{"id":44016,"date":"2019-04-11T17:19:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T21:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=44016"},"modified":"2019-04-11T17:19:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T21:19:37","slug":"update-on-two-wwe-creative-departures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2019\/04\/11\/update-on-two-wwe-creative-departures\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on Two WWE Creative Departures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The past 24 hours has seen the news break that two members of WWE&#8217;s Creative Teams &#8211; one from <em><strong>Raw<\/strong><\/em> and one from <em><strong>SmackDown Live<\/strong><\/em> &#8211; have both left their positions, with rumors and speculation running rampant. As the dust settles, it seems that the original reports were a little preliminary, but while some of the facts weren&#8217;t as spectacular as originally thought, there&#8217;s a still an element of bizarre in the story.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>ROBERT EVANS LEAVES RAW CREATIVE<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-44022\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/04\/DPP0024-L.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/04\/DPP0024-L.jpg 400w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/04\/DPP0024-L-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/04\/DPP0024-L-280x420.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Originally broken by <strong>Sean &#8220;X-Pac&#8221; Waltman<\/strong> on his podcast, it was mentioned that <em>Raw<\/em> Creative member <strong>Robert Evans<\/strong>, who produced <strong>Bret &#8220;Hitman&#8221; Hart<\/strong>&#8216;s Hall of Fame induction segment on Saturday night, was fired by the WWE for a cardinal sin during Hall of Fame induction ceremonies &#8211; that of not mentioning <strong>Vince McMahon<\/strong> during the speeches. While Evans didn&#8217;t actually write the induction speech of Bret Hart, he would have to proofread the speech and during the Hitman&#8217;s speech he mentioned a story of Vince McMahon. This resulted in a heated exchange backstage. And while original reports stated, including X-Pac&#8217;s, stated that Evans was fired over the incident, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwinsider.com\/article\/125646\/update-on-creative-departure-.html?p=1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in later developments on Thursday afternoon<\/a>, it was revealed that during the altercation, sensing he may be released from the company over the mention, Evans chose to pull the old &#8220;you can&#8217;t fire me, I quit&#8221; scenario. Evans even took his personal Twitter to clarify the reports of his firing.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My Official Statement: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/m8AIQcMOBr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/m8AIQcMOBr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; R.D. Evans (@Oh_Robert_Evans) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Oh_Robert_Evans\/status\/1116323690684264449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 11, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Robert Evans joined the WWE in 2016 and joined the\u00a0<em>Raw\u00a0<\/em>Creative team, but prior to that he was a 15-year veteran of the independent scene, best known as indie star\u00a0<strong>Archibald Peck<\/strong>. The Canadian wrestler moved to Texas in the early 2000s, where he was trained by former wrestler and manager\u00a0<strong>Skandor Akbar<\/strong>. In 2011, he debuted with\u00a0<strong>CHIKARA<\/strong>, and also wrestled in\u00a0<strong>Ring of Honor\u00a0<\/strong>from 2013 to 2014.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CHIKARA: Archibald Peck vs. UltraMantis Black [PCAGG 294]\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Kw0KIPgHdC4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>ROAD DOGG SHIFTS ROLES ON SMACKDOWN LIVE<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_44025\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44025\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-44025\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/04\/pickweek_roaddogg_dc-10d29e96b1dc81dfe9a6319f809f4d3b-e1555017337673.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-44025\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>News broke early on Thursday morning that\u00a0<em>SmackDown Live<\/em>&#8216;s head of creative Brian James, best known to WWE fans as &#8220;Road Dogg&#8221; Jesse James of D-Generation X, had resigned his position following frustrations from Vince McMahon constantly re-writing\u00a0<em>SmackDown Live<\/em>&#8216;s scripts every Tuesday night. By the afternoon, that story had changed considerably. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prowrestlingsheet.com\/road-dogg-new-role-wwe\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">It has later been stated<\/a> that he did not actually resign, but instead, both he and WWE management mutually agreed on a new positional shift within the company, where he&#8217;d take on more of a utility role in the company as\u00a0<em>SmackDown Live\u00a0<\/em>prepares its fall move to FOX Sports. It was reported that he could actually be taking more of a lead producer\/agent role at Live Events, a position still void since the departure of <strong>Arn Anderson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Today I pray that I can relax and breath thru every step I take and every task I take on. Too often I\u2019m a bundle of nerves and anxiety, like a duck on a pond; underneath the water it\u2019s feet are going 90 mph! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/HOPE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#HOPE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FAITH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#FAITH<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/OUDK?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#OUDK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Brian G. James (@BrianRDJames) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BrianRDJames\/status\/1116314058788081669?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 11, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The past 24 hours has seen the news break that two members of WWE&#8217;s Creative Teams &#8211; one from Raw and one from SmackDown Live &#8211; have both left their positions, with rumors and speculation running rampant. As the dust settles, it seems that the original reports were a little preliminary, but while some of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":44026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,25,26,3],"tags":[4974,1309,4975],"class_list":["post-44016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-raw","category-smackdown","category-wwe-universe","tag-archibald-peck","tag-road-dogg","tag-robert-evans"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}