As the news of Paul Heyman’s firing from WWE creative last week continues to reverberate around the wrestling world, and new information about why he was dismissed from his position as executive director of Monday Night Raw remains to come to light. On this week’s edition of the Top Rope Nation Pro Wrestling Podcast (hosted by ComicBook’s own Ryan Droste), some exclusive information was revealed in regards to Heyman and his reputation while in charge of WWE Raw, as well as the reaction out of the USA Network to his firing.
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According to a source close to the WWE creative team, the word was that Heyman “had to go.” According to Top Rope Nation:
“The quote that I got was he had to go, which is pretty strong…we’d heard that there’s a long list of issues that led to this removal. And the key is most of them centered around poor communication. What was perceived, I should say, as poor communication from Paul Heyman and or being difficult to work with.”
It had previously been reported by various sources that the USA Network was disappointed when they heard that Heyman was let go from the Raw creative team. That report has gained a lot of traction around the internet in recent days. However, the podcast noted that the rumor was almost certainly not true and overblown.
“So what’s really interesting about Heymans position is that it’s not just a creative position. people outside of WWE may not understand this, may not know it, but there’s a lot of sort of being a liaison with the network you work for. For instance, if under SmackDown, you know, when Bruce (Prichard) was just doing SmackDown, I assume he had a regular dialogue with the FOX network. And Paul (Heyman) was expected to kind of have a regular dialogue with USA. And it was kind of a one-way street, I guess, where Heyman was only talking to the network when they called him. I’ve seen some speculations that there was some input regarding the 24/7 title, I can’t verify that to be honest with you. I’ve only seen the speculation, but we know that was a USA (Network) idea – the 24/7 title. And, you know, when you get beholden to these networks, they’re gonna feel free like they should be able to give input if they’re not happy with the ratings they’re getting.”
“But the idea that the USA Network was, quote, not pleased or whatever about Heyman being removed is almost certainly untrue. They kind of just view it as just another show runner being fired from a TV show to them.”
Another note was that Heyman’s role of executive director of Raw was to communicate with the merchandising team so that they could get merchandise ready for whomever was going to be pushed. It was said that there was frustration within that department as they virtually never heard from Heyman, adding to the feeling that his exit (and eventual firing) from the role was inevitable. There was said to be a feeling backstage that Heyman was difficult to communicate with and difficult to work with.
To hear the entire podcast, with even more backstage news on Heyman’s exit from WWE, you can listen to the full podcast on Apple and Spotify.
Writers: Please credit ComicBook.com when using quotes from this story, as well as a link to the Top Rope Nation Pro Wrestling Podcast
