Here’s your news for October 16 2019.
We're starting off with some huge news from WWE today, as the company has confirmed that Eric
Bischoff has been replaced as Executive Director of Smack Down by Bruce Prichard.
In a statement, WWE confirmed the news, stating.
“WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced that it has named Bruce Prichard the Executive
Director of Friday Night SmackDown, reporting directly to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon.
Prichard will oversee the creative development of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX and ensure
integration across all platforms and lines of business, replacing Eric Bischoff.
Prichard brings nearly 40 years of experience in sports entertainment with an extensive background in
character development and creative storytelling. Over the course of his career, Prichard has served in a
variety of roles including announcer, producer, agent and on-screen personality. Earlier this year,
Prichard returned to WWE as a member of the company’s creative team.”
Prichard is no stranger to the WWE schedule, working with the company off and on since the late 1980s,
whilst Bischoff was with the company from 2002-2005 and returned this past February.
In June, WWE announced that Bischoff, alongside Paul Heyman would be working as the Executive
Directors of SmackDown and RAW respectively, hyping that "the creation of these two roles further
establishes WWE's ability to continuously reinvent its global brand, while providing
two different creative processes for its flagship shows."
Though Bischoff only got the job in June, his firing wasn't a shock to people according to a report by
f4Online.com, who reported that the departure came early yesterday morning.
The PW Insider added that Bischoff was informed of his release during
SmackDown creative meeting at WWE HQ in Stamford, Connecticut.
Regarding Prichard, the press release did acknowledge that the former Brother Love
was hired to work the creative team, but didn't mention that Prichard was
also hired to work as Senior Vice President just one month later.
When Bischoff was hired as SmackDown's Executive Director back in June, the plan was for
the WCW magnate to work closely with the FOX Network officials, whilst it was
also reported that it would be Prichard who would help him adapt to the new role.
Interestingly, it was reportedly Prichard himself who pushed for Bischoff to get the
Executive Director role in the first place, a role he has now been given.
According to Dave Meltzer, Prichard will alongside Smack Down head writer Ed Koskey
as the main people in charge of the blue brand from now on,
and that Prichard had been working closely with Bischoff until the day of his departure.
John Pollock of Post Wrestling reported that Prichard, a long- time regular backstage,
has kept attending both RAW and SmackDown recently, despite the brand split.
Speaking of which, there's no word yet on what influence FOX had when it came to WWE firing Bischoff,
and there's also no news on what Bischoff's future holds now that he has been released yet again.
PWInsider noted that Bischoff likely does not have the standard 90-day non-compete clause in his
contract because he was an executive, not a talent, and he could appear
in another promotion if he wanted
What we do know however, is that Bischoff recently moved his family from Wyoming
to Connecticut to be closer to WWE HQ, and it's currently unclear whether they still have
their Wyoming property, or if they'll be staying in Connecticut.
According to Bryan Alrevez of Wrestling Observer Live, Bischoff wasn't exactly the most popular
person on SmackDown, and there were some people working under him who wanted him to quit.
Bischoff was allegedly hard to get in touch with, and difficult to find backstage, though Alverez said
that Eric could often be found in catering, an barely did anything productive backstage.
Critics of Bischoff have also claimed that he didn't know many of the Superstars
and wasn't making an effort to learn.
Bischoff himself didn't exactly help himself on this one, admitting in interviews that he had to
spend a lot of time catching up with the product that he wasn't too familiar with.
On Wrestling Observer Live, Alverez said he'd heard zero good things about Bischoff,
and that his sources claimed that Bischoff would show up for meetings
then quickly vanish so no-one could talk to him.
When Bischoff couldn't be found, folks backstage would reportedly claim
claim that Prichard was the one actually running the show, which must have helped WWE
when they were deciding Bischoff's replacement.
When he was first hired, some believed Bischoff was a scapegoat to take the blame by WWE when
reporting any issues to FOX, and though some claim that SmackDown's viewing
figures have led to his departure, that seems unlikely.
For starters, SmackDown has only been on FOX for two weeks now, and whilst the October 4th debut
did an impressive 3.88 million viewers, it was naturally expected for the week
after to drop considerably.
Bischoff may be gone now, but according to Dave Meltzer, who may be the first
of many expected releases and changes, though it seems Eric is putting on a good
public face, as he took to Twitter to show his support for his replacement.
It's unclear what the future holds for Bischoff now, but with so many former WWE Superstars
already in AEW, could the former Executive Director be next? Only time will tell.
Bischoff's departure may be the big news of the day, but there are other stories
one of which concerning Universal Champion Seth Rollins.
According to Dave Meltzer, Rollins is not scheduled backstage to work two matches
at WWE Crown Jewel later this month, and will be removed from the Team Hogan
Vs. Team Flair match he is currently in.
On this week's RAW, WWE announced that Rollins will defend the Universal title
once again against Bray Wyatt, this time in a Falls Count Any where match.
Rollins, who is currently captaining Team Hogan with Rusev, and Ricochet, will reportedly
be removed from the match in the coming weeks, though the exact reason is unclear.
Whoever replaces Rollins will have a tough time, as team Hogan will face team Flair's Randy Orton,
Shinsuke Nakamura, King Corbin, Bobby Lashley and a mystery
opponent on Halloween night, at Crown Jewel.
Well this week's RAW may have seen the end of the on- screen 2019 draft,
but that hasn't stopped some Superstars from still being moved around.
On the WWE Backstage special preview episode that aired last night, Triple H confirmed that
Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross had been traded to SmackDown, though we currently
don't know what RAW got in return.
Joining the Blue brand's women's division, Bliss and Cross will join SmackDown Women's
Champion Bayley, as well as Lacey Evans and former 24/7 Champions Tamina and Carmella.
Bliss and Cross are no strangers to gold themselves, holding the WWE Women's Tag Titles
from the August 5th edition of RAW, until losing the gold
to the Kabuki Warriors on October 6th at Hell in a Cell.
In addition, Bliss is a five-time Women's champion as a singles star, being the first women
to capture the Women's gold for both RAW and SmackDown.
During the draft, Bliss was a third-round pick, whilst Cross was chosen by RAW
in the fourth round, of the first night of the draft on October 11th.
The official launch of WWE Backstage will begin on November 5th at 11pm Eastern
on FS1, so fans should expect plenty more surprises from the new show very soon.
Whilst this latest WWE draft has brought some excitement back to RAW and SmackDown
the execution of the draft has been panned by both critics and fans.
During the two nights, WWE tried to make the draft seem like an actual sports draft, complete with
competing war rooms for FOX and USA, but it ended up looking nothing like an actual draft,
and instead was Stephanie McMahon announcing a few names in between matches.
This poor execution has been reflected in the viewing figures, which showed a general lack
of interest from fans, and a desire to see far more interesting sports programming at the time.
This week's RAW drew just 2.28 million viewers, down considerably from
past specials like the Superstar shakeup.
Breaking this number down, Hour one started strong with 2.52 million, but that fell
to 2.32 million in hour two, resting on a low 2 million for hour three.
It's interesting that fans hated on the Wild Card rule, but also seem to be hating
on the draft, and WWE will need to think of something big to get fans back on board.
One big thing the company has coming up, though which has already been met
with controversy, is Crown Jewel, which will take place on October 31st.
In one of the most high-profile matches, Boxing star Tyson Fury will take on Braun Strowman
and according to reports, is set to make $15 million from the one match.
Fury, who has said he wanted to work with WWE years ago, may have some worries
about opening up an old boxing cut on his face, which could keep him from a big money
fight in February, but it seems the risks are worth it for that big money.
Whilst Fury wanted to work with WWE in the past, it seems that WWE have only
now been able to afford him, thanks to the deal with Saudi Arabia.
Fury's boxing promoter has said he wasn't told about the deal ahead of time, and although
there is plenty of worry about Fury's getting hurt before his fight in February,
the Gypsy King has recently been spotted in the Performance Center.
As for Strowman, we can't imagine that he'll be getting paid nearly as much
though it's likely he's been told to pull his punches ahead of the fight.
Though Fury will be making his WWE debut in Riyadh, he isn't the only one, as Cain Velasquez
will challenge for the WWE title against his old UFC foe Brock Lesnar.
Speaking on the Ariel Helwani show, the now-retired fighter said he is still going to work
for Triple-A, and has one more appearance for the Lucha Libre
promotion that WWE has allowed. He said
"AAA, I’m still going to compete in one of their shows. That is just awesome that WWE went ahead
gave me the green light to compete in one of their shows at AAA’s choosing."
Velasquez was supposed to appear at a recently Triple-A show
in Los Angeles, before the event was canceled.
Now, it seems that the former UFC Heavyweight Champion still has one more commitment before he
fully joins WWE, and that the company is giving their support to the venture.
Back to RAW now, and Bray Wyatt continues to be one of the most intriguing stars in recent history,
despite losing a great deal of momentum over the last few weeks.
On this week's edition of the red brand, Universal Champion Seth Rollins, who will face the Fiend at
Crown Jewel, burned the Firefly Fun House to the ground, in a move that many said made Seth
look more like a heel than he has done in quite some time.
On Twitter, Wyatt responded to the Architect's Actions, saying he forgives Rollins, but wanted
to know how he found the Fun House in the first place.
In response, Seth Rollins said he wanted vengeance, not forgiveness, and claimed that
it was Wyatt himself who brought him to this point in his career.
The pair are set to face off at Crown Jewel, in a rematch from their Hell in a Cell
bout, that fans are still angry about over the finish.
In case you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, the Cell match
was stopped by referee Rod Zapata, who claimed Wyatt was unable to compete
though many fans have said it ended on a Disqualification.
After David Weissman asked whether their Falls Count Any where match in Riyadh will end
in a DQ, ignoring the fact that the Cell match ended via referee stoppage, Rollins responded
with a gif of The Undertaker throwing Mankind from the Cell roof in 1998,
claiming the ref should have stopped the match then.
A cheeky bit of trolling by the Universal Champion, it seems that fans aren't going to let
Rollins live down the Hell in a Cell match any time soon, and as long as he keeps defending
WWE's creative decision, there will be fans ready to criticize him.
From one controversial Superstar to another now, as Jimmy Uso, alongside his brother Jey
and Naomi, haven't been seen on WWE TV following Jimmy's DUI arrest over the Summer.
Recently, however, the trio have been spotted backstage at WWE events, but according
to f4wonline, there are no creative plans for them regarding their return.
In fact, the report states that there isn't even a decision on what brand they'll be on,
which is why the former Tag Champions and former Smack Down Women's Champion
weren't mentioned at all during the recent draft.
One person who knows what it feels like to go undrafted is Luke Harper
who remains a free agent despite a recent dominant display.
After returning at Clash of Champions, Harper worked effectively with his Bludgeon
Brother Erick Rowan, but whilst Rowan was drafted
to RAW in the draft, Harper remains without a brand.
Earlier this year, the former Intercontinental Champion publicly announced his desire to leave the
company, and despite his recent return, many believe Harper still wants out
and going undrafted probably won't convince him to stay.
Good New For Finn Balor fans as has been announced for his first set
of NXT house shows since returning to the brand.
Balor will be in action at all four shows on NXT's Pacific Northwest
house show loop this weekend. The locations for the shows are:
10/17 #NXTPortland
10/18 #NXTSeattle
10/19 #NXTVancouver
10/20 #NXTKelowna
Finn Balor is certainly a big time draw for those live NXT shows
Hopefully, he will bring new interest to the brand
And finally today we're looking ahead to December, as the holidays are just around the corner.
Anyone who has worked on Christmas Day knows that it can be a depressing time to say the least,
but it seems the WWE Superstars will get to spend a few more days with their families this year.
According to Wrestle Votes, the December 23rd edition of RAW will be pre-taped on December 17th
in Sioux City, Iowa, which will allow the entire roster to get a break from the 22nd to the 26th.
The 27th of December will be on a Friday this year, so SmackDown will run live on FOX as usual,
but this is certainly a better option than two years ago, when WWE had their Superstars
work on a Christmas Day edition of RAW, which wasn't received well by fans.
Instead, it's great to see WWE allowing their SUperstars some time away to enjoy
the holidays at home with their loved ones, and we're confident a few days
in the Performance Center will help them lose those extra holiday pounds.