WWE shocked the wrestling world late in June when they revealed that long-time Vince McMahon rivals Paul Heyman & Eric Bischoff would be named head of creative for the RAW & SmackDown brands, respectively. While this new regime has been slow to gain traction, the duo’s true test will be one of the first of WWE’s Big Four PPVs that will be helmed by them for the first time in Summerslam 2019. Though we still have no idea of how Bischoff will handle SD (he hasn’t started his new job yet), Heyman’s own ideas have been spread about the last several weeks.

WWE Summerslam is a 2019 professional wrestling event, it is produced by WWE and airs on WWE Network on August 11, 2019.

WWE is in a bit of a dire situation as of late. With attendance and ratings dropping every month in addition to competition such as upstart AEW and the ever growing Western expansion of NJPW looming over their heads WWE has never needed some attention grabbing moves such as the aforementioned Heyman & Bischoff hires. Heyman who is currently the most active of the two was quick to promote his ideas on TV such as pushing Ricochet, AJ Styles, and Mike & Maria Kanellis. One of Vince McMahon’s last booking decisions for RAW before giving major control to Heyman was to hand Brock Lesnar (Heyman’s client) the WWE Universal Championship, which he will defend against Seth Rollins in the main event. Odds are Lesnar will likely retain the title, and on the surface this could be seen as “typical WWE”, but Heyman could be using Lesnar to put over WWE’s next big talent as he makes his reported exit at WrestleMania 36. Desperate for stars to usher into their future vs competition coming at all sides this is an opportune moment for WWE to make a refreshing turn around in what’s an obvious creative drought. If AEW & NJPW are successful, which any sensible wrestling fan should only hope, it’ll give the McMahons the long-overdue kick in the ass they need to abandon their current complacency and test the waters with new ideas and pushing newer talent to the top more frequently than they have.