Paul Heyman dropped as Creative Director of Raw; Bruce Prichard assumes role

sky88

So that’s heyman and triple h demoted lately a strange move


https://twitter.com/wwe/status/1271214672365191169?s=21

SureYWouldntYa

Why is something like that even being officially announced?

sky88

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

Why is something like that even being officially announced?

There executives so I think they might have too cause there public company

SureYWouldntYa

sky88 wrote: »

There executives so I think they might have too cause there public company

That makes sense I suppose, I'm now trying to imagine an institutional investor trying to keep up with WWE news on their website and having to look at all the regular WWE stuff, must be madness

sky88

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

That makes sense I suppose, I'm now trying to imagine an institutional investor trying to keep up with WWE news on their website and having to look at all the regular WWE stuff, must be madness

A complete outsider to the wrestling industry to look at all this stuff must be something else

CastorTroy

Heyman concentrating on his in ring role? Isn't his role just "Is Brock fighting any time soon? No? Okay, I've nothing to do"

Itssoeasy

Surely that's Bruce's podcast gone then even if it's been kind of limping along recently. At least Heyman lasted longer than bischoff this time around(faint praise I know)His in ring performance was basically starting every promo since 2012 with "ladies and gentleman, my name is Paul Herman and I'm the advocate for brock lesnar..." so unless brock comes back will heyman be just sitting at home picking up his downside ?

Agent Coulson

I hope Conrad is getting 10% of Prichard's money.


Prichard would be no where the WWE without him and now he is back in a real power position.

Itssoeasy

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I hope Conrad is getting 10% of Prichard's money.


Prichard would be no where the WWE without him and now he is back in a real power position.

He got bischoff, Prichard back in the wrestling game and now Bruce is vinces right hand guy again. It's 1990's WWF all over again. Conrad must be minted.

ricero

Raws ratings have been in the toilet and for the most part tge drizzling ****s this year.

Hopefully Bruce can freshing things up.

Lord TSC

Spliting this into it's own thread.

I'm torn a bit on this one.

On the one hand, I've appreciated that Heyman has spent a large part of the last few months trying to completely restructure the mid-card and build something more sustainable. While the card might not look amazing on paper, WWE have needed new stars created for ages, and this is what that looks like.

On the other hand....I've completly dropped off Raw over the lockdown. I've not watched it for ages, and it's not as if Smackdown has been awful creatively. And watching Raw was an institution for me.

On the third hand, I don't think the massive issue WWE has now is creative. It's that 3 hours is insane at the best of times, and that with no crowds, it's lost a lot of the appeal. The creative can be an issue to (and I don't blame Heyman, I blame WWE's philosophies in general), but so long as Raw stays three hours, it's just too, too much of a drain. No one can write a good 3 hour show once a week, every week, with no off season.

LineOfBeauty

ricero wrote: »

Raws ratings have been in the toilet and for the most part tge drizzling ****s this year.

Hopefully Bruce can freshing things up.

He's been a WWE guy forever and already "runs" one of the weekly shows. Freshening up this most certainly is not.

Agent Coulson

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I hope Conrad is getting 10% of Prichard's money.


Prichard would be no where the WWE without him and now he is back in a real power position.

The Great Brian Last needs to up his game.

Sirsok

I would argue that you should be able to write a 3 hour show a week. Most of the show has no set dialogue sure.

You have heaps of characters, and creative writers, you can plan a story arc ahead by weeks (change course when needed).

The problem is the filter that is Vince McMahon seemingly changing his mind on a whim.

I'm not arguing that their should be no Vince McMahon filter, I'm saying the lack of commitment to forward planning is absurd.

I recently made 5 corporate videos for a client. All with a running storyline through them. The day before the 3rd video released they decide that that days particular video was to sombre and didn't get the epic feel we were going for ( it was a puppet pirate musical)

So they asked us to redo, without the pirate musical element. We had all ready shot a green puppet and painstakingly green screened out a back ground for him. So we couldn't reshoot anything, so had to make up a script and dialogue.

The end result was embarrassingly awful but the filter decided to run with that, despite it ruining the rest of the story arc thru-out the videos.

Lack of commitment to agreed plans really messes up creative story telling.

Also the sheer lack of commitment to characters bar their few favourites is embarrassing. I constantly think about how Sanity can go from tearing it up in War games to not getting a fair crack at the whip on Smackdown. Atleast Heymen was trying to establish new stars.

McIntyre v Lashley is a new main event.
Garza, Murphy, Theory, Carillo, Black, Creed were all getting a lease of life.

sky88

https://twitter.com/reneusmeister/status/1271223622015819776?s=21

J. Marston

Raw just has a dreadful, dreadful roster. This is who the show has been built around for the last few months (I'll probably forget a few here)...

McIntyre, Lashley, Rollins, Owens, Black, Zelina, Andrade, Theory, Garza, Humberto, Murphy, MVP, Rey Mysterio, Street Profits and The Vikings. On the women's side; Asuka, Kairi, Nia and now Charlotte again.

McIntyre and Rollins are the only guys who feel important. Asuka and Charlotte will probably start round 4 or 5 of their feud. Combine that with losing Becky who had some semblance of star power and the Raw roster has been relegated from Premier League to Championship level in the 4-6 months.

The White Wolf

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I hope Conrad is getting 10% of Prichard's money.


Prichard would be no where the WWE without him and now he is back in a real power position.

Is it really a power position? Even if he's in charge of both teams now it doesn't mean he can't be dropped like a light in much the same way Heyman and Bischoff were.

sky88

Well when bruce eventually gets fired conrad has a few more years of content hell be more than taken care

Sirsok

J. Marston wrote: »

Raw just has a dreadful, dreadful roster. This is who the show has been built around for the last few months (I'll probably forget a few here)...

McIntyre, Lashley, Rollins, Owens, Black, Zelina, Andrade, Theory, Garza, Humberto, Murphy, MVP, Rey Mysterio, Street Profits and The Vikings. On the women's side; Asuka, Kairi, Nia and now Charlotte again.

McIntyre and Rollins are the only guys who feel important. Asuka and Charlotte will probably start round 4 or 5 of their feud. Combine that with losing Becky who had some semblance of star power and the Raw roster has been relegated from Premier League to Championship level in the 4-6 months.

95-96 roster didn't feel super important either though Hunter Hurst Hemsley, Ringmaster, Rocky Maivia , Iassac Yankem. Youbgotta invest in your talent to get them to the next level.

I remember in WWE magazine they had like a prediction section and they had Batista headlining Wrestlemania by a certain time. This is when he was with D-Von and I laughed hard at that. But with good storylines he got there.

Noe in saying that I've lost alot of interest in all things wrestling the passed while due to the childish level of storytelling and recently the lack of fans.

So i don't necessarily disagree Heyman wasn't doing a bad job but atleast he was trying to establish new talent and a new main event roster

Lithium93_

Some more details from WON, nicked from Squared Circle on Reddit.

Raw had been doing its lowest ratings in its history during the pandemic but every wrestling show has had similar drops. What was notable is that the idea that Vince McMahon even said himself at the last conference call was that Raw was introducing so many new stars and it would take time to get them over, but claimed the numbers would bounce back when the new stars got over. When Heyman was hired in June, he apparently pushed the idea that they had to create new stars, and this would take 18 months or longer for them to build the credibility to be stars with the new audience.

It’s said by those close to the situation that once COVID-19 started that McMahon’s mentality changed about everything. Previously, the mentality was all about the future. The XFL was a long-term play. Raw under Heyman was a long-term play. Expanding NXT into Europe and Japan, and opening up other markets under Paul Levesque was a long-term play. Now the mentality is to worry about what you have and think about now, even though the company is going to be more profitable this year and next than probably any time in its existence. McMahon was also frustrated believing that much of the new talent being pushed wasn’t getting over, and with no live crowds, it was pretty much impossible to tell what acts truly are and aren’t starting to get a following.

Coming at press time, the little reaction we’ve gotten were from people who were not shocked and said there had been signs for a few weeks of this coming. But much of the talent was stunned and it’s unique because the Raw talent crew right now very much has his fingerprints.

One person on the front office side said, “I am shocked it took this long. Everyone knew it was coming. Vince did not like Paul.

Lithium93_

ricero wrote: »

Raws ratings have been in the toilet and for the most part tge drizzling ****s this year.

Hopefully Bruce can freshing things up.

Freshen things up by ousting Heyman who was doing his best trying to flesh out characters in the mid-card, only for it to be completely upended all cause of Vince's hatred for Heyman? And bringing in Prichard to oversee 5 hours each week? Boy your blind devotion to the company is admirable.

This, I fear will backfire into chicken-**** even further.

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

He's been a WWE guy forever and already "runs" one of the weekly shows. Freshening up this most certainly is not.

I wouldn't be surprised if one day, Bruce turns around and says **** this, and rides off into the sunset. Especially with Vince hovering constantly above him.

ricero

Raw ratings are at a near all time low with Heyman at the helm. The smarks love Heyman but hes always been better as an on-screen character.

Bruce is one of the greatest creative minds in the business and Smackdown has been far superior to Raw since he took over.

At least give him a chance until you decide to **** all over this decision.

Itssoeasy

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Freshen things up by ousting Heyman who was doing his best trying to flesh out characters in the mid-card, only for it to be completely upended all cause of Vince's hatred for Heyman? And bringing in Prichard to oversee 5 hours each week? Boy your blind devotion to the company is admirable.

This, I fear will backfire into chicken-**** even further.



I wouldn't be surprised if one day, Bruce turns around and says **** this, and rides off into the sunset. Especially with Vince hovering constantly above him.

Well unlike Heyman and bischoff Bruce had vince yelling at him years in his previous stints in the company, so it might take a while for him to chuck it in and say **** this. He's also waited years to get back to the mothership so I can't see him giving up that easily. Heyman is good at creative but from his last stint as head writer of smackdown he's not the best at picking his battles. Bruce may be more willing to put up with vince and his madness.

Agent Coulson

Vince has never liked Heyman and if it wasn't for Brock Paul wouldn't be anywhere near the WWE.


Eric is the same vote Vince just tolerates him to show that he won the war.


Brother Love would jump in front of a train if Vince asked.

Lithium93_

ricero wrote: »

Raw ratings are at a near all time low with Heyman at the helm. The smarks love Heyman but hes always been better as an on-screen character.

Bruce is one of the greatest creative minds in the business and Smackdown has been far superior to Raw since he took over.

At least give him a chance until you decide to **** all over this decision.

RAW ratings are at a near all time low because the writing is quiet frankly, well a 1000 monkey's chained to type writers could frankly do better. Were people expecting the ratings to jump up/improve over night? That's not how television works, it's a slow pain staking process, with everyone pulling in the same direction, and usually having solid, well written storylines with continuity from week to week helps. Paul Heyman to his credit was trying, it's a process of figuring out what works, what doesn't work, and tweak it until it works but when everything is ultimately okay'd by Vince, who changes, or is known to change him mind at the drop of a hat, well you can throw that process out the window.

Something you'd think that crazy old son of bitch would understand after being at this for a while. Rome wasn't built in a day is the phrase that comes to mind.

As for Prichard being one of the greatest creative minds in the business, that quiet frankly is an affront to those with an ounces more of creativity. The dog food stuff with Reigns and Corbin on Smackdown tells me all I need to know about Bruce Prichard's "creativity" and giving him a chance.

Lithium93_

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Well unlike Heyman and bischoff Bruce had vince yelling at him years in his previous stints in the company, so it might take a while for him to chuck it in and say **** this. He's also waited years to get back to the mothership so I can't see him giving up that easily. Heyman is good at creative but from his last stint as head writer of smackdown he's not the best at picking his battles. Bruce may be more willing to put up with vince and his madness.

Well then Bruce Prichard to keep it short, has the patience of a god damned saint.

Lithium93_

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Vince has never liked Heyman and if it wasn't for Brock Paul wouldn't be anywhere near the WWE.


Eric is the same vote Vince just tolerates him to show that he won the war.


Brother Love would jump in front of a train if Vince asked.

So basically be a Vince sycophant and you'll survive.

SureYWouldntYa

Lithium93_ wrote: »

So basically be a Vince sycophant and you'll survive.

Kevin Dunn is the living embodiment of this

The White Wolf

ricero wrote: »

Raw ratings are at a near all time low with Heyman at the helm. The smarks love Heyman but hes always been better as an on-screen character.

Bruce is one of the greatest creative minds in the business and Smackdown has been far superior to Raw since he took over.

At least give him a chance until you decide to **** all over this decision.

I've a soft spot for Heyman and was looking forward to seeing his influence, but it's been poison. It started with cuck Rusev and didn't improve from the..

LineOfBeauty

ricero wrote: »

Raw ratings are at a near all time low with Heyman at the helm. The smarks love Heyman but hes always been better as an on-screen character.

Bruce is one of the greatest creative minds in the business and Smackdown has been far superior to Raw since he took over.

At least give him a chance until you decide to **** all over this decision.

I'm not being bad now but legit I'd love to hear your take on why Bruce is one of the greatest minds in wrestling history. What is he responsible for to provoke that statement?

I didn't even totally hate the Heyman take. The long term project stuff sure OK, the fleshing out the mid card I'd say ye he's trying, and OK he's been hamstrung by circumstances which involve a global pandemic, two of his biggest stars starting or trying to start a family and Reigns unavailable and Brock too. Star power is extremely thin and even those considered stars in the WWE bubble aren't actual money drawing stars. Even if you allow for sympathy for all of that, the Raw side of the Backlash card is laughably bad and, from his own pov, he's played his hand wrong. Miz, Morrison, Corbin, dog food. That's the stuff Vince likes. Minority stables? Nah man, wrong crowd.

PTH2009

Vince will prob be working up to the min he passes away and the shape he's in and the fact his mother is still around at 90, it won't be for a long time. Retiring is not in his life