The Story Of Paul Heyman Spying On WWE Raw, Explained

Paul Heyman is often regarded as one of the geniuses in wrestling. Most fans would agree that he was one of the best bookers of his time. In 2001, WWE hired Heyman as a Raw commentator. The next year, he was made the lead writer for SmackDown when the brand split happened. On Raw, Brian Gewirtz oversaw the writing process.

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At that time, SmackDown had turned into a sinking ship. They were doing very badly in ratings and WWE's main focus was on Raw. When Heyman took control of the blue brand, he changed everything about the show. For a short time, SmackDown even beat Raw in terms of ratings and live show attendance. The show was also producing some quality wrestling matches every week. Heyman was removed from his position in 2003, and a lot of fans believe it was because of an incident that took place during a Raw conference call. Heyman was caught eavesdropping, and that was a huge no-no in WWE at that time. Unfortunately, this isn't the real story.

Paul Heyman Got Caught Spying On Raw When He Accidentally Hung Up During A Call

In early 2003, Heyman and Brian were suspended after they got into a verbal alteration. It was during this time that Heyman got caught spying on Raw during a conference call with Vince McMahon. Because of the brand split, McMahon wanted both shows to compete with each other. Each brand's plans were kept a secret from the other. And McMahon attended separate conference calls with each brand's writing team (in addition to having one with both on the line).

So when Paul got caught trying to learn Raw's plans to gain an advantage, it became a huge deal. But how did WWE find out about this? Bruce Prichard once told this story in detail on his podcast. Prichard said that whenever a person joined the call, an automated voice would announce their name and that they have joined the conversation. The same would happen, when one left the call.

So one time, on a Saturday (these calls used to happen on weekends), the automated voice announced that "blank" has left the conversation. This happened because he accidentally hung up during the call. McMahon was furious since the meeting hadn't ended and wanted to know who left the call. So when WWE traced back, they found out someone from Scarsdale, New York had left the call. It was Paul's parents' house. Although Heyman initially denied eavesdropping on Raw, he later came clean.

The Real Reason He Got Released As The Head Writer Of SmackDown

Many fans believe that this was the reason why Heyman was removed from his head writer position in February 2003. But that wasn't the case. While most people would agree that SmackDownwas doing much better in terms of almost everything under Heyman's leadership, things weren't so smooth backstage. Heyman was constantly butting heads with Vince. From what has been revealed about McMahon over the years, he likes when guys step up. But he doesn't like it when they take things too far. Vince only does things the way he wants to, and if someone constantly challenges him, he doesn't like it. Even Prichard said that Heyman didn't know when to stop.

Heyman Didn't Just Have Clashes With Vince Only

Some fans also believe that it was Kevin Dunn who got Heyman fired from his writer position in 2003. Although a PWTorch report from that year said that this wasn't true. They reported that Vince removed Heyman as SmackDown's head writer because he wanted to. He didn't make this decision because one of his employees didn't like Heyman.

And not just Dunn, Heyman seemed to have issues with almost everyone who didn't agree with him. He constantly disagreed with Stephanie McMahon as well. In general, Heyman didn't work well with others. He liked to do things his way, and a lot of the time, people disagreed with him. Although Paul did make some great decisions on SmackDown, they were all approved by Vince. A lot of his ideas didn't make it to television, because they were terrible.

Heyman's Contributions Saved SmackDown

Despite all of his flaws, fans can't deny that Heyman made SmackDown a lot better in 2002. The SmackDown Six Era consisted of Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Chavo Guerrero, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio, and it was arguably one of the best times in SmackDown history. All six wrestlers were very talented, and their rivalries were excellent.

It would probably be safe to say that without Heyman trusting these talents to run the show, SmackDown wouldn't have managed to beat Raw in ratings. Also, it would've been a stupid mistake if McMahon had fired Heyman from his head writer position only because he got caught eavesdropping on a Raw conference call.