Business has just picked up. In the wake of AEW and other promotions gaining momentum, WWE has given Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman new, major roles within the company. According to Sports Illustrated‘s Justin Barrasso, Heyman and Bischoff have been hired to become Executive Directors of WWE TV.
According to the report and a statement by WWE, Heyman will be the ED of Monday Night Raw and Bischoff will be ED of SmackDown Live. Vince McMahon has created these two positions for the former heads of ECW and WCW.
One of the major notes to take away from this is that these will not be TV roles but behind the camera opportunities.
Heyman currently operates as the advocate/manager of Brock Lesnar, and has lent his creative experience to WWE over the past few years. The booking leader of ECW until 2001, Heyman was a part of SmackDown’s creative process in the early 2000’s when the SmackDown Six were around. He recently oversaw Ronda Rousey’s overall work while she was with the company the past few years.
The last time Eric Bischoff had a major role in WWE was when he was the general manager of Raw. The former mad genius of WCW, Bischoff’s success helped bring about the Monday Night Wars. Bischoff’s last legitimate backstage role was with Impact Wrestling before leaving in 2013.
According to PW Insider, the news has been a long time coming. Since February, WWE has been pursuing Heyman to be a top member of the creative team. This was around the same time Bruce Prichard was named the Senior VP. As for Bischoff, his deal came together after talking over the last few weeks. He will be working directly with FOX, and both will have a Triple H/NXT-like role within the company.
Heading into Fyter Fest weekend, WWE has been dominating the news cycle. With WWE’s new deal with FOX coming soon and rumors of deflated ratings, this is a true Hail Mary move to spice things up within the company.
WWE, ECW and WCW have teamed up to take on AEW. A bold business move, Vince McMahon’s company will be seeing a lot of change as time goes on.
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