WWE Creative Team Rumors, Latest on Scripted Promos and King Cuerno Joins PC

Bleacher Report Catches You Up on the Latest News from the WWE Universe.

WWE Undergoing Creative Changes

WWE's writing crew is undergoing significant changes following Paul Heyman being put in charge of Raw and Eric Bischoff taking over SmackDown Live. 

Per The Wrap's Tony Maglio, WWE is moving Raw's lead writer, Ed Koskey, to the same position on SmackDown, and Jonathan Baeckstrom, who has been the top writer on 205 Live, will take over for Koskey under Heyman. 

In addition to those changes, former SmackDown lead writer Ryan Ward is taking a leave of absence. 

These moves come after Vince McMahon completely rewrote episodes of SmackDown hours before the show goes on the air last month:

Maglio noted the changes have also come as Bischoff and the SmackDown crew have received criticism for Roman Reigns' current storyline involving a mystery attacker that started with an Erick Rowan doppelganger. 

One WWE insider told Maglio the storyline has been "botched so bad...explaining to anyone what it was supposed to be wouldn’t make any sense at all.”

The Rowan doppelganger story appears to have been dropped altogether, with Rowan announcing on this week's show he was challenging Reigns at Clash of Champions, and he ended his alliance with Daniel Bryan by putting him through a table. 

All of these changes are taking place as SmackDown is on the verge of moving to Fox on Oct. 4. Vince McMahon knows the move to network television comes with different expectations, especially when it comes to ratings. 

By making these moves now, with one month to plan ahead, WWE will have time to correct those storyline issues and potentially set up new feuds for top stars, like Reigns and Bryan, on the first Fox show. 

WWE Not Scripting Superstar Promos

Another notable creative change in WWE is a reported reduction in how many superstar promos are entirely scripted by the writing crew. 

Per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Marc Middleton of Wrestling Inc.), a number of promo segments on Raw and SmackDown this week weren't written out word for word. 

Sasha Banks, Bayley and Rey Mysterio were among the superstars who were just given bullet points to hit and had leeway to incorporate their own ideas into promos. 

Meltzer noted there is a movement within WWE to allow performers more freedom on promos. 

One of the problems for WWE in recent years has been an over-reliance on scripted promos with dialogue that doesn't sound authentic being recited by a wrestler trying to set up a feud. 

Meltzer (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News) reported back in June "everyone in the world has been telling McMahon" scripted promos have been bad, but he preferred the superstars "speak in his unique language." 

This change in approach to promos could be yet another indication McMahon wants to shake things up in WWE, especially with AEW preparing to launch its weekly television show Oct. 2. 

King Cuerno Signs with WWE

Former CMLL and AAA star King Cuerno is the latest high-profile signing for WWE. 

The company announced Thursday that Cuerno has officially signed his contract and has reported to the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. 

Cuerno has been one of the biggest luchador stars in Mexico since making his debut in CMLL 11 years ago. The 35-year-old won the world trios championship twice and middleweight title once. 

After making the move to AAA in 2013, Cuerno became the company's first-ever world cruiserweight champion in a unification match for the fusion and cruiserweight titles at Triplemania XXII. 

While WWE doesn't announce where talent will start out, there are no shortage of options for Cuerno when he debuts on television. He could be used to help boost NXT when the show goes live on a weekly basis starting Oct. 2. 

Cuerno's level of experience would also make him a natural fit on Raw or SmackDown, where he would be able to feud with top stars like Mysterio, Andrade "Cien" Almas and Ricochet.