Vince McMahon On WWE Staying PG But Getting Edgier, Why Eric Bischoff & Paul Heyman Were Hired

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon discussed Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff being hired as the new Executive Directors for RAW and SmackDown during today's WWE Q2 Earnings call. While Vince discussed the new hires more than once, he did not mention Heyman and Bischoff by name.

"One the things that we've done is hire 2 Executive Directors, one for Raw and 1 for SmackDown and in doing so, it allows me to look at a longer-range story – our standpoint and also spend more time on talent development and not get into the weeds as much as I had to do in the past. That is a really, really good thing for a long-term as well as short-term. Actually, we've seen a big result already," Vince said in his opening statement. (H/T to Seeking Alpha for the transcript.)

Vince was later asked by an investor about why WWE chose to hire Executive Directors at this time, and how much latitude Heyman and Bischoff will have.

"I can't personally be in the weeds any longer and we have these 2 individuals who have a longer range of point of view and a developmental point of view. Both of these individuals have extensive backgrounds in the business from various aspects and with the organizational aspects that they have and the depth of talent, executive talent we now attract it's going to be really good for our business. And how much latitude they will have, that's again it allows me to have a broader overview of things and escape from just getting in the weeds. So they'll have a lot of latitude."

"As far as the content is concerned, I'll address that. We have definitely turned the corner and again as I've mentioned, we have Executive Directors with each brand now. They're going to grow in a more in-depth I think notwithstanding that, we spent more time on storylines, good ones, and also talent development. It's a combination of a lot of things on the things as far as coming together and what I guess, I'll call it relaunch in terms of our content," Vince said.

"We're going to be a bit edgier but still remain in the PG environment," Vince revealed. "We've just come anywhere close actually to go into another level. So that will be something will do in terms of direction of content, more controversy, better storylines, etc. But at the same time, we're not going to go back to the bold Attitude Era and we're not going to do blood and guts and things of that nature such as being done on perhaps a new potential competitor. We're just not going to go back to that gory that we graduated from. And again, a more sophisticated product. Again attracting much better writers and attracting better management things of that nature. So again, I feel really good about it."