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The biggest news of the week is the surprising breaking story that Eric Bischoff has been replaced as the Executive Director of WWE SmackDown by Bruce Prichard, and rumors are that Bischoff is finished with WWE after only several months.
Bischoff was hired by WWE over the summer to help spearhead SmackDown's premiere on FOX, but after just two episodes of the show on the new network, the former President of WCW is finished with the company and assuming his role will be Vince McMahon's longtime right-hand man Bruce Prichard.
Bischoff's future following his WWE release remains uncertain, but given everything we know about his departure from the company, let's look at five reasons why he might have been released from SmackDown.
#5 Week two of SmackDown on FOX lost 1 million viewers
One of the most anticipated premieres in WWE history was that of SmackDown's premiere on FOX on October 4th, and the show was certainly a newsworthy event, featuring the crowning of a new WWE Champion in Brock Lesnar, plus appearances by celebrities as well as WWE Hall of Famers and legends.
Ahead of SmackDown's move to FOX, WWE announced during the summer that Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff had been hired to be the new Executive Directors of Raw and SmackDown, respectively.
When it came time for SmackDown to premiere on FOX, the show took in a great number averaging nearly 4 million viewers. However, in its second week on FOX, SmackDown lost one million viewers, which certainly had to be seen as a bad sign by WWE, especially considering the company, for weeks, had been hyping the 2019 roster draft kicking off on the broadcast.
With such a big loss of viewers in the second week of SmackDown on FOX, WWE might have been looking to place the blame on someone for the dramatic viewership loss, and Eric Bischoff might have been that scapegoat.
#4 Eric Bischoff was not very present during SmackDown tapings
Details are still emerging surrounding the unexpected release of Eric Bischoff as the Executive Director of WWE SmackDown, but rumors are swirling nevertheless. Part of the reason why Bischoff might be gone is due to his punctuality in the new role.
At the same time WWE announced the hiring of Bischoff as the new SmackDown Executive Director, the company also announced that Paul Heyman would serve as the Executive Director of Raw, and since assuming the role, Heyman has been very hands-on with the product.
Ideas such as Braun Strowman putting Bobby Lashley through the entrance screen on Raw, and pushes given to talents such as Ricochet and Cedric Alexander have been said to be the brainchildren of the former ECW head honcho.
Bischoff, on the other hand, was rumored to have played much less of a role on SmackDown TV and, according to Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com, talents were often frustrated that he was nowhere to be found during SmackDown taping, and was largely scarce during his time as Executive Director. Given the amount of time WWE creative team members dedicate to the job, Bischoff's punctuality and availability might have been an issue.
#3 Vince McMahon was ripping up scripts ahead of SmackDown tapings
It's no secret in WWE that Vince McMahon has a habit of re-writing Raw and SmackDown scripts moments before the shows go on the air, oftentimes making major changes to show scripts in order to shape the shows to his liking.
In recent weeks, it had been reported more and more that McMahon was re-writing SmackDown scripts on the day of the show, and that might have been one of the reasons why WWE decided to release Eric Bischoff from the Executive Director role.
Dave Meltzer noted on Wednesday's episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that McMahon had been "ripping up SmackDown scripts" in recent weeks, which is likely an indication that McMahon was unhappy with Bischoff's creative direction on SmackDown, and that Bischoff's ideas were largely being shot down or re-written.
It remains unclear exactly who was responsible for booking this year's WWE roster draft, but the draft shows they took heavy criticism from the fans, meaning it's possible WWE decided to cut ties with Eric Bischoff following a draft which was done partially in order to please FOX executives by securing SmackDown brand talents.
#2 Eric Bischoff was not caught up with modern pro wrestling
Eric Bischoff is best known for his time as the Executive Producer of WCW Nitro, and he helped pave the way for the Monday Night Wars by pitting Nitro against WWE Raw in the mid to late 1990s.
Bischoff is credited with establishing a WCW Nitro brand which defeated WWE Raw 83 straight weeks in the ratings war, creating top acts like the nWo and Goldberg in the process.
Despite Bischoff's success with WCW, his post-WCW life was a lot less impressive than his days in WCW, as he enjoyed a great stint on WWE TV as an on-air personality, and attempted to help bolster the Impact Wrestling brand alongside Hulk Hogan.
Hogan and Bischoff's time in Impact Wrestling did very little to help increase the brand's TV ratings, and following the duo's departure from Impact, Bischoff has had little to do with pro wrestling by way of creative and/or TV producing.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Eric Bischoff's time as SmackDown Executive Director might have been doomed from the start given Bischoff has been out of the pro wrestling business for so long. Meltzer also speculated that Bischoff being out of touch with modern pro wrestling and lack of current WWE creative knowledge might have been a factor in Bischoff's release.
#1 Bruce Prichard and Ed Koskey had been largely performing the Executive Director functions
When Eric Bischoff was first hired as the Executive Director of WWE SmackDown, longtime Vince McMahon right-hand Bruce Prichard was already working with the company in a creative capacity. Prichard reportedly urged WWE to hire Bischoff as the Executive Director of the show, making it interesting that Prichard has now replaced Bischoff as the show's new Executive Director.
In addition to Prichard, Ed Koskey had been the head writer on the WWE SmackDown brand, and according to F4WOnline.com, Prichard and Koskey had been largely running the blue brand's creative even with Eric Bischoff present as the show's WWE Executive Director.
When Bischoff was first hired by WWE, the thought was that Bischoff might have been brought in to help deal with FOX executives and deal less with the creative aspect of things, but with Bruce Prichard and Ed Koskey having a lot of input on the SmackDown brand, it could be that Bischoff's role was just too minimal for WWE to keep him on board with the company.
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