Even More Details On WWE’s Recent Creative Change: RAW Talent Nervous, Vince McMahon’s Outlook Changed, More

As we reported yesterday, there has been a major shift in the creative team in WWE. Paul Heyman has stepped down to focus on his on-screen role while Bruce Prichard will now be in charge of both RAW and Smackdown. It is believed that this was done due to RAW’s ratings drop, as well as RAW being a ‘mess’ that Heyman is ‘taking the fall’ for.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has more details on the situation, including Vince McMahon’s state of mind and how the RAW talent feel about the change.

McMahon’s thinking reportedly changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, all of WWE’s moves were calculated to be preparing for the future. This including Heyman’s booking of RAW to build up future stars, the revival of the XFL, expanding into Europe and Japan and more. Now it seems the company and Vince are more concerned with the present. McMahon also felt that the new talent being pushed wasn’t getting over, even though there were no crowds to confirm that. This is all in addition to RAW’s declining ratings.

While some people backstage have felt there were signs of this happening for weeks now, many of the WWE talents were shocked by the news. Several wrestlers are also nervous, as they hadn’t had any kind of a push before Paul Heyman decided to run with them. Wrestlers considered Heyman projects include Andrade, Zelina Vega, Murphy, Aleister Black, Apollo Crews and others. AOP were also going to get a big push before injuries took them off TV.

One person backstage said: “I am shocked it took this long. Everyone knew it was coming. Vince did not like Paul.”

Changes are always made in WWE backstage when ratings are down and Heyman, Prichard and Eric Bischoff were seen as possible scapegoats for a bigger issue. This won’t affect wrestlers like Edge, Seth Rollins, Charlotte Flair and Randy Orton, who are safe due to their star power and ability to talk, but the status of other wrestlers is up in the air, including Drew McIntyre. While McMahon reportedly likes McIntyre and the Street Profits and they’re believed to be safe, McMahon also has a tendency to change his mind a lot.

Heyman had originally said that it would take eighteen months or longer to build new stars, especially those that could bring in younger fans. McIntyre was set to be a new cool babyface, but without crowds it’s hard to tell if that’s working. The ratings didn’t go up after he won the WWE title. McMahon is notoriously not patient, which has led to the pushes of Ricochet, Humberto Carrillo and Cedric Alexander coming to an end, among others.

This could also lead to the rosters combining a bit, as that usually happens when ratings drop to put top stars on both rosters.