WWE Creative Team Set For Major Shake-Up (WWE News)

WWE officials want "more enticing storylines" for 2026.

by Andrew Pollard
Road Dogg
WWE

With the current WWE product viewed as not quite as high quality as it's been in recent years, it appears that there are some creative changes on the way for the market leader.

Per BodySlam.net, WWE has held internal meetings over the last few days to assess the company's creative process and look at ways to make it better. The endgame of this is to make the product more consistently engaging in 2026, following plentiful fan criticism of the product that's been served up in the past several months.

This report notes how WWE plans to make changes to its creative team in order to improve storytelling across all brands, with it noted how new additions are being made to SmackDown to "make the show more enjoyable". Despite those additions, 'Road Dogg' Brian James will continue to serve as the head of the blue brand's creative direction.

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While WWE is enjoying huge success as a business - continuing to bring in big crowds, mammoth merchandise numbers, tout record gates, and has several mega-money media rights deals in place - company officials are well aware of a wider unhappiness with the creative that has been seen this year. As such, one major area of focus right now is to work on "more enticing storylines" for 2026, particularly when it comes to the second half of next year. Historically, WWE has often managed to get hot from the Royal Rumble through to WrestleMania, but the creative output has often spun its wheels or felt a little flat post-'Mania.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.