5 WWE Superstars whose push ended after Paul Heyman left his Executive Director role
Paul Heyman has been one of the biggest names in WWE for several years. While Heyman is not a Superstar, he is regarded as one of the greatest managers and wrestling minds of all time. The man behind Brock Lesnar has helped several Superstars reach megastar status with his services in WWE.
In June 2019, it was announced that Heyman would be given the position of Executive Director of WWE RAW. Under his leadership, Heyman managed to create some top stars for the RAW brand, and some of them are still enjoying a lot of success.
Drew McIntyre is one of the men who got a major push after Heyman took control. He ended up defeating Lesnar to become the WWE Champion at WrestleMania. Murphy, Ricochet, and Humberto Carrillo were some other Superstars who received a notable push under Heyman's direction.
But Heyman was removed from his role as the Executive Director of RAW this past June. H made the following comments about his removal:
"Apparently on that day on that given time and given moment, Vince didn’t wake up that morning thanking whatever deity he subscribes to that Paul Heyman was in charge of Raw. We left with a smile, a handshake, and a hug. Absolutely no harsh feelings and actually better feelings about each other because of the way that it ended because it’s ended miserably before."
Several RAW Superstars lost their push almost immediately following Heyman’s removal. Here's a look at five of these WWE Superstars whose booking suffered when Heyman lost his role.
#5 Apollo Crews became the WWE United States Champion under Paul Heyman
Apollo Crews moved to WWE RAW in April 2020 after he was on the SmackDown brand for a few months. Paul Heyman quickly decided to give Crews the chance he deserved and allowed him to defeat Andrade for the WWE United States Championship in May.
This victory gave Crews his first title in WWE, and it was evident that Heyman had a lot to do with the decision. Crews had been a lower-card Superstar before he moved to the red brand.
Crews spoke with Alex McCarthy of talkSport about Heyman’s influence on his standing on RAW:
“ Paul Heyman is fantastic to work for. He’s been very hands-on with me and he’s helped me a lot, especially a lot in areas like my promos. And that’s one thing I feel like I can always improve on. I can improve on all areas of my game and make sure I work on becoming the complete superstar. And I won’t stop until that happens.”
Crews then had a lengthy rivalry with The Hurt Business. He ultimately lost the title to Bobby Lashley soon after Heyman moved on from his role. But Crews managed to leave a mark with the title reign and gained the attention of the WWE Universe.
Unfortunately, Crews has not received many major opportunities following his move back to SmackDown in October. While Heyman was very hands-on with Crews' success, it seems like the former champion lost his push after Heyman was removed from his Executive Director role.