WWE: Backstage Update on Current Creative Teams for WWE’s RAW & SmackDown Brands, Chelsea Green on Matt Cardona’s WWE Return, WWE More News

Backstage Update on Current Creative Teams for WWE’s RAW & SmackDown Brands

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE executives Bruce Prichard and Ed Koskey are currently the main people within WWE who handle the everyday operations in the company’s creative division. Johnson reported that Prichard’s role is focused on the overall process while Koskey handles script edits and alignment with WWE’s corporate vision for shows.

WWE lead writer Ryan Ward reportedly is the running point person for both RAW and SmackDown.

Johnson reported that SmackDown’s creative team is currently led by WWE Hall of Famer Brian “Road Dogg” James and John Swikata while RAW’s creative team is currently led by Alexandra Williams and Jonathan Baeckstrom.

Johnson also reported that WWE’s creative teams are backed by a staff of writers who handle storylines, segments, and week-to-week pitches to keep things making sense in the long term and the creative process is filered through Ward, Koseky, and WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque. Levesque reportedly holds the final call on everything creative for WWE shows.

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Chelsea Green Comments on Matt Cardona’s Recent WWE Return

As noted before, this past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Buffalo, New York featured TNA and indies talent Matt Cardona making his official return to WWE.

A recent episode of TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast featured Chelsea Green as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Green’s thoughts about her husband Matt Cardona’s recent return to WWE.

“I think I got all of my nerves out of the way when he debuted at the John Cena’s last match tournament. It wasn’t as much nervousness as it was then in Albany. It was a different feeling because we’ve now waited for this moment for five years. I know how hard I worked to get back here, he worked even harder to get back. He worked twice as long on the indies this time around and he really reinvented himself. That was also kind of where a little bit of the nerves came into play. How are we going to go from transitioning him out of Zack Ryder and into Matt Cardona and still paying respects to who he was and the fact that some fans, they’ll only remember Zack Ryder. They won’t have known his indie run, they won’t have known that he trended worldwide for a deathmatch against Nick Gage, they won’t know that he’s the indie god or that he’s a completely different person. [They won’t know that] he was never a heel in WWE and has now spent the past five years as a heel. All of those things are things we need to now introduce to the WWE Universe. So, it’s kind of a whole bunch of new nerves but it’s just more excitement than anything.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE News & Notes

As noted before, Seth Rollins has been out of action for WWE since this past October’s Crown Jewel: Perth event due to a torn rotator cuff injury and surgery. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Rollins was in attendance backstage at Monday’s WWE RAW show in Brooklyn, New York.

Monday’s WWE RAW show in Brooklyn, New York featured CM Punk defeating Bron Breakker to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. This match was notable for a scary incident involving Breakker slipping off the top rope when he attempted to perform a Frankensteiner to Punk and landed head first onto the mat. The Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez reported that his sources stated that Breakker was checked on by medical backstage after the match and was cleared from any potential head injury.

WWE announced that “Godzilla” by Eminem is the new official theme song of their WWE RAW series on Netflix.

WWE also announced that this Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Berlin and next Monday’s WWE RAW show on January 12th in Dusseldorf, Germany will be having an earlier than usual start time of 2PM EST on Netflix due to both shows taking place in Germany.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE will be holding a new tryout at their Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

As noted before, B-Fab is currently believed to have suffered a potential concussion injury at WWE’s Holiday Tour 2025 house show event this past Thursday in Syracuse, New York. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources confirmed that B-Fab had suffered a concussion injury during her match against Jade Cargill on the show. Johnson reported that B-Fab is currently in WWE’s concussion protocol.

WrestleVotes reported in a recent Q&A video that their sources stated that there is currently no backstage heat on Jade Cargill despite both Michin and B-Fab suffering injuries during their recent matches against her. It was reported that the current reaction within WWE is that injuries happen and it was just a coincidence both happened with Cargill in the ring. It was also reported that Cargill’s backstage situation can change if more people were to start getting hurt under her watch for matches.

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated’s The Takedown on SI, Bron Breakker gave his thoughts about his issues over how there has not been a WWE Champion under the age of 30 in nearly a decade in WWE. Breakker stated “It’s embarrassing. I’m a young guy and we got 80 year-olds… It makes me want to take them all out. Make sure they never come back here, because they’ve already had 20 years to get their point across and they still haven’t gotten it across. I’ll beat the hell out of all of them. This is what I was born to do. This industry runs in me. Like, in my DNA. More than it does with anyone else here and it shows up with my effort and my commitment. Everything that I do is a total package. Presentation, my work. It shows up more prevalent than it does with anyone else, and that’s why I’m in the position that I’m in. Because no one is as committed to this game as me.“