Road Dogg praises WWE writing, production teams: ‘We have found our groove’

Road Dogg believes WWE has found its groove with every part of the company now firing on all cylinders.

Last weekend, it was reported that Road Dogg (Brian James) is now the co-lead writer of SmackDown, working alongside John Swikata in that role. Road Dogg’s appearance on today’s episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet was recorded before that news broke, but he still gave some thoughts on how the WWE creative team is operating in the Paul “Triple H” Levesque era. He called the writing team one of the most talented groups of people he’s ever been around.

“The writing team in the WWE is undoubtedly one of the most talented groups of people I’ve ever worked with, that I’ve ever been around. And their tenacity — and they’ve been through it all, they’ve weathered it all, and they’re here, and they’re good at their jobs. They’re a funny gaggle. I love nothing better than sitting in there with them,” Road Dogg said.

“They are an entertaining group, man. Raw and SmackDown, both those teams, it’s fun to sit in on those meetings. Because you have fun and you create great content at the same time. And man, that’s right up my wheelhouse.”

He also had high praise for the production workers in WWE, calling them some very talented people.

“I think as a company we have found our groove, man. And firing on all cylinders. And now, from a production standpoint — look, nobody does what we do. We make beautiful wrestling. I’ve been saying that for 10 years now because that’s what we do: we make beautiful wrestling,” Road Dogg said. “And now we have nine or 10 new cameras. A drone inside the arena that we’re flying. A cable, the wire like the NFL has. Like, so many new camera angles to play with. And our production value is only going to go up from here. Hunter keeps saying we’re just getting started — and man, if that’s the truth, I don’t know where we end up.”

Road Dogg previously worked as a lead writer for SmackDown from 2016-2019. He told Van Vliet the position became “creatively frustrating” as time went on because he was given less freedom to execute his vision. That was while Vince McMahon was still in charge of creative, but WWE is in a new era now with the company having been acquired by Endeavor. Road Dogg said there were some hiccups after the Endeavor deal was finalized, but things are now running smoothly.

“It’s a machine, man. And look, there were some hiccups at first, you know, during the turnover. But I think they were just hiccups, man,” he said. “Everything just ran smoothly and new people stepped into new jobs and everything. But because, you know, Endeavor and UFC already had some staff. So if we had double time staff, then you don’t need all that, you know? So there were some changes and some people disappearing that you remember seeing and you like seeing. But such a streamlined, well-oiled machine on every level.

“And it’s just — man, it’s impressive to watch, almost scary to be caught up in. Because look, I come from my father being the Booker in Southeastern Championship Wrestling and my brothers being the champions. I come from mom and pops wrestling. And to an extent, even the old regime was still mom and pops wrestling. Even though it was publicly traded, it was still one man’s vision and one man’s decision. And now it’s not that way anymore. Now it’s, like I said [an] open forum of ideas and all of the stuff at our disposal. The sky is the limit, man.”

Road Dogg told Van Vliet that, when it comes to creative, he thinks you should always have WrestleMania in mind. You are going to have to change things and navigate injuries along the way, but you should ideally start planning for the next WrestleMania a year in advance.

“If you can have some tentpoles at that year out? Man, you’re in a good spot,” Road Dogg said.

The full episode of Insight can be watched below: