Road Dogg Explains How WWE’s Creative Decisions Pushed Him to Quit SmackDown

Road Dogg isn’t sugarcoating his frustrations with WWE’s creative process during his time as SmackDown’s head writer. The DX legend, who held the role from 2016 until his resignation in 2019, spoke with Chris Van Vliet on Insight about why he walked away—and how it left him feeling like he no longer had control over the show he helped shape.

During the interview, Road Dogg admitted that his breaking point came around WrestleMania 25, when he felt like his influence on SmackDown was being stripped away.

“Yeah, that WrestleMania [25] kind of broke me. It broke my spirit. I went home after that and said, ‘I’m heading home after that one.’”

He explained that while he had seen success as a writer, things started shifting in ways that left him feeling powerless.

“It was all the lead-up to it. There was a lot of talk. I’d been writing the show for a while, and it had been successful, then less so, then successful again. We were in a good place with it, but times were changing, and I felt like it was a little less my show. And whenever I fought for something, I lost. It was just one of those things where I said, ‘Yeah, I’m done fighting this fight.’”

Road Dogg reminisced about the early days of his run as head writer, when SmackDown felt like an exciting, fresh product. He pointed to a specific era when stars like Dean Ambrose, Heath Slater, and Rhyno held championships and when the blue brand had a unique feel that set it apart.

“It was really fun at first. I feel like I had a lot of creative freedom initially. I don’t know if you remember, but that first Backlash… I don’t even know when it was, but Dean Ambrose was the SmackDown Champion, and Heath Slater and Rhino were the tag champs. You know what I mean? It was a fun little two-hour wrestling show that was gaining traction. Then it felt like it drew everyone’s attention, and everyone wanted to play in the sandbox that was mine, and it wasn’t mine anymore.”

One of the biggest frustrations came during KofiMania, where Road Dogg wanted a specific build for Kofi Kingston’s rise to the WWE Championship. However, his vision was shot down without much explanation.

“I knew it wasn’t my show. I know the deal. But if I’m the head writer, and this is my creative vision—I’d like to close the show like this to the build-up to KofiMania. I’d like to end it like this. ‘No, you don’t.’ And I don’t get good reasons why we’re not doing it.”

Road Dogg admitted that while he might sound arrogant, he firmly believes in his ability to understand what makes wrestling work.

“Maybe I’m being cocky and narcissistic, but I think I know better than everyone else. But here’s the truth about me, and yes, it is cocky and narcissistic: I’m good at this wrestling crap. I’m not good at the physical aspects, but I’m good at putting it together. I’m good at thinking about what will get good reactions. I’m good at it. I don’t know where I was going with that, Chris, but I am good at it. Let’s just stop there. Take a breather… I’m good at it, and I know what I… what I come up with for this segment, for this show, is going to work. I know that for a fact. What you come up with for the show, I don’t know if it’s going to work. I can watch it work and go like, ‘Damn dude, good. That was awesome. It worked, but I didn’t know it was going to work because it wasn’t mine.’”

Despite his frustrations, Road Dogg’s time away from SmackDown was short-lived. He transitioned to an NXT coaching role in mid-2019, only to be released in early 2022. But in August of that year, WWE rehired him as Senior Vice President of Live Events, and now, he’s back on SmackDown as co-head writer.

“For the show as a whole, and I wasn’t being given that opportunity at the end, yeah. And so it was frustrating. It was creatively frustrating. And I think, look, I think that’s the… maybe ‘creatively frustrating’ should be the era of that, because I’m sure I wasn’t alone in that.”

Road Dogg is now back in the mix, once again playing a major role in WWE’s creative process. But with new leadership under Triple H, will things be different this time around? Or will history repeat itself?