Backstage joke about Paul Heyman and the 'SmackDown six' reportedly revealed
The news of Paul Heyman being removed as the Executive Director of Monday Night RAW has shocked the fans worldwide. It comes as a surprise that Heyman was sacked from his role as the leader of Team RAW.
Multiple reports have stated that poor ratings were to blame behind Vince McMahon's decision. Interestingly, as per The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there had been a running joke in WWE that when Paul Heyman was in-charge of SmackDown, he had the show revolve around six people who were called the SmackDown Six.
It was also said that the Superstars Heyman was pushing on RAW were those who had been overlooked on SmackDown. Superstars such as Apollo Crews, Murphy, Aleister Black and Andrade.
There was a joke that nearly two decades ago Heyman built Smackdown around the so-called Smackdown Six. And that now he was building Raw around the Smackdown Catering crew, noting that most of the people on the show where people who were on Smackdown and getting no television time, such as Andrade, Zelina Vega, Buddy Murphy, Aleister Black and Apollo Crews, as well as AOP who were being pushed to be a modern Road Warriors/Demolition like top tag team.
Paul Heyman has been known to be someone who likes to promote new talent and give a chance to younger Superstars who otherwise may get overlooked. Unfortunately for Heyman, his experiments on RAW were not able to draw in ratings.
Paul Heyman wanted to push new stars
The report also reveals that when Heyman had joined as the Executive Director of RAW, he wanted the time of 18 months to build new stars for the Red brand.
When Heyman was hired in June, he apparently pushed the idea that they had to create new stars, and this would take 18 months or longer for them to build the credibility to be stars with the new audience.
With Paul Heyman done as the ED of RAW, Bruce Prichard will be taking over and become the Executive Director of both RAW and Smackdown.
Do you think WWE made the right decision by removing Paul Heyman from this position and replacing him with Bruce Prichard?