Backstage Update on WWE Creative Shakeup, WWE Rumored to Have Talked About Combining Rosters Again

– As previously reported, WWE went through a creative shakeup this week. Paul Heyman is done in the role as Executive Director of Raw about one year removed from him being announced in the role. Now, WWE is consolidating both Raw and Smackdown creative teams under Bruce Prichard, while Heyman will focus on a role as an onscreen performer. Dave Meltzer discussed the topic on today’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio.

According to Meltzer, he noted that he wasn’t surprised that Heyman was replaced, but he was surprised that Prichard replaced Heyman to take over both shows. However, Meltzer said consolidating both the Raw and Smackdown groups back into one roster has been talked about. He stated the following:

“I mean the idea that Bruce Prichard is going to be overseeing both, that sort of surprised me. I thought that maybe if they replaced Heyman, it would be with somebody else just because I just can’t imagine the workload involved, you know, at all. It makes no sense, unless the idea is to consolidate it into one troupe, you know what I mean? Where all the stars are on both shows, and that’s their idea of bolstering their ratings is all the stars on both shows. And Vince [McMahon] had to pick one. So then if that’s the case — if that’s what they do, and I don’t know that, I know it’s been talked about. I don’t know that that’s happening. But if they do that, then it comes to, ‘OK, which one of the two do we pick?’ Then, it’s not as much of a surprise. And then the timing makes perfect sense too.”

Meltzer stated that the USA Network was “very unhappy” with the change to the roster exclusivity for the latest brand split. This led to USA apparently being unhappy with Raw’s ratings, which they apparently understood because they were told a long time ago that WWE was in a rebuilding period. And then the pandemic caused the ratings to shift downward in the last three months.

Previous reports indicated that Vince McMahon has been frustrated with Raw lately, which has been losing ground heavily in the ratings during this pandemic era. McMahon’s rumored frustration is apparently what to this shift in the WWE creative teams.