More on Eric Bischoff’s WWE Release – Bischoff ‘Messed Up’ With FOX, Brands to Remain Separate

– Eric Bischoff’s release from WWE is one of the biggest news stories of the week, and the WON has new details on the situation. As reported on Tuesday, WWE announced that Bruce Prichard has been promoted to Executive Director of Smackdown and confirmed that Bischoff was no longer with the company.

According to the WON, several people who interacted with Bischoff during his time in TNA were shocked that he was brought into WWE and predicted that he would not last. This apparently became obvious when Bischoff arrived and was unfamiliar with the talent involved and many of the changes in the business; the expectation was that it became more about how the company would handle the release publicly after making such a high-profile announcement of Bischoff’s hiring along with the promotion of Paul Heyman to Raw executive director.

Prichard, who has replaced Bischoff, pushed for him to be hired for the position. Prichard has a long-term relationship with McMahon and he is much more familiar with the company’s structure than Bischoff, who one official said “had absolutely no vision, and once we were headed into FOX, everything was falling through the cracks. He messed up multiple times with FOX. Eric also had no stamina for the rigors of the job.” It was also noted that people complained that on some days Bischoff would become impossible to reach after he was done with his workday at around 7 PM.

The plan remains to have Raw and Smackdown be seperate entities in competition with each other for business metrics. Prichard and former Raw head writer Ed Koskey will be the key individuals in charge of Smackdown. They had been running the brand with Bischoff since July.