Exclusive: Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff Named WWE Executive Directors, Will Run WWE TV

[Dale]

WWE has named Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff as Executive Directors, Sports Illustrated has learned.

Heyman is set to become Executive Director of Monday Night Raw, while Bischoff will fill the same role for SmackDown Live. Both will report directly to WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon.

WWE confirmed the news with Sports Illustrated, with an official announcement expected later today.

The two positions are full-time executive roles, with no plans at the current time for this to be introduced as part of a TV storyline.

Heyman overseeing the creative development of Raw is scintillating news for wrestling fans. Best known as a pioneer for his innovative work as ECW president from 1993-2001, Heyman took the company to unfathomable heights on pay-per-view and through a national cable television deal with TNN. He is a must-see attraction as an on-screen performer as the advocate for Brock Lesnar, but Heyman’s longest-lasting work happens off-camera with the character development of many on the WWE roster.

Bischoff will also work directly with executives from FOX, which will air SmackDown Live beginning this October.

The former WCW president, immortal in the industry for igniting the New World Order storyline, started a wrestling war in 1995 against Vince McMahon’s WWE on Monday nights. With Bischoff in charge, WCW’s Nitroeven defeated McMahon’s Monday Night Raw in the television ratings for 83 consecutive weeks. Bischoff made his WWE debut in the summer of 2002, appearing as the Raw General Manager. His full-time run with the company ended in 2007, though he has made the occasional return, most recently during the Raw 25th Anniversary show in January of 2018.

Bischoff is a valuable addition for WWE. Most recently, he lent his expertise to Conrad Thompson’s 83 Weeks podcast on Westwood One, as well as delivered a TEDx Talk last November on how the news media is copying from the pro wrestling blueprint. A former New York Times bestselling author, Bischoff is also serving as a producer for the upcoming Hulk Hogan biopic, where Chris Hemsworth is set to play Hogan.

The move also allows WWE to further establish two distinct brands on Rawand SmackDown, ones that are immediately recognizable for their storytelling, wrestling, and ability to captivate on a weekly basis.

Well well, things are shaking up..

 

[Hidden Blaze]

This is some pretty lit news, look forward to seeing if anything will get to actually change now.

 

[Chris]

BRUH I'm not gonna get my hopes up really or anything bc their companies did go bankrupt...but there were a lot of circumstances out of their control that they won't have to worry about under the WWE monster with all the money they have available at the moment. This looks a little desperate with all the news about ratings being so low or whatever, but fuck I never really cared about ratings anyway. I've also never really been one to care about who was behind the scenes and blaming so and so for whatever unless it could easily be directly pointed towards them bc there's so many other people working on the shows usually than the big names we focus on, but I do expect some decent changes to follow from this whether they're good or bad. I also can't for sure say this isn't because of AEW, but part of me think changes like this would have happened regardless of them just from the low ratings.

Just really crazy to think about how the two figure heads from ECW and WCW are now under Vince, I know they've technically been under him before, but I think Heyman was the only one that had any kind of creative power, wasn't Bischoff just on-screen?

 

[Grimoire Lenin]

I see this as nothing but good news, tbh. Heyman's proven to be very good at motivating and getting talent to like ideas, and Bischoff is an ideas man that enjoys pushing the envelope.

 

[Chris]

I see this as nothing but good news, tbh. Heyman's proven to be very good at motivating and getting talent to like ideas, and Bischoff is an ideas man that enjoys pushing the envelope.

And contrary to popular opinion, I think both of them answering to Vince will only lead to good things if egos don't get in the way

 

[Grimoire Lenin]

And contrary to popular opinion, I think both of them answering to Vince will only lead to good things if egos don't get in the way

From what I've been reading, Heyman's been refusing a creative executive position for months. Something tells me Heymand and Bischoff managed to work a Creative Control clause into their contract.

 

[Jimmy King]

First Bruce, now Eric. If you work with Conrad Thompson on a podcast, eventually you’ll end up back in the WWE. Except in JR’s case it was the other way around

I’m actually excited about this tbh. Both have good minds for the business imo

 

[Keith]

This is unexpected news. But it is also exciting to see what will come from it. Both have good experience and knowledge to offer WWE. Both have limitations too. If their rained it I think they can do good things for WWE.

 

[Crippler]

LOL

 

[Chris]

WWE names Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff Executive Directors of Raw and SmackDown LIVE

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.

www.wwe.com

So WWE actually announced this on their website which is interesting bc not a lot of behind the scenes stuff get announced on it

 

[Smart Marx]

WWE names Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff Executive Directors of Raw and SmackDown LIVE

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.

www.wwe.com

So WWE actually announced this on their website which is interesting bc not a lot of behind the scenes stuff get announced on it

It's so surreal WWE has gotten so shaken up they're literally announcing to everyone that things are changing behind the scenes.

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.

Here's the video Cathy Kelley made announcing it on WWE's YouTube channel.

I'm all aboard this train. Heyman was always a genus when it came to booking and Bischoff knows how to produce TV.

Let's see where Easy E takes SmackDown in the Fox era and see if Heyman can bring Raw back to its roots of being Raw.

 

[Chris]

Let's just hope they don't go the "reboot" route like WCW did and have wrestlers sucking their dicks like they did for Bischoff and Russo the weeks leading up to them taking over

 

[Sabretooth]

Works for me. Hopefully they can use their genius in conjunction with WWE to produce a good program.

 

[Hidden Blaze]

I just hope Vince actually listen to their ideas and let them run things. Because I feel this could be really really good for both shows and can help out tons.

 

[Kim Jong Umb]

you think Eric will be on TV?