Paul Heyman Says WWE Raw Is 'Clearly' the B-Show, Supports the WWE Brand Split

Paul Heyman was interviewed by Ariel Helwani earlier this week for BT Sport and spoke on a number of major topics both in and out of WWE. Heyman stayed out-of-character for most of the interview, but (somewhat) dipped back in when the subject of the Raw vs. SmackDown rivalry was brought up. Sunday's Survivor Series pay-per-view will once again center around the "battle for brand supremacy" during the two shows, but Heyman argued that there is no real rivalry given that the Blue Brand has Roman Reigns as its top star and it airs every week on network television as opposed to cable.

"There is no rivalry, SmackDown has beaten the s— out of Raw, Raw is clearly the B Show. There is no more competition. We won," Heyman said (h/t Fightful). "I have no bitterness towards Raw. If Raw goes sour, it hurts SmackDown. If Raw goes sour, it hurts WWE. It hurts the stock. The stock goes sour, it hurts me personally. I don't want Raw to do bad. I wish Raw would do even better and provide stiffer competition to SmackDown because if a star emerges on Raw that Roman Reigns can draw box office with, we have another opponent. The problem with Roman Reigns is not the limit of his greatness, his greatness gets more defined as every performance is put forth. The problem with Roman Reigns is, we have such a limited number of people that we can viably and actually work with that people will look at and say, 'That's an opponent for Roman Reigns, that's someone I'd like to see challenge the Tribal Chief.' That's why Brock Lesnar's return is so huge because we don't have five other people waiting in the wings that automatically step up and can be a credible opponent for Roman Reigns."

Elsewhere in the interview Heyman openly disagreed with Helwani over the status of the WWE brand split. Helwani wants it to be dissolved in order for all WWE stars to potentially appear on both shows, while Heyman argued having the split gives more wrestlers the chance to become stars in the company. 

"There's not enough space for new talent to rise if you're going to have both shows dominated by the same personalities," Heyman said. "It's a matter of the amount of time it takes for a talent to resonate with an audience and how much you have to define that persona and learn about who this person is, why I should care about them and why I should pay to see them. And if you have both television shows dominated by Roman Reigns, The Usos, The Bloodline, Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Big E, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Bianca Belair, we now have both shows booked.

"Okay, so when do the young stars emerge? How do you get Humberto Carrillo in a decent spot? How do you get Angel Garza in a decent spot? Where does Hit Raw make their debut and against whom and for how long? How long will they have to rise to the top? You need to have these separate and distinct entities so that there are three hours to fill up on Monday, so that there's two hours to fill on a Friday," he continued. "And if Roman Reigns just dominates both shows then you have to keep the storylines cohesive, so whomever Roman is working with on Raw, the story continues on SmackDown. Top spot is locked up. Top spot on SmackDown is not the same as the top spot on Raw. Big E has his thing going with Kevin Owens. ...Once you take that main event position and you give it to the same two, three people on both shows, your main event position is now locked up. So how do you rise?"