Breaking Update: Bryan Gewirtz Sent Home From RAW

As noted earlier here on the website, there was a major backstage shakeup at RAW on Monday afternoon. In what was described by one source as a "scary scene", Vince McMahon told the entire creative team that he wanted to see changes and that nobody's job is safe if he didn't see some.

Bryan Gewirtz, who has been the head RAW writer for over a decade now, was dropped from the creative team and immediately sent home from RAW. It is believed that WWE cannot release him without paying a penalty, which is why he is remaining on the payroll. For those unaware, Dave Kapoor would write the show alongside other creative team members and then everything went through Gewirtz, followed by Stephanie and Vince McMahon,

Gewirtz' official position was Senior Vice President of Creative Writing. According to sources,. Gewirtz is still with the company as a "consultant". Gewirtz being sent home was described as shocking and something that no one saw coming. Several people feel he "fell on the sword" to show everyone else they can be replaced.

The backstage meeting at RAW comes one week after a fifteen year low RAW rating came in. Since expanding to three hours, the RAW ratings have slipped considerably, especially in the third and most important hour.

We noted last week that Vince was visibly "pissed off" prior to RAW going on the air last week. According to source, his mood "lightened" as the evening went on. The backstage word is that NBC has been putting pressure on WWE and Vince McMahon to get the ratings back up to where they used to be.

More on this major breaking story as we get it.

Some people blaming Stephanie for the reason the ratings have declined (it's at the end of this article):

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The meeting that Vince McMahon called backstage at RAW on Monday afternoon and the major creative team shake-up that took place were reportedly a result of McMahon finally putting his foot down over RAW's bad ratings and creative direction.

According to f4wonline.com, Vince McMahon had been stressed out for weeks and something happened on his flight to the west coast over the weekend that led him to finally take action. As previously reported, a top WWE superstar also had a major blow-up with Vince regarding the real "State of WWE" and what needs to be done to get WWE back on track.

Brian Gewirtz, previously WWE's Senior Vice President of Creative, has been demoted to a consultant role and his days in WWE could be numbered. Even before Monday's demotion, he was recently assigned to WWE's "home team" of writers, which works on television scripts from WWE headquarters in Stamford, CT. Gewirtz was only showing up to WWE HQ 3-4 days a week, which got him a lot of heat from co-workers.

It's worth noting that Brian Gewirtz is the person who writes The Rock's material, so that's one of the reasons he's been kept on board as a consultant.

Dave Kapoor, formerly known as Ranjin Singh on WWE TV, will be taking over al ot of Gewirtz's duties. Ed Koskey still handles a lot of the writing on SmackDown (as does Michael Hayes) and writer Eric Pankowski also has a lot of influence over WWE's creative direction.

With all the finger pointing going on, a lot of the blame is being directed at Stephanie McMahon. A source told F4wonline.com:

"The reality is Brian isn't the real issue or even a band-aid. Stephanie has run this dysfunctionally toxic division for the entire duration of its ratings decline. Her horrendous structure from the committee dynamic to who she fast-tracks and how rigidly the shows are structured are why this product isn't gangbusters. Plus, three hours is a [disaster]."