Last night on RAW there was a heel turn by AJ Styles and The Club are officially back together as they beat down United States Champion Ricochet after he retained his title in the main event of RAW against Styles.
Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre called out The Undertaker and he came out to the ring and had a message for Shane & Drew.
Braun Strowman & Bobby Lashley were both taken by ambulance to the hospital after Strowman speared Lashley through the stage’s LED boards which sparked some explosions.
Mike and Maria Kaneliis had a mix tag team match against Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch. During the match, Maria announced as Becky was about to hit her that she was pregnant, but that she doesn’t believe Mike was man enough to be the one to have impregnated her. After The Kanellis’ lost, she got on the microphone and further berated her husband.
Drake Maverick regained the 24/7 title from R-Truth just as he was heading out on his honeymoon.
As noted, WWE has hired Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman to work as Executive Directors of RAW and SmackDown. Bischoff will head up the blue brand while Heyman will run the red brand, and both will report directly to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
Below is a new WWE Now video with Cathy Kelley looking at the buzz surrounding the latest WWE creative shake-up. While this is not currently planned to be a part of any storyline, the WWE website did cover the announcement after WWE issued their press release to us and other media outlets. The story was originally reported by Sports Illustrated, and has since been picked up by some mainstream media. The story is currently the featured article on the WWE website.
It’s possible we see significant creative changes to RAW and SmackDown as soon as Monday and Tuesday as Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that he’s heard Bischoff and Heyman will begin their new roles immediately. It’s unknown if that means right now or next week, or soon after, but we should have an update on when they are starting soon. Meltzer also noted that Fox officials had no idea that the Executive Director hires were coming, but it was indicated that they did want to work with Heyman.
“I do know the Fox people had no idea this was coming… but they wanted the other guy,” Meltzer said.
Bischoff will be working closely with Fox officials as the blue brand prepares to premiere on Fox Friday nights in October.
On a related note, Bischoff’s full-time return to WWE has surprised a lot of people. Meltzer noted that people who worked with Bischoff in TNA, that are working with WWE now, were more than baffled by the news.
It looks like the former WCW President will continue to be involved with his “83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff” podcast. John Pollock noted on Twitter that there will be “no change” regarding Bischoff and the podcast, which features Starrcast founder Conrad Thompson as the co-host. The podcast takes a weekly look at Bischoff’s time in the business, mainly in WCW. It will be interesting to see if the podcast continues as Bischoff gets settled into his new gig with WWE.
Heyman and WWE just recently came to terms on the new role but they have been going back and forth on the new deal for a long time, according to PWInsider. The former ECW boss has been in WWE’s inner circle when it comes to the creative process for some time, but without an official title. That changes with the announcement. We noted earlier how WWE has been pursuing Heyman to officially sign on to work in their corporate circles since February. An offer was made to Heyman to work as a full-time member of the creative process back around the same time Bruce Prichard was brought back as a Senior Vice President. The talks were slowly progressing, and just recently finalized. It’s no secret that Heyman had been working creatively on storylines involving Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar, but he has also been working on material for Alexa Bliss and many others, long before the talks.
Regarding Bischoff’s return, WWE looked at his previous work with Turner Broadcasting, Spike and other networks in building past TV series, and that was one of the reasons they hired him for the role, according to PWInsider. The deal with Bischoff was inked within the last few weeks.
As noted, while they will still report to Vince, Heyman and Bischoff will essentially be running RAW and SmackDown. One source compared the new roles to Triple H’s role in WWE NXT, in that they will be in charge, but this is still Vince’s company and he still has the final say-so. There’s no word yet on how Triple H and others will factor into this shake-up.
Heyman is expected to continue his TV role as the mouthpiece for Lesnar. Despite this not being a part of any TV storyline as of now, there’s obvious speculation on when we will see Bischoff return to TV, if he’s brought back at all, given how he’s always done well in those character roles.
WWE has named Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman as Executive Directors.
Bischoff is set to become the new Executive Director of WWE SmackDown while Heyman is set to become the new Executive Director of WWE RAW. Both will report directly to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
The new roles are full-time executive roles. According to Sports Illustrated, there are no current plans for these roles to be introduced as part of a TV storyline.
Bischoff will also work directly with Fox executives as the blue brand plans to premiere on Fox Friday nights in October, SI reported.
The major move will allow WWE to establish “two distinct creative processes for its flagship shows.”
Below is the full press release that WWE sent Wrestling Inc.:
WWE® NAMES PAUL HEYMAN AND ERIC BISCHOFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTORSStamford, Conn., June 27, 2019 – WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced that it has named Paul Heyman as Executive Director of Monday Night Raw and Eric Bischoff as Executive Director of SmackDown Live, newly created positions reporting directly to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon.
In their executive roles, Heyman and Bischoff will oversee the creative development of WWE’s flagship programming and ensure integration across all platforms and lines of business. The creation of these roles further establishes WWE’s ability to continuously reinvent its global brand while providing two distinct creative processes for its flagship shows.
With more than 30 years of experience in the sports entertainment industry, Heyman served as President of ECW from 1993-2001, securing pay-per-view distribution for the company as well as a national cable television deal with TNN. After his time with ECW, Heyman joined WWE’s Creative team and is widely credited with helping launch the careers of many current and former WWE Superstars.
Bischoff is a former WCW President and New York Times bestselling author. During his WCW career, Bischoff oversaw the signing of some of the biggest names in sports entertainment and helped create and develop the NWO storyline. He was also instrumental in securing a television deal for WCW Monday Nitro on TNT and WCW Thunder on TBS. After WCW, Bischoff co-founded Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment, a production company that launched TV reality shows and mobile games.
PWInsider reports that WWE has been talking to Heyman about the new role as far back as February of this year. The deal with Bischoff came together within the past few weeks.
WWE reportedly made an offer to Heyman to come on full-time as a top member of the creative team around the same time Bruce Prichard was hired as Senior Vice President a few months ago. Heyman has been working on various storylines and with certain talents for months now, including Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey.
Bischoff has been working on pre-production of Netflix’s planned biography on WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan, and had a number of personal appearances booked. He likely came to terms with WWE over the last week as he started quietly canceling some of personal appearances.
While Bischoff and Heyman are still reporting to Vince, they are essentially running RAW and SmackDown now. It will be interesting to see how Triple H and others factor in to this latest creative shake-up.
The Undertaker made a surprise appearance last night on WWE RAW.
Taker made the save for Roman Reigns as he was being double teamed by Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre in their 2-on-1 Handicap Match. The crowd loudly cheered Taker on, for one of the loudest RAW pops in recent memory, as he chokeslammed Shane and dropped Drew. Taker would continue the attack on Shane and Drew before sending them retreating up the ramp.
There was no interaction besides Taker and Reigns, but Taker did briefly look down at Reigns as he recovered in the corner. The segment ended by going to commercial as Shane and Drew looked on from the ramp, shocked at The Dead Man’s return.
Later it was announced that The Undertaker will be returning to the ring at the upcoming WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view. Taker will team with Roman Reigns against Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre.
The 2019 WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view will take place on July 14 from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA. Below is the updated card:
Winners Take All
Lacey Evans and Baron Corbin vs. RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins (c)
The Undertaker and Roman Reigns vs. Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre
Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Washington with the fallout from Sunday’s Stomping Grounds pay-per-view.
* Roman Reigns to battle Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match
* United States Champion Ricochet to battle AJ Styles tonight
* Seth Rollins’ Universal challenges
* The Man might not be finished with The Lady in the aftermath of WWE Stomping Grounds
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Vince McMahon reportedly held a meeting last week at WWE TV and told everyone that there will be no more wrestling during commercial breaks. It was noted that apparently you can have a match that goes through the commercial break, but there can’t be any actual wrestling during the break. This would explain why they had several 2 of 3 Falls matches on RAW and SmackDown last week.
John Pollock of Post Wrestling reported that the edict was announced last Monday during the usual pre-RAW production meeting. The idea is that legitimate sports don’t play during their breaks, so WWE is adjusting their match presentation.
It was noted that there would still be two matches on SmackDown that would that run through the commercial breaks with the picture-in-picture feature that airs the match in one window and the advertisement in another.
This new rule led to the 2 of 3 Falls matches and other ideas to pause the matches, and then resume after the commercial breaks. Pollock and Dave Meltzer both pointed to how it will b a challenge to come up with organic ideas to pause the matches, especially during RAW due to the multiple segment matches for the three-hour format. This will likely make the product harder to watch for fans on TV, and in the arenas.
The NJPW Global Twitter account threw a shot WWE’s way last night after announcing they are releasing a free match every Monday night. The account wrote, “We know there’s a real shortage of professional wrestling on Monday nights, so every week we make a new match from our archives free to watch!”
📺We know there's a real shortage of professional wrestling on Monday nights, so every week we make a new match from our archives free to watch! This week, a war between Tomoaki Honma and Katsuyori Shibata from 2016https://t.co/6v4oRzOcUC#njpwpic.twitter.com/wHMtDLLnpm
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