Fans of WWE may honestly want to sit back and offer up a huge boatload of thanks to All Elite Wrestling for what is happening with their beloved sport. The Inquisitr reported on Thursday morning that WWE made Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff the executive directors of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live . While the announcement was made public by Vince McMahon, there is actually much more to this story from a backstage standpoint.
For years, wrestling fans watched the wars waged between WWF/WWE, ECW, and WCW. Eventually, ECW folded and the brilliant mind of Paul Heyman ended up going to work for Vince McMahon, and it has all equaled out quite nicely.
Eric Bischoff was responsible for the New World Order and the WCW streak that fans watched as the company killed WWE in the ratings. Once Vince bought out the company, Bischoff came and went in WWE, but now he’s back and possibly better than ever.
With the release of this news today, the main thing for fans to realize is that this is not part of a storyline or angle in any fashion. It’s hard to believe this is all happening, but it really is taking place and things are about to get very interesting.
At this point, it seems as if it is WWE, WCW, and ECW working together to face AEW.
PW Insider is reporting that WWE has been going after Heyman to take this executive director role of Raw since as far back as February. The offer of a full-time position was made to Heyman around the same time that Bruce Prichard was hired on as senior vice president months ago.
This is a big part of the reason that Heyman has been working with other superstars and not just Brock Lesnar. He has been involved in storylines with Ronda Rousey as well as others for the last few months.
The offer for Eric Bischoff has only come together within the last few weeks and been cemented in place over the last couple of days. Bischoff began quietly canceling a number of personal appearances recently, and it is now believed that was due to this new deal with WWE.
BREAKING: WWE names Paul @HeymanHustle Executive Director of #Raw and @EBischoff Executive Director of #SDLive , as first reported by @SInow ! https://t.co/5kVwoyfxUw
— WWE (@WWE) June 27, 2019
Heyman and Bischoff will report directly to Vince McMahon, but they are essentially in charge of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live, respectively. Bischoff will also be working directly with executives from FOX as the show is moving to that network in early October. With ratings dropping and ticket sales/buys for Stomping Grounds as low as they were, as reported by The Inquisitr , this move makes sense for WWE.
While some may see this as a move of desperation, old-school wrestling fans are looking at this and have huge smiles cemented on their faces.