WWE Champion Drew McIntyre Reacts to Paul Heyman Getting Fired as WWE Raw Executive Director

During Paul Heyman's run as Monday Night Raw's executive director, Drew McIntyre went from being a stoic, upper-midcard heel to the charismatic, dominant WWE Champion The "Scottish Psychopath" started showing flashes of his personality in late 2019, but his rise up the card didn't hit top gear until he won the Men's Royal Rumble back in January and conquered Brock Lesnar in a matter of minutes at WrestleMania 36 to become world champion. Unfortunately, WWE fired Heyman from his role on the creative team this week, shunting him back into just being an on-camera performer.

In an interview with ComicBook on Friday, McIntyre gave his reaction to Heyman's sudden departure.

"He's been absolutely instrumental in helping me, guiding me, and advising me," McIntyre said. "Not just recently, just over the years. He's a very, very smart man, as everybody knows when it comes to this industry [he] understands myself and the wrestling business like the back of his hand, so he's been very instrumental in my career. In regarding right now what's going on, my first thought was, 'Okay, Paul Heyman, he's not going anywhere.' He's going to be an on-screen character still, which means the last thing that happened was me embarrassing Brock Lesnar, which in turn means I embarrassed Paul Heyman, which means in turn took away his meal ticket on TV. So I'm sure there is possibility for some interesting stuff to happen now.

"Be it Brock returns, he wants to get beat in two minutes and 17 seconds this time, instead of five minutes, that's good with me," he added. "And perhaps Paul Heyman's scouting other talent, I don't know. Maybe he shows up with another superstar to try and take my title, to try and get some revenge. I think there's some interesting things we can do should creative decide to go that direction. Because there's nothing more fun for me again, on a back and forth microphone battle with the absolute best, Paul Heyman."

WWE's latest pay-per-view, Backlash, takes place this Sunday at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Check out the full card below:

• Edge vs. Randy Orton
• WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. Bobby Lashley
• WWE Universal Championship: Braun Strowman vs. The Miz and John Morrison
• Raw Women's Championship: Asuka vs. Nia Jax
• United States Championship: Apollo Crews vs. Andrade
• WWE Women's Tag Team Championships: Bayley & Sasha Banks vs. The IIconics vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
• Raw Tag Team Championships: The Street Profits vs. The Viking Raiders
• Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus