Backstage Rumors on Internal WWE Reactions to Paul Heyman Firing From Executive Director Role

– As previously reported, former Raw Executive Director Paul Heyman was recently dismissed from his post and replaced by Bruce Prichard, as WWE is looking to consolidate their creative teams. Fightful recently released a compiled report with details on the reactions to Heyman being removed from his Executive Director role.

Per the report, Paul Heyman was said to have been “instrumental” in certain Superstars’ current pushes on Raw. One such name is current WWE World champion Drew McIntyre, who was reportedly being groomed by Heyman long before his Royal Rumble match victory. Heyman apparently wanted McIntyre “protected” for his main roster push.

Other names that Heyman was said to have been high on were Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza. Heyman was reportedly integral in Carrillo’s booking in WWE. Additionally, Vince McMahon is said to have not known much about Angel Garza after he arrived on Raw, other than the fact that he was Carrillo’s cousin. More recent reports state that McMahon is very high on Garza at the moment and that he reminds McMahon of “a young Eddie Guerrero.”

There was allegedly a joke that started backstage for the Raw crew about the show being built around the “catering crew” rather than the “Smackdown Six” because talents such as AOP, Zelina Vega, Andrade, Humberto Carrillo, Aleister Black, Andrade, and Buddy Murphy were generally not booked with much to do. As a result, they spent much of their time in the catering area rather than getting booked on TV. The report notes that Heyman was the person behind Buddy Muprhy getting a push on Raw, which is consistent with past reports. More recently, Apollo Crews is one of the names that Heyman was responsible for pushing on TV before he was dismissed from Raw. Crews himself credited Heyman for his success in a recent interview.

Other names who Heyman wanted to push but didn’t pan out were Ricochet and Cedric Alexander. Per the report, Heyman wanted to continue doing more with them on Raw, but Vince McMahon was apparently the one responsible for halting their momentum. Superstars on Raw Heyman also reportedly pushed for were The Street Profits and Liv Morgan.

The responses to Heyman getting fired from his Executive Director role on Raw to Fightful were said to be be very varied based on Superstars in and outside of WWE. Younger wrestlers were said to have been disappointed by the news because Heyman was a proponent of showcasing new blood and talent on Raw. Additionally, none of the wrestlers Fightful spoke to knew about the change for Heyman until WWE officially announced the news. Some apparently thought the “writing was on the wall” and were not surprised by the change in the WWE creative team..

One talent claimed that Heyman was open to hearing pitches and storylines until the late hours of the night, and Heyman reportedly acted that way with everyone. However, it was pointed out that if Heyman was like this with everybody, there’s a chance his workload might’ve started to overwhelm him. The report states that “most” of the things Heyman wanted didn’t get executed.

As noted, AJ Styles apparently had backstage issues with Heyman, which are said to have sparked Styles’ recent move to Smackdown. Two sources in the Fightful report claimed that Paul Heyman didn’t see the value in Styles’ former stablemates, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Their firings later hit Styles very hard. Multiple wrestlers reportedly said that Styles was “furious” over their WWE firings in April. Not to mention, they had just recently signed new, multi-year contracts with WWE last Summer.

Styles later only worked one more match on Raw after Gallows and Anderson were fired. He is currently the Intercontinental champion of the Smackdown brand.