestleVotes and WrestlingNews.co initially reported Heyman’s removal from
Raw was because of the show’s record low ratings in recent months during the pandemic,
and that someone needed to take the fall - just like Bischoff did for SmackDown’s move to
Fox last October.
But the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is now suggesting Heyman’s firing was predestined
pandemic or not, and might’ve always been part of a larger plan.
Apparently people in WWE were “shocked it took this long.
Everyone knew it was coming.
Vince did not like Paul.”
Sports Illustrated is also reporting there wasn’t one specific incident that led to
McMahon finally getting rid of Heyman a third time, “but rather a difference in philosophy
that was magnified while working together so closely.”
Vince started 2020 with two other big projects: expanding NXT globally and relaunching the
XFL - which were both scuppered by the global pandemic.
This meant McMahon started focusing more in on Raw, growing impatient with Heyman’s
vision of pushing younger talent - even though he had initially agreed to Paul’s “18
months or longer” plan to get over new stars last June.
“Raw under Heyman was a long-term play.”
Fightful Select writes that Heyman “did his best to push Drew McIntyre, Humberto Carrillo,
Angel Garza, Buddy Murphy, and Apollo Crews” and that he was a “driving force” behind
getting the Latino wrestlers to do lucha together.
Some of these worked, like McIntyre and Murphy.
Others, like Ricochet and Cedric Alexander, didn’t as McMahon “repeatedly pulled the
plug on” them.
Apparently there was even a joke going around backstage that back in 2004, Heyman built
SmackDown around the SmackDown Six.
But now, on 2020 Raw, he was building the brand around the SmackDown “catering crew”
- as for the previous year, AOP, Andrade, Zelina Vega, Aleister Black and Buddy Murphy
would just hang out in catering as creative had nothing for them.
Sports Illustrated adds that of the 10 currently active Raw wrestlers they spoke to, each one
said they highly valued his guidance, and they very much hope he’ll still be at television
to help critique their work.
As WWE’s statement says they now only intend to use him as an onscreen character - probably
in his previous role as Brock Lesnar’s manager, though - that seems unlikely.
Instead, those Paul Heyman guys and gals are reportedly very worried backstage, with McIntyre
and the Street Profits considered safe, but everyone else, from Apollo Crews as US Champion,
Austin Theory joining the Seth Rollins faction and Shayna Baszler, is very concerned.
But in the shock and criticism of Heyman’s removal, a major part of this story is being
overlooked…
Make no mistake about it, the Prichard rise is an incredibly significant part of this
story, as it doesn’t just hint towards some larger backstage politicking over the last
year, but also at what to expect from the new McMahon-Prichard era WWE properly begins
after Sunday’s Backlash.
Sports Illustrated described Prichard, the often called ‘yes man’ who will be replacing
Heyman, as being able to “present ideas to McMahon better than anyone else in creative.”
The article notes Heyman knows what fans want, but Bruce knows what Vince wants.
And, ultimately, McMahon is WWE’s real audience.
Not us.
Prichard was one of Vince’s right hand men in WWE from 1987 all the way through until
2008.
He launched his very successful Something to Wrestle With podcast in 2016, going into
classic backstage WWE stories in depth, mostly still towing the company line.
His work got him a job back in WWE in February last year as Senior Vice President - where,
at the time, PWInsider reported the plan will be for him to eventually become one of the
top executives in the company.
He would have presumably been involved in the hire of Heyman and Bischoff to oversee
Raw and SmackDown last June as a result, potentially part of a larger Game of Thrones style plot
to replace them with himself.
And the timing of his and McMahon’s ‘creative streamlining’ appears even more machiavellian.
WWE’s Q2 investors report is next month, where Vince will have to answer questions
about Raw’s record low ratings.
Just like the mass talent releases in April before the Q1 earnings call, how he fired
his right and left hand people George Barrios and Michelle Wilson in January, a week before
the Q4 call, and Bischoff being let go before last October’s Q3 report, Vince has consistently
had a sacrificial lamb to blame.
It’s almost like people are put in these positions with that strategy in mind ahead
of time.
If it works out, great.
McMahon is the genius for putting them there.
If it doesn’t, McMahon has someone to blame.
Sports Illustrated also points out that WWE programming is expected to see some short-term
ratings gains as lockdown easing could potentially allow live audiences soon.
Just as Hulk Hogan and Triple H have done in the past, timing their returns with episodes
they know will get a huge ratings bump regardless of their involvement, Vince and Prichard could
see this to receive false-positive credit of turning the declining viewership around.
What do you think about the backstage politicking in WWE?
Let me know in the comments below because I’ll be replying from BEYOND THE WALL WHERE
MY PEOPLE LIVE FREE AND KNEEL TO NO MCMAHON!
So to see what we have to look forward to with the Prichard-era of Raw, here’s last
night’s episode of SmackDown… in about 5 minutes.
The show opened on the controversial Jeff Hardy and Sheamus contract signing that had
been leaked earlier in the week.
Leak, being the operative word there.
Furthering the whole “junkie” storyline, which is Sheamus’ word of the day!, The
Celtic Warrior forced Hardy to take a urine test to prove Jeff hadn’t been taking any
pills or alcohol.
Which Hardy did, so he could throw the urine into Sheamus’ face.
Meaning Sheamus never signed the contract.
But that’s not the only plot hole!
After only just stating that results can take up to 24 hours to receive, a quick ad break
later saw a doctor - who you can hire on Fiverr [IMAGE] - let Sheamus know the results came
back negative.
Even though he had nothing to test, because all the sample urine was thrown into Sheamus’
face.
Thankfully the rest of the episode was much better.
Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura beat The New Day took on next in a fine match to get over The
Artist Collective as new title challengers with The Forgotten Sons push seemingly being
dropped following Jaxson Ryker’s social media posts critiquing the Black Lives Matter
movement - which Big E and Kofi Kingston neatly paid tribute to on their ring attire.
The Black Lives Matter movement, that is.
Not Jaxson Ryker’s tweets.
After an awesome video package putting over how important the Intercontinental Championship
is, Daniel Bryan took on AJ Styles in the tournament finals in an incredible, PPV level
match that went through 3 commercial breaks, with the story throughout being Bryan’s
knee vs AJ’s arm, the limbs they use in their finishing moves: the Yes Lock and the
Calf Crusher.
In the end, Bryan had AJ lined up for the running knee, but AJ countered, hitting Bryan
directly with the Styles Clash before hitting the Phenomenal Forearm for the clean win,
putting him over both strongly and decisively.
This should’ve been the main event.
Bayley & Sasha Banks celebrated their tag team titles win next, complete with balloons
and an over-excited Bayley.
The two cut the standard “we told you so” promo, before they’re interrupted by Bliss
& Cross in person and the IIconics on the tron, leading to Bliss & Cross beating up
Bayley & Banks.
Miz & Morrison attempted to debut a new song, before it was interrupted by Braun Strowman’s
entrance for the main event - Strowman & Heavy Machinery vs Ziggler and Miz & Morrison in
a six man tag.
Yay, Tucker’s back!
It’s a shame that wasn’t a bigger deal.
In a genius bit of booking, King Corbin appeared on the tron and tried talking to Mandy Rose,
saying she was fantasizing about being with him instead, which led to Otis immediately
leaving the match to protect her.
This achieved multiple things - furthering the Corbin/Otis feud, it’s yet another moment
where Otis has prioritised Mandy over Tucker in case that feud ever happens, it puts Strowman
and Tucker at a disadvantage in the match, and it mimics the Universal title handicap
match at Backlash.
Which was all completely undone when Otis strolled back out with Mandy for the hot tag
and the win off a Caterpillar onto Ziggler.
Which was fun, but ultimately didn’t achieve anything and was a poor go-home angle for
Backlash.
So that was SmackDown in about 5 minutes, let me know what you thought of the show in
the comments!
This was an ok episode, which built the feuds effectively, but it lacked a killer cliffhanger
angle a go-home show needs.
However, AJ vs Daniel Bryan was so good, the whole episode is elevated to a SmackTastic
4/5.
What is going on in WWE?
Watch Luke and Laurie discuss Paul Heyman’s firing from Raw by clicking the WrestleTalk
Podcast on the right!
And will we see a Rated RKO reunion?
Watch our Backlash predictions by clicking the video below that!
And if you enjoy what we do here, you can follow me on Twitter @OliDavis and @WrestleTalk_TV!
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that, was wrestling.