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In June 2019, WWE announced that Paul Heyman would oversee the creative process on RAW and report directly to Vince McMahon, while Eric Bischoff would work in the same role on SmackDown.
One year on, Bischoff has been gone from WWE for eight months and Heyman has now returned to his position as an on-screen performer, with Bruce Prichard leading the creative writing process on both RAW and SmackDown.
Various reports over the last year have named Superstars who Heyman and Bischoff wanted to push on their respective brands, but even the most casual of WWE viewers will know that Vince McMahon always has the final say when it comes to major storyline developments.
This was summed up by Sportskeeda’s Tom Colohue in his report on Heyman’s removal from his Executive Director role, which included details of Vince McMahon’s handling of the creative process in recent weeks.
"I have been told that due to no longer focusing so much time on the XFL, Vince McMahon has taken a much more hands-on approach that he has done previously. Many sources have reported over the last nine months that Vince McMahon has been spending less and less time at RAW and especially SmackDown.
"His heightened activity during the COVID-19 pandemic has apparently put extra pressure on creative roles and have resulted in a number of disagreements. The source added that they did not know that this was coming but they were not surprised to see it happen."
In this article, let’s take a look back at the last 12 months of WWE RAW rumors to count down five Superstars who Vince McMahon reportedly gave up on during Heyman’s time as Executive Director.
#5 Cedric Alexander
Cedric Alexander was one of the first WWE Superstars who received a push on RAW after Paul Heyman began his role as the brand’s Executive Director, but it did not take long for him to return to his previous position on the card.
It looked as though the former Cruiserweight Champion could even win the United States Championship from AJ Styles following a brief alliance with Roman Reigns and some statement-making wins over Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn and Cesaro.
However, it was reported in September 2019 by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer that Vince McMahon booked Alexander to lose in quick fashion against Styles at Clash of Champions because he no longer wanted Heyman to keep on pushing him.
Speaking to talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy, Alexander responded to the report by insisting that he did not feel like Vince McMahon had tried to “bury” him.
"Of course [it annoyed me]. When you hear things like that, it doesn’t help my brand, you know what I mean? Regardless of how you feel about it, whether you think AJ buried me or not – it was fine. I knew what it was! It was great matches, I got to show a lot of my personality and my in-ring style."
#4 Ricochet
It is worth remembering that Paul Heyman had to report directly to Vince McMahon, so any RAW push from the last 12 months still had to be approved by the WWE Chairman.
In Ricochet’s case, Heyman and/or Vince McMahon decided to push him as one of the top rising Superstars on RAW, resulting in the high-flyer facing Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship in a marquee match at Super ShowDown in February 2020.
Unfortunately for “The One and Only”, he turned out to be yet another victim of a brutally quick Lesnar squash match, as “The Beast” pinned him after just 88 seconds to retain his title.
Ricochet then failed to win the 24/7 Championship in an eight-minute match against Riddick Moss four days later on RAW, leading Dave Meltzer to report that Vince McMahon wanted to “bury” him.
"Ricochet is done. Yeah. It's Vince! You know, he may change his mind next week, but yeah, this week he's done. He's so done. This was a burial, without a doubt, like who knows, he gets these things in his head. With Cedric Alexander, he was supposed to get a big push and Vince just buried the guy, and now he's burying another guy."
#3 Humberto Carrillo
Speaking on his Something to Wrestle With podcast, Bruce Prichard often gives a fascinating insight into what it is really like to work with Vince McMahon behind the scenes in WWE.
The new head of RAW and SmackDown’s creative process once said that Vince McMahon’s biggest flaw is his inability to “allow things to truly fail”. In other words, as we’re finding out with some of the names in this list, Prichard believes Vince McMahon can sometimes be too quick to make changes to a Superstar’s character or the direction of a storyline.
One example of this came in November 2019 when Humberto Carrillo – a Superstar who debuted on RAW under the Paul Heyman regime – stopped receiving a push after initially working with big names including Seth Rollins and AJ Styles.
Bryan Alvarez reported on Wrestling Observer Live that Vince McMahon did not think Carrillo was connecting with WWE fans, which is why he dropped further down the card.
“Vince is done with Humberto Carrillo for the time being. He’s given him the Cedric Alexander, where you’re still going to see him on TV, I’m sure he’s going to win here and there but like it’s exactly like Cedric Alexander. He got a few weeks, Vince thought he wasn’t getting over and so, he’s done with that big push.”
#2 Apollo Crews
It might seem odd to include Apollo Crews in this list when he is the new United States Champion, but his long-term “burial” prior to his recent push reportedly stemmed from a decision that Vince McMahon made about the WWE RAW Superstar in 2016.
Back then, shortly after his main-roster debut, it was claimed that Crews had backstage heat after Vince McMahon felt that his new Superstar had botched some spots in a match on RAW with Chris Jericho. This, if true, might explain why Crews did not feature in many meaningful storylines between 2016 and 2020.
Dave Meltzer reacted to Crews’ recent United States Championship triumph by reflecting on the RAW Superstar’s first few months on the main roster after WrestleMania 32, including the time that Vince McMahon reportedly “gave up” on him.
“Yeah, everybody thought he was gonna be a big star until he started and then they thought he couldn’t do it because Vince gave up on him. Remember, they rushed him onto the main roster right away.” [H/T WrestlingNews.co]
Crews was predominantly a SmackDown roster member during Paul Heyman’s time as Executive Director, but he still made sporadic appearances on RAW before permanently joining the brand in April 2020.
Prior to his United States Championship push, Crews' only RAW matches in the last year ended in defeats against Mojo Rawley and Ricochet.
With Bruce Prichard now working alongside Vince McMahon on the red brand, it will be interesting to see how Crews is booked as United States Champion without Heyman leading the show's creative direction.
#1 EC3
In January 2020, Dave Meltzer reported that Vince McMahon – not Paul Heyman – was the person who decided against using EC3 on WWE RAW.
The former NXT Superstar moved to WWE’s main roster in December 2018 alongside Lacey Evans, Lars Sullivan, Nikki Cross and Heavy Machinery, but he hardly featured on television following his initial feud with Dean Ambrose.
Meltzer said Vince McMahon “gave up on EC3 real fast” after “hating” a tryout match that he competed in against Luke Harper before the post-WrestleMania 35 episode of SmackDown.
“I don’t think this is a Paul [Heyman] call,” added Meltzer, which might explain why EC3 only competed in two RAW matches during Heyman’s time as Executive Director.
It is worth noting that EC3, who received his release in April 2020, was sidelined for several months after suffering a concussion in September 2019. Prior to that, he was mostly used on Main Event in Heyman’s first three months overseeing the creative process on RAW.
