Bruce Prichard Becomes SmackDowns Executive Director, Replaces Eric Bischoff

Since 2016, Something To Wrestle With became a highly rated podcast due to Bruce Prichard’s very brash and straight forward style discussing all things wrestling including his time in WWE. This time, it looks like be brings that same style to television. As of today, Bruce Prichard has officially replaced Eric Bischoff as Friday Night Smackdown’s Executive Director.

This comes two weeks after WWE’s second-longest weekly episodic show has debuted on FOX and after Bischoff and his wife have recently moved their family from Wyoming to Connecticut to be closer to the company for the position.

“Prichard will oversee the creative development of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX and ensure integration across all platforms and lines of business, replacing Eric Bischoff.” as stated by the press released by WWE earlier today.

Bischoff, who is usually monotone in nature on his Twitter account, took the time to actually praise his replacement in a reply to a report from Ryan Satin:

What is next for Bischoff?

We will have to wait and see what Eric Bischoff does next or what will be next for Bruce Prichard in his new position.

Caul’s Call: What can we say that hasn’t been said about Vince McMahon and his nitpicking of the WWE product. We are now week two in Smackdown’s inception on FOX and just days removed from the release of another ratings decline.

While we never got the full extension of this ‘executive director’ position besides the fact that the person reports to Mr. McMahon directly, it feels more like a “yes man” hiring than someone who will challenge the staff to make the product better.

Honestly, I loved the Eric Bischoff hiring, but there are unconfirmed rumors of some disconnect between the FOX execs and the former head of WCW. Whatever the case is, I can only hope Smackdown gets better in the coming weeks.

John Caul is a longtime wrestling fan since the Attitude Era. A former color commentator for several independent companies and former owner of independent wrestling company Imperial World Wrestling, John currently spends his time interacting with wrestling fans on Twitter while enjoying podcasts such as Cheap Heat and Jobber Tears.