Eric Bischoff OUT As WWE ‘SmackDown’ Executive Director – Who Is His Replacement?

Originally this past year, it was announced that Eric Bischoff would be the executive director of SmackDown Live, but in a stunning turn of events that is not going to be the case going forward.

WWE announced earlier today that the executive director of SmackDown Live will be none other than Bruce Prichard.

WWE made this announcement on Twitter and mentioned that he will be reporting directly to the WWE CEO Vince McMahon.

Also in the statement, WWE would say that, “Prichard will oversee the creative development of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX and ensure integration across all platforms and lines of business.”

BREAKING: @bruceprichard has been announced as the Executive Director of Friday Night #SmackDown, reporting directly to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon.https://t.co/EPYdp4Vdya

— WWE (@WWE) October 15, 2019

According to Mike Johnson from PWInsider, Bischoff will not be a part of the creative process of the shows in any way shape or form and will be leaving the company entirely.

Prichard has been around the industry for 40 years and this will mark his third stint with WWE. Bruce Prichard has always been a influential member of the creative department within the company for decades and has worked closely with Vince McMahon in the 90’s and 2000’s until 2008 when he was ultimately let go.

Bruce Prichard also created a podcast along with Conrad Thompson called, Something To Wrestle With, in August 2016 where they would discuss wrestling related topics, events and memorable wrestling moments and matches.

Paul Heyman was named Executive Director of Monday Night Raw and Eric Bischoff was named Executive Director of SmackDown Live back in July. Ever since then, Raw has gotten more edgier with storylines such as Maria Kanellis’ pregnancy angle with her husband Mike Kanellis and most recently the love triangle between Lana, Rusev and Bobby Lashley and Bray Wyatt’s “Fiend” gimmick.

SmackDown Live hasn’t had as much creative changes to the show since they first brought Bischoff on board, however there have been much speculation that he never really had a chance to take control of the show like Heyman did.