Brian James 'Road Dogg' Appointed Co-Lead Writer For SmackDown (WWE News)
Brian James returns to prominent SmackDown creative role for first time since 2019.
Brian 'Road Dogg' James is returning to a prominent WWE creative position for the first time since 2019.
PWInsider's Mike Johnson reports that James has been appointed Co-Lead Writer of SmackDown, where he will head creative alongside John Swikata, who was promoted to his position sometime last year.
A long-time friend of WWE Chief Content Officer Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, James has served as a SmackDown writer previously, taking a position on the creative team in December 2016. James was later promoted to become the show's lead writer though he had stepped down by WrestleMania 35 (April 2019), remaining with WWE in a role he described as a "utility player."
Road Dogg, who has previously stated that wins and losses "don't count" in wrestling, once "begged" AEW's Tony Khan for a job (by his own admission). This came while James was unemployed in 2022.
"I'm not retired, I'm unemployed," James said. "That's what I keep saying: 'I'm not retired, I'm unemployed.' And I see things on Tony Khan's TV show that appal me. I could help with that. I have been begging him for a job on every platform I can and I want to know the reason why he won't hire me."
The 55-year-old had been released by WWE in January 2022, before replacing Jeff Jarrett as the market-leading promotion's Senior Vice President of Live Events that August. In February 2024, he started work as an announcer on Main Event.
Road Dogg was inducted into WWE's Hall of Fame as a D-Generation X member in 2019.