WWE's Vince McMahon combines all forces of WWE, ECW and WCW to conquer impending wrath of AEW
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| Source: wwe.com |
The announcement itself, without reading the details, makes it seem like Heyman and Bischoff might serve as a new version of General Managers, like they did in the early 2000s. But this is simly not the case, as Eric Bischoff will now be the creative driving force behind SmackDown and in charge of setting up for the big channel move in October to FOX. Paul Heyman is going to be the mastermind behind RAW. But one thing stands at is now: Vince McMahon is still in charge and is going to oversee all of this.
However, after bringing in the Wildcard rule and the 24/7 Championship aswell as the 2-out-of-3-Falls-Match-Rule for matches that go over commercial breaks, it is the latest attempt of the struggeling market leader. While the wrestling scene is booming, it's market leader is fighting against falling ratings and low ticket sales. No wonder: RAW and SmackDown have been..well...not a pleasure to watch as of late.
For those of who do not know, during wrestling's boom-period of the 90s, Paul Heyman was in charge of Extreme Championship Wrestling, serving an alternative to main stream wrestling by taking to the extreme with non-stop high-flying hardcore wrestling, brutal characters like Sabu, The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer and Rob Van Dam and unique storylines. ECW would eventually be bought by the then WWF, which we now known as WWE, in 2001. The company was unable to grow larger, but also unable to stay smal due to it's incredible popularity. An attempted relaunch in 2006 under the WWE roof was a huge failure, however Heyman is named one of the biggest minds in wrestling.
Eric Bischoff was hired by Ted Turner when he bought Jim Crockett Promotions in the late 80s in an attempt to take on the WWF. It turned out a success for a while, because the renamed World Championship Wrestling promotion managed to beat the WWF in ratings. The only other wrestling company to ever do that. The credit of that goes to Bischoff, who managed to buy away the WWF's biggest stars, including Hulk Hogan and come up with the extremely succesful nWo storyline. A few years later WCW went out of business and it's remains were bought by the WWF in 2001. The reason were a load of bad booking and business decision, that drove fans away back into the arms of the WWF. Bischoff would eventually join TNA Wrestling, also being part of this brand's (almost) demise.
For 20 years WWE remained on the top on the mountain.
The only promotion to ever try to get a piece of WWE was TNA, which failed.
Now, with All Elite Wrestling being founded and apparently doing much much better in ticket sales than WWE is, it seems to be time for a change. Without building new stars and being unable to show promising storylines it feels like a good choice to bring people back that gave, atleast for a while, Vince McMahon himself a run for his money.
History was made in 2005, when the bosses of ECW, WCW and WWE stood in the ring at the same time
As promising as it sounds, Vince McMahon is still going to oversee shows and if he changes all storyline-ideas that Heyman or Bischoff have, well, nothing might really change.
Also it is a gamble, as wrestling has changed in the years toward 2019. It is certainly not like it was 20 years ago and not even like it was 10 years ago. New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Elite Wrestling and all the fantastic indy-promotions around the world - even including WWE's very own NXT, NXT UK and 205live Network-Shows, have changed the face of wrestling forever. It is an open question if Heyman and Bischoff are able to work with that.
Another interesting question is the horrible Wildcard Rule. The same stars on all the shows, while a load of amazing talent is not being used - even their champions! I can not see Bischoff and Heyman booking storylines toghether, not a chance. They are too different and have to very different visions. If Heyman and Bischoff get their distinct toys to play, rather than being forced to work together, this would really help the product as it would create to DIFFERENT wrestling shows and eventually new stars and great storylines.
Time will tell if Bischoff and Heyman will be able to relive their hay days once more, in order to bring back the WWE to the fans' attention.
After thinking long and hard about Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff in these new positions, I do not think WWE could get two better people, however I remain sceptical. What are your thoughts? Tell me on Twitter @Walu2go.
