Paul Heyman Explains Why He Was Fired as WWE Raw's Executive Director

Paul Heyman was announced as the executive director of Monday Night Raw back in June 2019 and made it a full year in the position before being fired by Vince McMahon in June 2020. And while Heyman has been thriving alongside "The Tribal Chief," he hadn't spoken publicly about why he had his initial position taken away. That finally changed on Wednesday when he spoke with ESPN's Ariel Helwani, who kicked off the interview by directly asking Heyman about that.

"When I took the role of Executive Director, I made an agreement with Vince McMahon," Heyman said. "I want this job as long as every morning Vince McMahon woke up, he said thank God or whatever deity he subscribes to [that] Paul Heyman is looking after the store on Raw. And the day that Vince McMahon didn't wake up and feel that way, I didn't want the job anymore. I've been in a similar role when Vince was not happy with me and it's a miserable existence. I didn't want it and apparently on that day on that given time and given moment, Vince didn't wake up that morning thanking whatever deity he subscribes to that Paul Heyman was in charge of Raw. We left with a smile, a handshake, and a hug. Absolutely no harsh feelings and actually better feelings about each other because of the way that it ended because it's ended miserably before."

"And proof positive of that is on the quarterly earnings call, when asked about Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon didn't say 'eh, we needed a new vision, eh we needed someone else, eh he ran his course, eh he was great but we had to go with this other person,'" Heyman continued. "Vince McMahon's only comment was 'I thought he did a great job creatively.' It was my time. My run in terms of serving at the pleasure of the chairman was up and then this opportunity presented itself both for me, for Roman and for WWE and we all jumped on it."

Reigns will defend his Universal Championship against Jey Uso in a Hell in a Cell I Quit Match at the upcoming Hell in a Cell pay-per-view on Oct. 25. Check out the full card (so far) below:

• WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso (Hell in a Cell I Quit Match)
• WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton (Hell in a Cell Match)
• SmackDown Women's Championship: Bayley vs. Sasha Banks (Hell in a Cell Match)