Backstage News on the WWE Creative Team and WM 25 Plans
Source: Wrestling Observer
- This year is the first year that anyone talking can remember where WrestleMania wasn't largely laid out by November. Every year there is a big plan for where all the top Superstars will go. The finishes are usually not figured into that plan as much as the basics are on where things are going and how they're going to get there. In recent years, the battle plan has changed many times, either because of injuries or other things that change here and there. This year is the first year that almost everything, with the exception of Michaels vs. Undertaker, was largely overhauled.
WWE held creative meetings on March 4th and 5th where they overhauled things once again. It won't be the main matches changed, since some of those have been finally announced, but apparently the meetings were about changing finishes in the top matches for fear they would leak out and possibly because of changes in post-WrestleMania directions.
There was fear that the finishes planned were going to leak out because of recent changes in the creative team. As noted yesterday, John Carle, who worked mostly on the SmackDown brand, has been released. When Michael Hayes told the rest of the staff, he brought it up and then gave a speech about what happens in the meeting room has to stay in the meeting room. The feeling was Hayes was just giving the word and that it was Vince who is in one of his moods like he is in from time to time. The release of Carle has been brewing for sometime due to a physical altercation where he and fellow writer Chris DeJoseph (Big Dick Johnson) had a fight on a rental car shuttle a few months ago infront of some witnesses. Carle was pulled from the road then while DeJoseph stayed on the road.
Several sources note that frustration is at an all-time high within the WWE creative team right now because of the bombastic nature of Vince McMahon leading up to WrestleMania. Before Carle was let go, he and other members of the writing team who aren't brought on the road for TV tapings, were told they they weren't being brought in for WrestleMania 25, likely to prevent leaks. It's odd because changes are always being made and there's probably less information out on WrestleMania this year than any other year. WWE is still always changing direction because too much news gets out.