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SummerSlam is just around the corner and the last episode of RAW added more meat for The Biggest Party of the Summer. It was perhaps the best RAW episode of the year as Paul Heyman’s footprints were all over the show.
There were two main highlights of the show. One was the brawl at the very end that was started by Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns and ended with The Usos, Cedric Alexander, The Only Club, and Drew McIntyre coming together to go on war against each other.
And the second – and perhaps most important – was the beatdown Brock Lesnar gave to Seth Rollins during the latter’s match against Dolph Ziggler. The ruthless aggression of The Beast and his subsequent mauling of Rollins had Heyman’s signature all over it.
What particularly caught my interest was Paul Heyman begging his client, Brock Lesnar, to stop the assault on the former Universal Champion. Heyman has usually portrayed himself as someone who loves it when Lesnar hands a beating to someone but in the recent episode of RAW, he showed his softer side… and here are 4 reasons why that was the case.
#3 Portraying his role as Executive Director of RAW
Paul Heyman might be famous as the advocate of Brock Lesnar but he is also now the Executive Director of RAW, meaning that he is in charge of the creative on WWE’s flagship show.
While there might be a conflict of interest with Heyman playing both the roles, the Humble Advocate recently acknowledged his new role on TV and, as a result, is now, even in kayfabe, somewhat responsible for the Superstars on RAW.
Had WWE kept Heyman’s new role away from the weekly storyline and kept him as just Lesnar’s advocate on the show, this point would have been invalid. However, since he has openly admitted to having power over things on RAW, it becomes imperative that he shows kayfabe care for RAW Superstars.
That is exactly what he did when he was begging Lesnar to stop attacking Rollins, who is, after all, the face of Paul Heyman’s Monday Night RAW right now.
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#2 Solidifying Lesnar as a ruthless heel
Brock Lesnar has never really had to work very hard to convince people that he is an unstoppable heel. His physique and looks alone has always been enough for the portrayal because, after all, someone who looks like that is always going to intimidate people.
With Heyman on board now and in charge of the creative direction of RAW, he might just be adding more layers to Lesnar’s heel persona. All these days, he enjoyed Lesnar beating down his opponents and even encouraged him to keep going.
That somewhat made Lesnar look not as ruthless as he was simply doing what his advocate also enjoys. If anything, it made him look like he was complying to Heyman.
However, when Heyman begged him to stop and he still F5’d Rollins into the chair, it was a pure sign of Lesnar’s unrelenting heel persona – that not even the words of his closest ally were going to stop him from inflicting damage on his challenger.
A great way to enhance the character and garner heat.
#1 Getting the fans behind Rollins
When Rollins won the 10-Man Battle Royal on RAW after Extreme Rules to make himself the number one contender for the WWE Universal Championship, most fans were not really too keen to have the same rivalry going into SummerSlam.
A quick look at the social media reactions was enough to know of their discontent as Rollins was seemingly losing the complete support of the fans, who preferred someone else getting shot at the title instead of the Beast Slayer.
However, Heyman may have changed that with his actions on RAW. If getting beat the lights out was not enough for the WWE Universe to get behind Rollins once again heading into SummerSlam, Heyman begging Lesnar to stop would surely sway the fans in favor of Rollins.
It is the sort of push that Rollins needed before his match at SummerSlam as the fans will now be hoping to see Rollins inflicting his revenge on the Beast.
