Wacky tales from the WWE writing team?

[CrazySting]

Favourite dysfunctional WWE creative team story? These are two tidbits from a 2008 powerslam article detailing the woes of being a creative team writer:

"All the honest people I knew (on the writing team) quit," said Madigan. "I picture little girls and old women doing that s*** going behind people's backs, gossiping, bickering. It's a nightmare." Indeed, Paul Heyman felt compelled to step in and physically restrain Madigan from punching Dave Lagana when Madigan caught Lagana saying something about him to Stephanie that was a complete fabrication.

"If a writer came in with any background that indicated they might be a success, the established crew would not quit until those writers were fired," says another WWE production source. "If you look at the writers who have survived in WWE for more that six months, their lack of any professional pedigree is obvious. It is not a coincidence that the Hollywood writers or the MTV producers or the Canadian academic have not survived in WWE: the top writers were extremely threatened by them and drove them to quit. One, in particular, is extremely rude to all new writers. To show his power, he orders them to get his food and coffee, and I have had three writers admit to me they gave him some "added flavour" over the years.

Also, there was that story years ago in f4w about the creative team writer who got fired because he kept phoning the divas all the time and was creeping them out.

So, in addition to physical fights, stalkers and spitting in someone's food, anyone else have any weird stories from over the years that did the rounds?

[Deleted]

WWE creative sounds like it's where the action is. I want in. Too bad I've never written any awful sitcoms.

[Apricots And A Pear Tree]

Jun 24, 2010 18:31:15 GMT -5 @akeem said:

WWE creative sounds like it's where the action is. I want in. Too bad I've never written any awful sitcoms.

You also seem to know stuff about wrestling,they don't like that.

[CrazySting]

Also: Dave Lagana on f4w noting the writing team had went through 50 people in 5 years, but he still didn't understand why people thought it was a difficult working environment.

[Michael Coello]

Honestly, the only real benefit from being on WWE Creative is a general sense of being anonymous. Most of the blame gets put on the heads, and no one really goes "I really wish that bum Adrian Ballard would get fired!" From all accounts, it's honestly the most thankless job ever created with some of the worst conditions to be around.

[peltier]

Why don't Vince and Stephanie do it by themselves if they are so cranky all the time?

[Crusty Ruffles]

You assume it's spit....

[CrazySting]

Jun 24, 2010 19:10:13 GMT -5 Crusty Ruffles said:

You assume it's spit....

I don't know. Anyway, I just assumed it was a general rule of life that you didn't act like a p**** to the people getting your food. So said writer really is dumb. Even to be writing a wrestling show.

[SAJ Forth]

A Booker was fired for sexually harrassing another whom had their own sex scandal later.

[Dragonfly]

I'm actually friends with a former WWE writer. (Not saying who, as he prefers to keep things rather "low-key." Also, there's an almost 100% chance that none of you have heard of him anyway.) He said that the physical job was fine. It was the hours - he was working 80+ hour weeks - and pay for the amount of work done that sucked. According to him, Brian Gewitz is "weird," Stephanie is "extremely nice and supportive," Michael Hayes is "a really cool guy," and that Shane is "a giant dork."

[Deleted]

How about that story where they'd be forced to sit in a room for hours and not allowed to eat, but Vince and Stephanie would do it right in front of them?

Okay, that sounds worse than it was intended to, but I can see them doing that as well.

[peltier]

It takes 80 hours a week to write WWE shows?

[Dragonfly]

Jun 25, 2010 0:33:26 GMT -5 @peltier said:

It takes 80 hours a week to write WWE shows?

At the time he was there, there were three people writing Raw - Gewitz, Dave Kapoor (Ranjin Singh), and my friend. Since he was the low man on the totem pole, he was the predesignated gopher (props, clothing, food for Vince, etc). Being the gopher meant he had to work more hours.

[Jason Todd Grisham]

Jun 25, 2010 0:33:26 GMT -5 @peltier said:

It takes 80 hours a week to write WWE shows?

When you consider they have six hours a week of programming (sometimes 7), and they script the promos. That's a lot.

[Vampiro138]

i remember raven talking about Vince wanting to put him in creative after raven told him about his 7 deadly sin's storyline he was wanting to do. and once raven got there, most of the other creative people felt threatned by him and made up a bunch of stuff about him to vince to get him fired.

[joeskvorecky]

Jun 25, 2010 0:30:49 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

How about that story where they'd be forced to sit in a room for hours and not allowed to eat, but Vince and Stephanie would do it right in front of them?

Almost certainly false.

[peltier]

Jun 25, 2010 0:45:22 GMT -5 Jason Todd Grisham said:

When you consider they have six hours a week of programming (sometimes 7), and they script the promos. That's a lot.

Jeesh. Can the wrestlers think for themselves out there? Are they that baby-stepped?

[Kris Kobain]

Hey they are hiring a writer right now.
I'd totally go for it if I was qualified.

[Deleted]

^^^^^

Yeah, most of the promos are scripted now. Steve Austin even complained about it in his book. He thinks it holds people back from becoming stars, and I'd be inclined to agree. People need to feel comfortable, and be "themselves with the volume turned way up", as ol' JC says.

As for tales, my favorite is the saga of Paul Heyman vs Stephanie McMahon.

First, Paul reportedly curses out Stephanie.

Later on, after Heyman quit, Stephanie, Michael Hayes, etc. celebrated on a plane drinking champagne.

Years later, Heyman would say that Steph was always great to him, and tried to keep him from quitting.

It makes you wonder with the conflicting stories what's really going on. As much as I love wrestling and would love to work backstage in some capacity, I've never pursued it due to the fact that everyone involved backstabs and gossips worse than catty teenage girls.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

I remember a story about a writer asking JBL how the wrestler's hide the blood packets used when they bled in the ring, JBL was not impressed.

It was a woman, if I recall, just to try and preempt the shower jokes on their way.