WWE Rumors: Reason why Vince McMahon fired Eric Bischoff

Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso is reporting that Vince McMahon fired Eric Bischoff as a reaction to SmackDown’s drop in ratings on FOX.

The Blue brand debuted with 3.869 million viewers when it premiered on the channel on October 4. However, the October 11 episode only drew 2.899 million viewers, meaning the show lost almost one million viewers in one week.

“Bischoff’s firing is Vince McMahon’s reaction to the ratings and a message to his stockholders that he is entirely committed to the future success of SmackDown on FOX.”

Barrasso also revealed that Bischoff’s exit was decided in a meeting at the company’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut on Monday night. The former SmackDown Executive Director was informed of his firing by Human Resources on Tuesday morning, while Bruce Prichard was announced as his replacement later in the day.

What role did Eric Bischoff really have in WWE?

WWE announced in June 2019 that Paul Heyman would oversee the creative direction of RAW as the brand’s new Executive Director, while Eric Bischoff would have the same behind-the-scenes position on SmackDown.

Although the RAW product has clearly been influenced by Heyman in recent months, it has been widely reported that Bischoff did not have as much creative freedom on SmackDown.

Justin Barrasso added that the former WCW executive was “never given creative authority” on the Blue brand and, rather than overseeing creative decisions, his directive “was largely to observe”.

It has also been reported by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp that Bischoff’s exit had been “building for weeks”, while Sportskeeda’s Tom Colohue mentioned that his role was already “practically vacant” as he was not given the backing to make creative decisions.

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