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Paul Heyman is out as executive director of WWE Monday Night Raw (head of creative) as the Raw and SmackDown writing teams will merge, according to WWE.com.

SmackDown’s Executive Director Bruce Prichard will now oversee both brands’ writing teams as Heyman will primarily focus on his on-air role of Brock Lesnar’s advocate. Heyman had been Raw’s creative head since June 2019. Official statement via WWE.com:

In an effort to streamline our creative writing process for television, we have consolidated both teams from Raw and SmackDown into one group, led by Bruce Prichard. Paul Heyman will concentrate on his role as an in-ring performer.

WWE.com

On the surface, this doesn’t sound like a great move on WWE’s part considering all their TV properties aren’t exactly doing great in the ratings during the COVID-19 pandemic and seemingly never-ending news cycle.

While Raw has been a hit or miss for quite some time, Heyman has clearly tried to take a step in the right direction by pushing younger/fresher talent including Angel Garza, The Street Profits, Austin Theory, Buddy Murphy, Apollo Crews, Aleister Black, and Humberto Carrillo.

At 57 years old with a successful podcast and an already-massive workload, I’m not sure it’s the best idea to have Prichard oversee Raw and SmackDown. That’s not to say Prichard can’t have his bright moments as he did in his previous WWE tenure as Vince McMahon’s right hand man, but much like Raw, SmackDown is a mixed bag in quality.

The good is really good (Sasha Banks, Bayley, Daniel Bryan, Mandy Rose and Otis) and the bad is horrifically BAD (Sheamus vs. Jeff Hardy, Braun Strowman vs. The Miz and John Morrison).

At a time when WWE desperately needs a progressive mind who not only looks towards the future, but is in touch with today’s ever-changing new world, Vince McMahon chooses to once again turn back the clock — for better or worse.

Based on storylines like “Sheamus allegedly DRUGGING recovering addict Jeff Hardy” currently playing out on SmackDown, it’s a safe bet it’ll get worse before McMahon finds another scapegoat for WWE’s problems besides the man in the mirror.

McMahon’s son-in-law and head of NXT Paul “Triple H” Levesque must be thrilled to be passed up for yet another promotion right now.

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Check out interview with WWE Executive Director Bruce Prichard: