Dusty Rhodes has been added to the ECW creative team, working under ECW head writer Dave Lagana. Rhodes was working under head writer Michael Hayes on the Smackdown team during the brand’s recent creative resurgence. Lagana requested Rhodes’ addition to the team to Vince and Stephanie McMahon, particularly to help with ideas now that ECW was going head-to-head with WSX in its second half-hour each week.
Andrew Goldstein, Hayes’ second on the Smackdown creative team, was let go a few weeks back. He was the one responsible for taking Hayes’ ideas/concepts and putting them on paper/into the appropriate format for the TV show. Apparently he was victim of being smart, good at his job, and not part of the ol’ boys’ network. In the past couple of weeks, Smackdown has lost Rhodes, Goldstein and a low-level writer called Travis Carter, adding only another young member of the team (Zachary Soto).
It should be interesting to see how this all affects Smackdown, which just recently scored its most viewers since the move to The CW Network (over 5 million). Rhodes’ influence has been mostly under the radar, although he was always really high on wrestlers Sonny Siaki and Cassidy Riley back when they were in TNA (both are now in WWE developmental). Lagana reportedly is really high on Elijah Burke, which partially explains his push in the Vince McMahon vs. ECW Originals angle. Burke teamed with former TNA star Monty “Marcus Cor Von” Brown on at least one ECW/SD house show this weekend.
Credit: Pro Wrestling Insider, Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE.com
