Issues with Paul Heyman's original long-term plans for WWE RAW revealed
When Paul Heyman first came to WWE as the RAW Executive Director, he had to sit with Eric Bischoff and negotiate with him for the rosters that they were building for WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown. While talking about this situation, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, talked about the plans that Paul Heyman originally had in WWE and how he wanted to go about them.
During this period of negotiation, Paul Heyman did not mind giving up Bray Wyatt's The Fiend character to SmackDown. Instead, he wanted to use two established talents in WWE, like AJ Styles and Randy Orton, and other than that, build up the brand over a long period using new Superstars to establish them as the new faces of WWE RAW.
Paul Heyman's original plans for WWE RAW
When Paul Heyman was building his roster on WWE, with the exception of AJ Styles and Randy Orton, he mostly went for new Superstars. When Paul Heyman had pitched his pan to Vince McMahon, he had done so saying that it would take 18 months to build up a strong Red brand as establish WWE RAW as the powerhouse that WWE wanted it to be.
Paul Heyman chose Andrade and Aleister Black as two Superstars to build for the future, and along with them came Charlotte Flair and Zelina Vega. Other than then, Cedric Alexander, Ricochet, and Humberto Carrillo also joined WWE RAW. Paul Heyman was trying to build on the Hispanic demographic that is known to be a good demographic for professional wrestling. Drew McIntyre was seen as one of the top men, as was Bobby Lashley, who despite being old, had not really been properly used previously in WWE.
Gallows and Anderson were also seen as valuable to Paul Heyman as they could work with AJ Styles and provide longer storylines for him, as any opponent for AJ Styles would also have to go through them.
AJ Styles and Randy Orton could take losses without being hurt, but that changed heading into WrestleMania. With AJ Styles getting a feud against The Undertaker, and Randy Orton getting a feud against Edge, the two of them were not going to take any more losses.
This led to other WWE Superstars having to lose more and Vince McMahon losing interest with a lot of the other storylines. This was the reason that Paul Heyman's run as RAW Executive Director was made shaky.
"The problem with that ended up earlier this year, when Edge was coming back for Orton, and Styles had talked Undertaker into his latest one last match. Once those bouts were established for WrestleMania, nobody was going to be allowed to beat Orton or Styles. And with those wins not happening, and guys not getting over in “three weeks,” Vince lost interest in a lot of the talent that had pushes start."