Paul Heyman has been one of the most important people in WWE backstage when it comes to the overall Raw product. Vince McMahon made the call to add Heyman and Eric Bischoff to the Raw and Smackdown teams respectively to shake up the creative process. Heyman has played a huge role on Raw in making the decisions regarding how to showcase and push most of the wrestlers on the roster.
We will look at the ups and downs to take place under the Heyman regime. WWE gave Heyman control during the build to Summerslam and he is expected to continue in this role for the foreseeable future. Some of the things to happen under his watch have already shown great improvement while others have missed the mark. Find out just what the mad genius has accomplished with the five great things has already done for Raw along with five disappointing things.
10 Great: Reforming The Club
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were doing nothing over the past few years until Paul Heyman decided to finally use them. AJ Styles turned heel on Ricochet by aligning with his close friends to reform The Club for their second run together in WWE referencing their Bullet Club days.
The trio have worked well together and found relevance as a faction. Anderson and Gallows had a short run with the Raw Tag Team Championship and already have credibility again. Styles is doing better in the heel role with an impressive United States Championship still going strong.
9 Disappointing: Lack of Samoa Joe
Samoa Joe is one wrestler fans expected to get a bigger push with Paul Heyman running the show. However, things have slowed down for Joe over the past few months. Joe was left off the Summerslam card altogether with no strong storylines heading his way.
The King of the Ring tournament did give Joe some good moments, but he fell short of making the finals and has done nothing of note since then. Time will tell if Joe remains on the Raw brand with Heyman or gets moved to Smackdown in the upcoming draft.
8 Great: Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch's feud
The return of Sasha Banks was among the best things to happen to WWE over the summer. Banks left the company after WrestleMania 35 with the need to give herself time off to improve her mental health. The heel turn gave us The Boss back in her best form as a ruthless villain.
Becky Lynch has kept her momentum by continuing to play the face with an edge that isn’t afraid to step on toes. Heyman reportedly has played a huge role in their feud. Banks and Lynch had an impressive match at Clash of Champions with a chance for a bigger classic inside of the Hell in a Cell structure.
7 Disappointing: Secondary women's feuds
The women’s division on Raw has not been as impressive when it comes to depth. WWE typically tries to feature two or three credible feuds for the women’s division on both shows. Aside from Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks, Raw has not featured many great feuds for their women.
The current storyline between Lacey Evans and Natalya is arguably the worst thing currently taking place on the show. Evans struggles to put the sharpshooter as an insult to Natalya while Nattie struggles at talking trash. Paul Heyman needs to figure out a better way to highlight more women from the division.
6 Great: Segments re-introducing talents
The recent backstage vignettes of Authors of Pain have been highly effective at making them credible. WWE lost interest in the intimidating tag team shortly after their call-up from NXT. They have received little television time until these videos offered explanations.
Paul Heyman has done a tremendous job at setting the stage for Authors of Pain to receive more respect when they are back in the ring likely after the draft. Akam and Rezar have shown their presence in the videos with great talking and brutal attacking moments.
5 Disappointing: Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman's tag title reign
The storyline between Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman was one of the weaker ideas from Paul Heyman in the main event picture. Rollins and Strowman became a makeshift tag team for a few weeks and won the Raw Tag Team Championship. Transitional reigns like that to set up a singles feud just hurt the tag titles in general.
Rollins and Strowman also struggled to effectively tell the story of the two wrestlers on the same team having their egos clash in the singles feud for the Universal Championship. Their short rivalry didn’t create much interest and fans were more excited when a new challenger emerged to attack Rollins after their match.
4 Great: Getting the best out of Brock Lesnar
Paul Heyman is the closest person in the wrestling business to Brock Lesnar. WWE may not have ever worked with Heyman again if Lesnar didn’t pull the strings to bring him back as a manager/advocate again. It makes sense that Brock did his best work under Heyman.
The story between Seth Rollins and Lesnar heading into Summerslam was a rare good world title program involving The Beast. Brock used his Money in the Bank title shot to dethrone Rollins. The effort put in by Lesnar helped give Rollins arguably the biggest win and best performance of his career.
3 Disappointing: Maria Kanellis' baby drama
The pregnancy of Maria Kanellis has provided one of the stranger WWE storylines in quite some time. Paul Heyman is a huge fan and mentor of Maria which led to him using her real-life situation in a storyline. Maria is upset with her husband’s Mike Kanellis’ losing ways and it created a rift between them.
There have been a few fake teases of Maria trying to reveal the real father of the child. Ricochet was accused before Mike lost a match to him. Rusev was the next person revealed as the father with no clarification on if she was telling the truth. Maury Povich is expected to appear on Raw for a comedic segment trying to find the father.
2 Great: Presentation of The Fiend
The ascension of Bray Wyatt during his character revamp has made him the hottest star in WWE today. Wyatt entertains the audience with hilarious segments essentially spoofing Mr. Rogers Neighborhood in the spookiest way possible to showcase his new outlook on his peers and the fans.
However, the alter ego known as The Fiend is the Wyatt we now see in the ring. Fans react with loud cheers any time the lights go out and The Fiend is out. Wyatt has attacked legends like Mick Foley, Kane and Jerry Lawler to earn credibility. Paul Heyman has helped build The Fiend up to a point where he’s must-see television.
1 Disappointing: King Corbin
The King of the Ring tournament is always meant to be fun, but WWE often ruins it by overcomplicating the idea. Past winners Bad News Barrett and Sheamus won the tournament just to get goofy king gimmicks that hurt their overall appeal of having a credible main event character.
Baron Corbin was already a controversial enough choice to win it all after his awful performances against Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship. WWE is now having King Corbin play the over the top gimmick that has failed many others before him.