Here is your news for June 12, 2020 Why Paul Heyman Is Fired From WWE? Why AJ Styles Was Upset With CM Punk? Mr McMahon Is Angry! WWE News! 2 00:00:03,216 --> 00:00:06,200 And your headlines for today include:
Paul Heyman Fired from Executive Director Position on WWE RAW!
Real Reasons Why Paul Heyman Was Fired!
Vince McMahon Is UNHAPPY With NXT!
Former WWE Superstar Declares Victory in Congressional Primary
********** Called Out After Trying to Sign Wrestlers for Return Of WCW Nitro
Naomi Breaks Silence Regarding Current Wwe Status
AJ Styles in Angry on CM Punk
Tessa Blanchard AND Impact Wrestling Are Having Major Problems And MORE!
We’re kicking off today with huge news from Monday Night RAW, as Paul Heyman
is no longer the show’s Executive Director.
The WWE announced the change on their website and social media, and whilst
Heyman will continue to serve as the advocate for Brock Lesnar, he won’t be
pitching on the creative process like he used to. The statement reads:
In an effort to streamline our creative writing process for television, we have
consolidated both teams from Raw and SmackDown into one group, led by Bruce
Prichard. Paul Heyman will concentrate on his role as an in-ring performer.
This is huge news to say the least and could shape the future of RAW in a major
way, as Heyman had certain Superstars he had plans to push, before both shows
respective creative teams were consolidated into one group, and we’ll have to see
what this means for the brand extension.
Fans will remember WWE bringing both Heyman and Eric Bischoff in as Executive
Directors, but now both men are out of a job, whilst Bruce Pichard’s role with the
company will change dramatically.
There’s certainly more to this story than what WWE are saying, as
WrestlingNews.co are reporting that Heyman didn’t quit the role, but the decision
was made for him by Vince McMahon, reportedly due to the RAW ratings.
It’s no secret that the RAW ratings haven’t been great, as the third hour drags the
figures down, and even hours one and 2 have struggled to reach over 2 million viewers lately.
Heyman certainly had a tough time of it, as their report also stated:
Another source told me that McMahon is more involved with Raw than
SmackDown and that made Heyman’s job much harder as he had to try to push his
ideas while trying to keep McMahon happy.
Known for being one of the most creative minds in wrestling, we’re sure that
Heyman gave some brilliant ideas to Vince, but ultimately it was the Boss who
decides which ones to use and which to avoid, but that didn’t stop the company
from holding Heyman responsible for the falling ratings.
We all know that McMahon has his own way of doing things, and now that Bruce
Prichard is running both shows, we can only wonder how long that situation will last.
Heyman’s removal from the Executive Director position has been a shock to fans,
and according to Fightful was also a shock to many within the company.
Their report states that the general consensus is that nobody knew about it until
after the news was broken on social media, though others saw this coming, as they said:
Others indicating they could see the writing on the wall of late. It should be noted
that nobody we’ve talked to said that they knew of the change before WWE
announced it on Twitter.
Their report also claims there’s a sense of general disappointment and surprise
from some, with the younger wrestlers Heyman had his eye on, as well as a group
of Paul Heyman guys backstage being particularly disappointed.
Now, Bruce Prichard’s workload has seemingly doubled, as he’s overseeing both
RAW and SmackDown, and this could dramatically change the company’s creative direction.
While reactions online to the news have been mixed to negative, it’s being
reported that things are even worse in WWE, as many newer wrestlers haven’t
worked with Prichard before, and are nervous about the change.
Sportskeeda is reporting that one reason behind this is because McMahon no
longer has the XFL, as the original reason for the Exeuctive Director role was
originally conceived so that Vince could spend less time on the day-to-day duties in WWE.
Now that Vince doesn’t have the XFL any more, Vince has taken a much more
hands on approach after being away from RAW and Smack Down for the past 9
months, and the ongoing global situation also heightened McMahon’s activity,
which resulted in a number of disagreements and extra pressure on creative roles.
According to Sportskeeda’s source, they didn’t know that this change was coming,
but weren’t surprised to see it happen.
It’s currently unclear what role Heyman has now, other than being the advocate
for Brock Lesnar, as even that isn’t happening at the moment, as the Beast isn’t
expected back until around Summerslam.
With Heyman not working backstage, Heyman does have more time to focus on
his on-screen character, so it’s possible fans see more of the ECW magnate on TV,
or even a more imminent arrival of Lesnar than expected.
Hopefully, Heyman returns to a creative role soon, as many Superstars and
production members have spoken about how much they enjoyed working under
him, but ultimately, everything boils down to what Vince McMahon wants.
We’ve got more news of issues backstage as NXT keeps losing to AEW Dynamite in
the ratings this week, which has caused major issues for Vince McMahon.
Though Wrestling News reports that WWE isn’t looking to make an immediate
change to the gold brand, McMahon isn’t happy about the ratings, though isn’t
looking to change NXT’s creative side yet. They added:
I was told that McMahon has been frustrated with NXT ratings as well but right
now it doesn’t look like there are changes coming for that brand on the creative
side but there has been talk of using more talent from Raw and SmackDown on that show.
WWE’s brand extension seems shaky right now with Prichard overseeing both
brands, and given that WWE can always reset things following a Pay Per View, fans
could see some big changes coming after this Sunday’s Backlash Pay Per View.
We’re stepping out of the ring and into politics now, as another former Superstar
is one step closer to becoming an elected official.
Dan Rodimir will be the next Republican candidate for a seat in Congress, as he
already has 44% of the vote to be the republican candidate.
He already declared victory in yesterday’s republican primary, and will be up
against incumbent Susie Lee this November.
Fans may remember Rodimir was being part of WWE’s Tough Enough in season 4,
and though he was later signed to a deal, that didn’t work out.
Rodimir’s past may come back to haunt him, as he’s been involved in a couple of
assault charges in recent years, which he considers quote “unfortunate,” and time
will tell whether he joins Kane, Jesse Ventura and Matt Morgan by being elected to office.
Back to WWE and we’re looking ahead to SmackDown, as two matches have
already been confirmed.
In addition to the Intercontinental title tournament finals between AJ Styles and
Daniel Bryan, fans will see Heavy Machinery reunite to team with Braun
Strowman, to face The Miz, John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler.
Tonight’s show will also see the Sheamus-Jeff Hardy contract signing and drug
test, which resulted in Vince McMahon coming out to personally produce, as
tonight’s edition of SmackDown will certainly be one to check out.
We’ve got news from Charlotte Flair next, as the Queen of all Eras has been hard
to miss as of late.
Appearing on RAW, SmackDown and NXT, Flair has been all over the place, and
according to Dave Meltzer who spoke on Wrestling Observer Radio, fans should
expect this trend to continue.
Speaking about this Sunday’s RAW Women’s title match between Asuka and Nia
Jax, It seems likely that the Empress will retain her gold, and Meltzer added:
“I think it’s pretty clear that the Asuka and Charlotte — Charlotte now has two
wins over Asuka so I would think that this is building a feud between the two of them.”
Although Flair just lost the NXT Women’s Championship at TakeOver: In Your
House, it’s clear that she didn’t lose much heat when giving up the title, especially
as she wasn’t even pinned to lose the gold.
It’s been reported that Flair is being set to be the top woman in WWE at least until
Becky Lynch returns, so fans can expect to see more of the Queen, and more title
reigns, in the coming months.
Now it’s no secret that there are some untrustworthy people on the Internet, and
recently, indie wrestler Debbie Kietel found this out in a major way.
On Twitter, Keitel received a Direct Message, supposedly from Dean Malenko,
who claimed that World Championship Wrestling is returning in 2020.
The alleged man of a thousand holds said that he was interested in signing Kietel
to a deal, and offered a hefty $25,000 a month to make it happen.
Whilst 25 grand is hard to turn down, the decision was easy for Keitel, who
recognised this was a **********, partly because Malenko is with AEW currently,
and doesn’t own the legal rights to bring back WCW.
Former WCW star turned referee Scott Armstrong got a kick out of the **********’s
attempts to allegedly sign Keitel, saying that she’d get a Huge Pop.
We’re not quite sure what the **********’s end-goal was, though it’s interesting
that this offer came just after WWE locked down the WCW copyright once again.
Clearly, if something on the internet sounds too good to be true, then it probably
is, and whilst we here at Slat Rock would love to be paid 25 grand a month to be
the official YouTube channel of WCW, that probably won’t be happening.
We’ve got news from AEW next, as fans who tune in to this week’s Dynamite may
have noticed a change to Billy Gunn.
During his confrontation with MJF, commentary referred to the 1999 King of the
Ring as just Billy, similar to how Cody Rhodes is simply Cody on-screen.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that this change is because
WWE took issue with him using the Billy Gunn name, as although he has a
trademark on the name for merchandise and a potential wrestling school, Billy
doesn’t own the Gunn surname as an in-ring performer.
It’s unclear right now how WWE can claim ownership of the name, as the
trademark for the term ‘Billy Gunn’ as a wrestler was reportedly abandoned
though the company could be claiming they own it, as it was them who created
the name back in the early 1990s.
This could prove to be an issue if they later decide to challenge Billy in court over
the matter, as the former Tag Team Champion could soon be preparing for
another intense battle, this time in the court room.
Back to WWE now and one person fans haven’t seen for a while is Naomi, despite
her huge return at this year’s Royal Rumble.
Taking to Twitter, the former SmackDown Women’s Champion addressed her
current status, saying:
I haven’t been posting much of myself lately bc I’ve just been down about all that’s
going on in the world, helping my husband through his injury, and trying to figure
out my next step (work)…it’s been a lot to process but today I woke up feeling
HOPEFUL and ready to rock
Naomi will likely be back in WWE, but for now she’s got other things to focus on,
but hopefully the Glow will be shining bright on TV once again sooner rather than later.
Now, we recently reported on the car of words between AJ Styles and CM Punk,
after the former Superstar called out people who have remained silent on the
********** Matter movement in the United States.
Now, the Phenomenal One has responded in an interview with the Times of India,
and whilst he didn’t trash Punk exactly, and didn’t address the ********** Matter
protests, he certainly didn’t have many positive things to say about the Best in the
World. He said:
“I will not react at all coming from a guy like that [who] I don’t respect anyway. It
doesn’t really matter. Look, my job as a performer is to perform and get [fans’]
minds off all the things that have happened throughout the world. I’m not going to
react to people saying ridiculous and stupid things.”
Time will tell whether Punk responds to Styles comments about him, and whilst
we’re not sure what either man is thinking right now, it’s pretty clear that Styles
doesn’t think too highly of the former World Heavyweight Champion
We’ve got news from Impact Wrestling next, and whilst Tessa Blanchard made
history as the company’s first female World Champion, things aren’t exactly easy
between the champ and the company.
Due to the ongoing global situation, Blanchard is currently stuck in Mexico, and
despite being advertised for Slammiversary, Fightful is reporting that things
haven’t been smooth sailing as of late. They added:
Blanchard was asked to send in promos for the recent set of tapings, but that just
didn’t happen, and to “not be surprised” if things didn’t progress past that
Controversy and backstage issues seem to be a theme throughout Blanchard’s
reign, as she received a social media storm just one day prior to her historic title
win, which include allegations of *******! ******* as well as *********.
As of right now, Blanchard is set to defend her title in a five-way intergender
match at Slammiversary on July 18th, but for now, Impact Wrestling might have to
make some difficult decisions regarding their historic World Champion.
And we’re ending today with news from WWE Backstage as WWE on FOX have
confirmed that next week’s episode will have Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart as the special guest.
Leading into Backstage, FS1 will be airing the 1996 Survivor Series starting at 7pm
Eastern, which saw the Hitman defeat ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin to become the
number one contender for the WWF Title.
Speaking of the gold, that night in Madison Sqaure Garden also saw Sid defeat
Shawn Michaels to capture the title, as well as the in-ring debut as Rocky Maivia,
so fans will have plenty to see ahead of the Hitman making his presence known on
WWE Backstage.