Just one month before the launch on Fox, there have been several key changes to WWE’s writing staff with new lead writers named to Raw and SmackDown.
It was first reported by Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Ryan Ward is out as the lead writer of SmackDown and will be taking a break. It is unclear what his future is with Ryan Satin adding that he would be “taking time away for a short period of time due to unspecified reasons.”
In his place will be long-time writer Ed Koskey, who is moving over from Raw and will work alongside Eric Bischoff. Koskey has been with WWE since 2001 and holds the title of Vice President of Creative Writing, a position he had held since 2015.
On the Raw side, the position vacated by Koskey will be assumed by Jonathan Baeckstrom, who will work as the lead writer under Paul Heyman. Baeckstrom began with the company in 2013 as a writer’s assistant and moved up the ladder and was the lead writer on 205 Live until recently.
In addition, the writing staffs are being separated ahead of the move to Fox, which we can confirm.
On Wednesday, we noted that the WWE is going ahead with a draft next month with the tentative dates set for October 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada and October 14th in Denver, Colorado.
