WWE Rumors- Real reason why Andrade was not punished for drug test failure with a title loss on RAW
Andrade is the man of the hour for all the wrong reasons. The reigning United States Champion violated the WWE's wellness policy and has been handed a 30-day suspension for his first strike.
Andrade was written off TV on this week's episode of RAW after Humberto Carrillo took him out with a Hammerlock DDT on the exposed concrete floor.
The US title match ended in a DQ and many fans are wondering why Carrillo didn't become the new US Champion if the plan was to get Andrade out of the picture.
Dave Meltzer reported on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio that Paul Heyman decided to keep the title on Andrade as he felt that it would be too soon to put the belt around Carrillo's waist in this particular feud.
Carrillo, as reported, was originally supposed to win the title from AJ Styles months ago, however, the plan didn't come to fruition.
Meltzer also noted that Heyman is really high on Andrade and plans on making the Superstar a franchise player on RAW.
Here's what Meltzer and Alvarez discussed:
Meltzer: Yes, he’s suspended, which is why they did the angle tonight. That was not in the script where Humberto Carrillo DDTed him on the concrete to explain him being out for 30 days. The decision was made, it was a Paul Heyman decision to keep the title on Andrade. The usual protocol would be for him to lose the title as well. But Heyman is very high on Andrade and felt that it was too early to put the title on Carrillo.
Alvarez: What?
Meltzer: Yep, felt it was too early.
Alvarez: Hold on a second. They were going to put the title on Carrillo from AJ like months ago, now it’s too early?
Meltzer: Because of the feud, in the feud.
Alvarez: I see. I see!
Meltzer: Not too early for Carrillo. He (Paul Heyman) wants to make Andrade a real franchise player, which does not mean that Carrillo may never beat him, but I think he really wants to establish him as one of the cornerstones.
I mean, you can really see the guys. Andrade, Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, Carrillo to an extent, Ricochet to a lesser extent. I mean, you can see the guys. Not as much Erick Rowan but he’s definitely there. But Andrade is really one of the key guys. I think Andrade, Aleister Black, and McIntyre are at the forefront of everyone that he’s trying to push.
Meltzer also revealed that the news of Andrade's suspension was kept secret and everyone backstage knew quite late in the day, which forced the writing team to make changes to the script.
So the deal with Andrade is that they got the test results, you know it’s funny how they say that, because when it comes to drug test results, like literally nobody, I mean there have been times where guys have failed a test, and they will suspend them. It’s not like they will suspend you immediately when you fail a test, it could take a week. The idea is that we have to tie up loose ends. You know, it could be a month, it could be three days, but the idea is that we tie up loose ends and do that. But they tell nobody.
I mean like literally until like the day of the thing, nobody knows, so as far as when the Andrade test came in, I don’t know that it was today. Vince may have known, you know like Paul Levesque may have known yesterday. Literally, no one else would have known.
The writing team would not have known until today. So this was done at that point. They didn’t know yesterday. So Andrade winning, in theory, probably, Vince found out today too, because my gut is that they would not have had Andrade win clean on Sunday. But I know like, this morning, that nobody knew, in the morning, but by the afternoon they did know and then they adjusted from there.
Andrade is expected to return at the end of February and he should continue his angle with Humberto Carrillo.