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What's the story?
One of the most buzzed about pro wrestling stories so far this year has been news of WWE hiring Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff as the Executive Directors of Raw and Smackdown Live, respectively.
With regards to Monday Night Raw, Paul Heyman began his new TV role, in a limited capacity, this week, while Eric Bischoff has yet to begin his new job with the Smackdown Live brand. Heyman's fingerprints were scattered throughout WWE Raw this week, with several buzzed about segments being the brainchild of the former ECW mastermind.
According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, one of the reasons why WWE decided to hire Heyman and Bischoff as Executive Directors appears to be keeping both talents from signing with AEW.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the opening segment of Raw this week was in fact Paul Heyman's idea, as was the bizarre segment featuring Mike and Maria Kanellis.
In case you didn't know...
This week's episode of WWE Raw started with a widely acclaimed Falls Count Anywhere match, which had the pro wrestling world talking when the match ended with an explosion of the entrance ramp.
As we reported earlier this week, Heyman is said to be very high on current WWE United States Champion Ricochet, which explains the Champion's recent push on WWE TV.
As for Eric Bischoff, it appears as if his new deal with WWE was complete on or before June 25th, with negotiations for the role beginning in Stamford following WWE's TV tapings on June 10th and 11th.
The heart of the matter
Dave Meltzer noted in the most recent issue of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that All Elite Wrestling President "Tony Khan is a student of the wrestling business, and was a big ECW fan," which might be one of the reasons why WWE chose to "lock up" Paul Heyman so as to keep him from signing with AEW.
Meltzer added that while it remains more unlikely that AEW would have signed Eric Bischoff, WWE also wanted to "lock up" the former WCW Executive Producer so he could not lend any of his assistance to the upstart AEW promotion.
What's next?
Eric Bischoff and his family are in the process of relocating to Stamford, CT, and as of this writing Bischoff is expected to begin contributing in a creative capacity to the WWE Smackdown Live taping on July 16th.
What did you think of Paul Heyman's two big segments on WWE Raw this week? Are you excited about Eric Bischoff taking over Smackdown? Let us know in the comment section!
