News on Bruce Prichard’s WWE creative role, Vince McMahon booking last night’s Raw opening segment, more

WWE’s current creative direction falls directly under Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard, according to PWInsider. It was noted that some people are describing Prichard as the most powerful person in WWE right now, other than a McMahon family member.

Prichard’s word has been described as “very much the gospel” for Vince. It was also said that creatively, everything is flowing through Prichard right now. Prichard being in this position has led to a lot of heat and frustration towards him among talents, at least privately.

Last night’s opening RAW segment, with Randy Orton, Alexa Bliss and “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, was said to be 100% a product of McMahon’s vision. Several people reportedly argued against the segment, with the feeling that it was a weak opening segment that needed to be overhauled.

Another recent creative move that is something Vince has been completely hands-on with is the sword entrance that WWE Champion Drew McIntyre has been doing. Vince reportedly spent “a lot of time” showing exactly how he wanted McIntyre to handle the sword, and use it to set up the pyro used for the entrance.

McIntyre recently told FOX Sports that the sword actually belongs to Vince, and was a gift t him from Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.

“We had a conversation about it, and once the boss gets something in his head. I was just thinking about walking out with a kilt,” Drew said. “Obviously, he likes to take it a little bit further. And suddenly, we had the sword and then we had the pyro. And he was very hands on with this. And yeah, I guess I’ll let the cat out of the bag. The sword I had is actually Vince’s sword that was gifted to him by Stephanie and Hunter. I did not know, but I believe the conversation went, ‘We need a sword.’ ‘We don’t have a sword, sir.’ And Vince goes, ‘I have a sword.’ And I heard that story and told him, ‘Of course, you have a sword.’

“I believe Hunter and Stephanie were in Scotland. And they got it from a legitimate sword manufacturer, I don’t know. I’m from Scotland, I’ve seen the sword store. They went out of their way to get a legitimate Scottish Claymore as a gift. And suddenly I was walking by the ring with the big sword and Hunter was like, ‘Didn’t I get that for Vince?’ ‘Yes, you did!'”

In other backstage news from RAW, one edict that has been strictly enforced as of late is related to time cues for broadcasts, according to PWInsider. There were a number of WWE talents who were reprimanded for going over the allotted time for their segments in recent weeks, specifically at the Survivor Series pay-per-view and the post-Survivor Series TV shows. There is also some heat falling on some of the WWE producers if their segments end up going over the planned time.