As noted earlier, Paul Heyman has been removed as the Executive Director of RAW. WWE announced that they are consolidating both teams from RAW and SmackDown into one group led by Bruce Prichard.
WrestleVotes Twitter account shared some thoughts on the situation, suggesting that the show has been “a mess” lately with changes made up to the point of airtime. While not everything can be blamed on Heyman, as the Executive Director of the brand, he took the fall with one source saying that “RAW couldn’t continue like this.”
There is no word on whether the consolidation of the Raw and Smackdown creative teams will lead to more cuts. As recently as this week, WWE was looking to add headcount to this area of their business, especially after one of the head writers on Smackdown – Chris DeJoseph – was abruptly fired for some backstage behavioral issues.
Viewerships for all the major wrestling shows have fallen drastically since the Coronavirus pandemic forced the promotions to hold tapings without real crowds. In February, the first full month before the pandemic, RAW averaged 2.29 million viewers (down 14% from an average of 2.67 million viewers in February of 2019). In May, the show averaged 1.77 million viewers, a drop of 23% from February and 24% from the 2.33 million viewers RAW averaged in May of last year. The past six weeks have featured five of the least watched episodes in the show’s history.
PWInsider also reported that Vince McMahon has recently been “very upset” and openly “frustrated” with RAW.
Regarding the creative change, source indicates that RAW has been a mess lately. At times recently the show has changed up to the point of air. While the blame isn’t solely on Heyman, he is the one taking the fall here. “It couldn’t continue like this” was an exact quote I got.— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) June 12, 2020
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