– As previously reported, Vince McMahon is not at the Smackdown taping tonight, delaying Smackdown production meetings two hours as Vince was calling in changes to the show.
– With Vince out, and co-head writer David Lagana on vacation this week, PWInsider.com’s Mike Johnson is reporting that Paul Heyman did a lot to put together tonight’s show with the wrestlers, along with Stephanie, HHH and RAW writer Brian Gewirtz helping out.
– With Stephanie and HHH doing a lot backstage, but not Shane McMahon, there’s a lot of talk that the future of the company is in the power couple. Shane’s role has mostly been on the multimedia aspects of WWE, including interactive, publishing, etc.
– Bruce Prichard returned to Smackdown, producing the pre-taped vignettes, and reportedly lowering morale that had been more optimistic with Prichard out of the loop.
– There was a lot of backstage talk this week about the upcoming Rise and Fall of ECW DVD, with it getting a lot of praise from former ECW talent.
[Credit: PWInsider.com]
