WWE News: ‘Monday Night Raw’ Lead Writer Gets Fired After Several Years With Company
Yet another longtime WWE employee has reportedly been wished the best in their future endeavors, as a new report suggests that the company fired Monday Night Raw lead writer Ryan Callahan in the days leading up to this week’s episode of the long-running show.
On Monday, Fightful‘s Sean Ross Sapp reported that Callahan, who had been with WWE for “several years” as part of the company’s “home team” working out of Connecticut, was let go on the evening of Thursday, May 2. While the news came on the heels of various reports pointing out WWE’s problems with poor ratings and stale storylines on both main roster brands, Sapp clarified that Callahan’s firing had nothing to do with those issues.
According to Sapp’s sources, WWE made the decision to let go of Callahan because he wasn’t getting along with another creative team member, Dave Kapoor, who may be better known to fans for his on-air role over a decade ago as Ranjin Singh, The Great Khali’s manager and translator. Allegedly, Kapoor saw Callahan as someone who was hard to work with because he “took creative changes a little too personally” and did not set a good example for his fellow writers.
While Sapp was not able to further corroborate Kapoor’s accusations, he noted that others had observed some friction between him and Callahan, as both men allegedly “butted heads often” behind the scenes.
Exclusive: Lead WWE Raw Writer Fired, Why It Happened https://t.co/8KyfG0i4bL
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) May 6, 2019
With Ryan Callahan no longer affiliated with WWE, he becomes the latest member of the company’s writing team to leave the company in recent months. Prior to Callahan’s departure, Brian James (aka Road Dogg) resigned as SmackDown Live‘s head writer, while Robert “R.D.” Evans reportedly quit last month after WWE owner and chairman Vince McMahon “berated” him for including his name in Bret Hart’s Hall of Fame speech, as reported by Figure Four Online.
Aside from Callahan, James, and Evans, WWE parted ways recently with writers Kazeem Famuyide and Dave Schilling, as noted by Fightful. Additionally, two veteran road agents — Arn Anderson and Dean Malenko — left the promotion earlier in the year after serving in their roles for close to two decades, according to a previous report from The Inquisitr.
Meanwhile, WWE’s production team has also added several new faces since the start of the year to make up for the aforementioned personnel losses. According to Uproxx, these hires have included former Impact Wrestling mainstays Chris Parks (aka Abyss) and Sonjay Dutt, WWE returnees Jeff Jarrett and Shane Helms, and Dana Warrior, widow of WWE Hall of Famer The Ultimate Warrior.
