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Paul Heyman’s dismissal as RAW Executive Director sent shockwaves throughout the wrestling world, but many backstage within WWE saw the writing on the wall.
According to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Paul Heyman was working with two contracts, one as a performer, and the other in a management position.
Heyman was relieved of his duties as RAW Executive Director on June 11, being replaced by Bruce Prichard, who will now oversee both brands.
WWE’s official statement read,“In an effort to streamline our creative writing process for television, we have consolidated both teams from Raw and SmackDown into one group, led by Bruce Prichard. Paul Heyman will concentrate on his role as an in-ring performer.”
While this news was a shock to many, many backstage in WWE said “there had been signs for a few weeks of this coming”.
One person at the front office stated, “I am shocked it took this long. Everyone knew it was coming. Vince did not like Paul.”
The reasoning behind his dismissal wasn’t one thing specifically, but a multitude of events that snowballed, including RAW receiving its lowest ratings amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Heyman was hired last June, he pushed for the idea to create new stars, stating it would take 18 months or longer to build them up.
McMahon mentioned during the last WWE conference call that RAW was introducing new talent, and it would take time to get them over
Despite McMahon publicly acknowledging the amount of time to push new stars, he was not pleased with how things were panning out.
Vince McMahon was frustrated with a lot of new talent, who were actively pushed by Heyman, not getting over, even though no audience was in attendance for them to gain a reaction from.
There definitely were underlying signs for the past few weeks that indicated something was going to be done. Moves are always made when ratings are down and to an extent Eric Bischoff, Prichard and Heyman were all viewed coming in as potential scapegoats for the larger systematic problem.
Paul Heyman was behind many RAW stars, including Andrade, Zelina Vega, Buddy Murphy, Apollo Crews, Drew McIntyre, AOP and Aleister Black.
The joke backstage is that Heyman is trying to push the “SmackDown Catering Crew”, referencing the “SmackDown Six”, which consisted of Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Chavo Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and Edge.
The expectation is changes moving forward on RAW, including more angles to create an immediate reaction, rather than building characters, which was part of Heyman’s vision.