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What's the story?
WWE has named Paul Heyman as the new Executive Director of Monday Night Raw and Eric Bischoff as the new Executive Director of SmackDown Live.
Within hours of the surprising news being announced, plenty of big names in the wrestling business gave their reaction on social media.
In case you didn't know…
In one of the biggest behind-the-scenes WWE developments of the last decade, the company announced on Thursday that former ECW owner Paul Heyman and former WCW Executive Vice President Eric Bischoff will now oversee the development of WWE’s flagship programming.
With Heyman running Raw and Bischoff running SmackDown Live, the two brands will have “two distinct creative processes”, according to a statement on WWE.com, and both men will report directly to WWE chairman Vince McMahon.
The heart of the matter
Universal champion Seth Rollins, who has been fiercely defensive of WWE’s creative approach recently, was among the first Superstars to react to the announcement.
Needless to say, several WWE Superstars will benefit from having a new person in charge of the creative processes on Raw and SmackDown Live, which is likely what came into EC3’s mind when he tweeted this to Paul Heyman,
Rusev, who is reportedly on a leave of absence from WWE at the moment, made this joke about Hulk Hogan,
Raw Superstar Zack Ryder reacted by posting a throwback video of Eric Bischoff’s WWE theme song.
Matt Hardy chimed in with the following tweet,
Eric Bischoff’s podcast co-host, Conrad Thompson, also hosts a podcast with Bruce Prichard, who returned to WWE as a creative team member earlier this year.
The link with Thompson prompted this comment from Corey Graves.
Like EC3, No Way Jose will no doubt be among the list of Superstars hoping to receive more opportunities under the new creative regime.
What's next?
WWE’s creative process has been questioned by fans over the last few months, especially in the build-up to the recent WWE Stomping Grounds pay-per-view, so the appointment of Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff in their new roles will certainly lead to more interest in the upcoming episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live.
What do you think of Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff's new roles? Let us know in the comments!
