5 WWE Superstars who could be the face of Eric Bischoff's SmackDown Live

WWE announced the surprising news on Thursday that Paul Heyman has been named the new Executive Director of Monday Night Raw and Eric Bischoff has been named the new Executive Director of SmackDown Live.

Both men will oversee the development of their respective brands, ensuring that WWE has two distinct creative processes, and they will report directly to WWE chairman Vince McMahon.

The appointment of Heyman, 53, is not totally unexpected, as he has been working backstage with Superstars including Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey and Baron Corbin recently, but few people would have predicted that Bischoff, 64, would return to WWE in such a major role.

During his time away from the wrestling business, the former WCW Executive Vice President has not been afraid to give his opinion on what WWE should do with its programming and its top Superstars, including the likes of Roman Reigns and Becky Lynch.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at five Superstars who could be the face of SmackDown Live under Bischoff’s creative leadership.

Disclaimer: As the brand split essentially ended with the introduction of the 'Wild Card Rule', current brand statuses are not taken into account in this article.

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#5 Kofi Kingston

Six months ago, it would have been unrealistic to suggest that Kofi Kingston could become the face of either Raw or SmackDown Live.

Now, after the rise of ‘KofiMania’ and a WrestleMania moment against Daniel Bryan that fans will remember forever, the WWE champion has been positioned as the top guy on SmackDown Live, even above Roman Reigns, over the last two months.

During that time, the New Day member has been on a winning streak of 21 matches, which is very rare for title holders in modern-day WWE, and he has retained his title against Bryan, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Dolph Ziggler along the way.

Long-term, only time will tell if Kingston can keep up this momentum and remain one of the most prominent Superstars on SmackDown Live. Short-term, Eric Bischoff is walking into a role with the WWE champion as the main guy currently on the blue brand, so expect to see Kingston on top during the new Executive Director’s first few weeks in charge.

#4 Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan reinvented his babyface “Yes Movement” character in November 2018 when he won the WWE Championship from AJ Styles and essentially became an exaggerated version of his real-life self.

Instead of encouraging fans to chant along with him, “The New Daniel Bryan” decided to educate audiences on the vegan lifestyle and the everyday problems that are harming the planet.

The former SmackDown Live General Manager is no longer in the WWE Championship picture, having lost his title against Kofi Kingston at WrestleMania 35, and he has since become a SmackDown Tag Team champion with Rowan.

Although Bryan has set an ambitious target of WWE’s tag team division headlining pay-per-views, it seems more realistic that he could become a major singles competitor again on the blue brand under Eric Bischoff’s new regime.

At the age of 38, Bryan recently stated that he feels as though his in-ring performances are getting back to their very best, so why waste what could be the best months of his career in a tag team?

#3 Velveteen Dream

Eric Bischoff once mentioned during a Reddit AMA that he does not watch NXT, but the presence of Velveteen Dream across social media and other WWE platforms over the last two years must have been difficult for the former WCW decision-maker to ignore.

There are plenty of ready-made stars on the SmackDown Live roster when Bischoff takes over, from Daniel Bryan and Charlotte Flair to Roman Reigns and Kofi Kingston. However, with another conveyor belt of talent coming through the NXT ranks, it will only be a matter of time before a new batch of performers arrive on the main roster.

Dream has been touted as a star of the future by several respected names in wrestling, including John Cena and Kurt Angle, so it seems inevitable that he will be placed in a prominent role when he finally makes his way onto the main roster.

With Raw and SmackDown Live having different creative processes going forward, Paul Heyman and Bischoff would no doubt relish the opportunity to have the North American champion on their roster.

#2 Roman Reigns

A four-time WrestleMania main-eventer, Roman Reigns is going to be viewed by many people as the face of WWE regardless of his position on the card and whether he performs on Raw or SmackDown Live.

One of the biggest talking points surrounding “The Big Dog” in recent years has been his ‘babyface’ persona, with large sections of the crowd booing him, much like they used to with John Cena, even though he primarily shows good-guy tendencies.

Although Eric Bischoff has refused to say in the past whether WWE should end their experiment with Reigns as the company’s top guy, he has given his opinion that the former Shield member should become a full-on heel one day.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet in 2018, the new head of SmackDown Live’s creative encouraged WWE to turn Reigns into a bad guy.

"The audience is only going to go so far. You can only force that fish to swim upstream until it just gets tired as has to go the other way. I wish they would turn him heel. I wish they would embrace that."

#1 Becky Lynch

Becky Lynch has sky-rocketed her way to the top of WWE since betraying former best friend Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam 2018.

From that moment on, “The Man” took on an aggressive attitude, gaining tons of new fans along the way, to legitimately stake her claim to be viewed as the most popular Superstar, male or female, in WWE.

Not only did Lynch continue to impress with her in-ring performances against the likes of Flair, Asuka and Ronda Rousey, but she also caught the eye of Eric Bischoff during her rise up the WWE ranks.

Speaking on After 83 Weeks, the new SmackDown Live Executive Director revealed that he is “more of a Lynch fan than anybody in the last fifteen years”. He even added that she is going to be the next ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin if she continues the momentum that she has been building up.

What do you think of Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff's new roles? Let us know in the comments!