NEWS: WWE writing crews split into Raw and Smackdown teams By Wade Keller, Torch editor May 28, 2002 3:15 am
Vince McMahon has decided to assign separate writing crews to script Raw and Smackdown each week.
Since the roster split, the same crew had been in charge of writing both shows. In order to give each show a personality its own, and create a sense of competition between the shows, two teams have been created.
Raw is headed by Brian Gewertz, while Smackdown is headed by Paul Heyman and Michael Hayes.
Stephanie McMahon will continue to oversee the writing process for both shows, but will apparently allow each team to put their personal stamp on each show.
Vince McMahon, of course, will continue to guide the writing teams in the direction he chooses in terms of the big picture, and then give final approval to the scripts after they're written.
Click here for PWTorch.com's full News Use Policy
Click here for PWTorch.com's Privacy Policy
Copyright Notice: All material contained on this web site is copyright TDH Communications Inc. 2000. All rights reserved. No portion of the Torch may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. All columns and letters represent the opinions of the noted authors and not necessarily the opinion of the publisher. Site Design by: kayfabe.com
About f**king time. Though they *still* need to get Stephanie away from the booking in the worst way.
Hopefully, with two different teams instead of one team doing everything, we'll see a better quality to the booking and the writing pop up in the near future...
CRZ NOTABLE QUOTABLE OF THE MONTH: KANE: Triple H...tonight, I will burn the flesh from your body! MICHAEL COLE: OH MY GOD. KANE THREATENING TRIPLE H, SAYING HE'S GONNA BURN THE FLESH FROM HIS BODY! CRZ: Umm, I heard it the FIRST time! -- WWF Smackdown, 9/9/99
Also, sometimes positions are created to get someone who you can't fire, or prefer not to fire, out of the way. This oversight position may have Vince's way of getting Steph off the writing team, since he can't fire her. Or maybe it's a legitimate position, but that's just a thought.
Originally posted by evilwaldoHello, this should have been done at the draft. But why is Heyman writing Smackdown instead of Raw?
I thought about that myself, but they probably don't want him booking himself. You can look at history and see that the self-booking approach is not in the best interest of the company.
January 4th 1999 - The day WCW injected itself with 10 gallons of Liquid Anthrax...AKA...The day Hogan "Defeated" Nash to win the WCW title in front of 40,000.
Originally posted by evilwaldoHello, this should have been done at the draft. But why is Heyman writing Smackdown instead of Raw?
I thought about that myself, but they probably don't want him booking himself. You can look at history and see that the self-booking approach is not in the best interest of the company.
I'm thinking that they're going to do a trade - Chris Benoit for Brock Lesnar. Therefore, Heyman's boy ends up on SmackDown, Raw gets Benoit so they can do whatever angle they're doing with Benoit.
>I'm thinking that they're going to do a trade - Chris >Benoit for Brock Lesnar. Therefore, Heyman's boy ends up >on SmackDown, Raw gets Benoit so they can do whatever >angle they're doing with Benoit.
And Smackdown gets Lesnar so that HHH can oversee the killing of his heat! It's a brilliant strategy! Not that Aych would ever kill an up and coming heel's heat, nosiree...
I think the trade will be Benoit for RVD, for two reasons...
-- Now that Eddie is tied up with Austin, there are no legit IC-ready heels for RVD to feud with -- There's plenty of talent for RVD to go with on Smackdown and the show needs a secondary singles title
CRZ NOTABLE QUOTABLE OF THE MONTH: KANE: Triple H...tonight, I will burn the flesh from your body! MICHAEL COLE: OH MY GOD. KANE THREATENING TRIPLE H, SAYING HE'S GONNA BURN THE FLESH FROM HIS BODY! CRZ: Umm, I heard it the FIRST time! -- WWF Smackdown, 9/9/99
I think the trade will be Benoit for RVD, for two reasons...
Bah, I sure hope not. I'd like to see the both in the same brand. Plus RAW is short on faces these days. I like Benoit for Brock. It makes sense since they both wanted to draft the prospect. Plus Smackdown reaches more houses, maybe that will help Brock.
Why would they put Heyman on Smackdown when he is with Lesner? Now he has to travel to both shows. I still think he has been writing a lot of RAW anyway. I hope this doesn't screw thing up as RAW is just starting to get good.
Bubbles? Oh come on Sharon! I’m Ozzy Osbourne the Prince of Fucking Darkness. Evil, evil, more fucking evil not a boatload of fucking bubbles man.
And Smackdown gets Lesnar so that HHH can oversee the killing of his heat! It's a brilliant strategy! Not that Aych would ever kill an up and coming heel's heat, nosiree...
I think Brock's heat has already been damaged from his having to cheat to beat Buh Buh freaking Ray Dudley.
I was born in a manger, like that other guy. You know, he wore a hat?
I kind of touched upon this and suggested on "heyman as top writer" thread.
But I also find it strange that they said Heyman will write for Smackdown, but as some suggested maybe there will be a trade... But wait a sec are you telling me Vince's big prospect Mark Henry is going to be "SMackdowns next big thang" (lol)
I like the idea of two different writing teams, but the only thing I could see a conflict is with the champions (maybe more with the women because Vince is sure to have his fingerprints on the men's World title) and the two seperate writing teams might have a different view point of how to take a womans champion character.
I don't get it, everyone loves rats, but they don't want to drink the rats milk?
Stephanie still overseeing both brand extensions may not be good enough. Her fingerprints are all over a lot of the writing (yeah, I know, it's hard to tell who-writes-what, but I have a pretty good idea)
RAW appears to be a step in the right direction, and it hopefully will be like last year's big Austin vs Jericho/Benoit feud. Unless Benoit gets ANOTHER injury that keeps him out for a year.
Different writing staffs, though, will mean hopefully a fake alternative between brand extensions, because I am just sick of that SMACKDOWN! brand extension and I hope RAW kicks its ass!
Big Bad coughed up a furball resembling the following:
>I think Brock's heat has already been damaged from his >having to cheat to beat Buh Buh freaking Ray Dudley.
Yeah, that certainly couldn't have helped him a ton. But it's better than what Aych would do to him (Here, Brock, build up your heat by squashing CWs all month, then put me over clean at the PPV. Oh, and I'll fake an injury too in the process so you look even WORSE!)
I don't see how anyone can think this is Vince's way of getting Steph out of the way. She's still the *top rung* of the writing ladder. Besides, if her and Vince *still* get final say on writing and direction, what the hell good is it to split them up only partially?
Vince: "I like that idea, but I didn't think of it, and it seems to 'new' and risky. I like what we did on RAW last week, so let's just copy that and change the wrestlers to the Smackdown guys."
Having Steph involved in the making of the show in any way at all seems to me a "bad" idea. Just her physical presence was enough to make me hit the FF button on the tape.
Any story line that you could insert Steph in..."Molly Holly" virgin, Stacy Keibler "ogling" the hot wrestlers (not the creepy stuff with Vince though), etc....
All of these have Steph's fingerprints all over them. If it's borderline unwatchable, I'm assuming that she's involved.
Originally posted by cranlsnIf it's borderline unwatchable, I'm assuming that she's involved.
jmodo
That's one hell of an assumption, and pretty damn unfair.
(edited by TheBucsFan on 29.5.02 0004)
Sorry...it's just that I'm a frustrated ex-WCW fan that watched my favorite Fed & Wrestlers suffer through hack writing. Now I see it happening in the WW(F)E, and read that Steph's overseeing it...I took the easy shot.
Truthfully...there's probably any number of people responsible for some of the crap segments.
2. Both shows will be awesome in their own special ways, ie: Raw more for the ex-WCW and ECW wrestling fan, Smackdown! for your Sports Entertainment fan.
2. One show will be brilliant and the other will be tripe, and somebody will go "Hey, you know what? Let's go back to one show!" and they'll all go back to the ONE successful show due to wrestling's downturn in popularity. And this is not to be pessimistic, but the only things that have remained consistently popular in this country since WWII are Coca-Cola, Pizza, and Sunglasses. Everything else has either been suffering a downturn or was merely a passing fad (New Coke, Pogs, Disco, Baseball, etc.).
3. One show will be brilliant and the other will be tripe, and somebody will go "Hey, you know what? Let's copy off of them!" and the worse of the two shows will start to look a lot like the other.
4. A combination of 2 and 3, where they re-combine the rosters while still putting out two shows with the better writers.
5. A Bizarro World twist on 4, where they recombine everything and use the worse of the writers.
And yes, Baseball has taken a downturn in popularity since the mid-forties.
While working security at a local indy show, I saw Ricky Morton's bare ass, and the next time I hear anybody out there say "playing Ricky Morton", the person they mention had best have a really nice ass.
They were funny when they were showing up at WCW shows and at Turner Headquarters. Trying to free the POWCW's Nash and Hall... other than that I wasn't that into them.