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Stephanie McMahon supervised the creative direction of RAW in 2004, while Paul Heyman worked on Smackdown in the same role. Jim Ross, a WWE commentator at the time, recently tackled a disagreement that the two once had behind the scenes.
At the end of 2004, Stephanie McMahon organized a conference call with other RAW Creative Team members. It later appeared that Heyman called and heard part of the call even though he was not invited. As a result, the WWE Hall of Famer lost its job as the creative figurehead of Smackdown.
Spend against Grilling JR Host Conrad Thompson, Ross explained the logic behind Heyman who entered the call without permission:
‘Well, according to her, Conrad, Paul has betrayed Stephanie’s confidence. I don’t agree with you [that Heyman hearing the meeting didn’t matter]. You would think that the main writer in the show that is recorded the next day would be informed about what was going on. It’s true. Stephanie has planned a cage match at RAW. Well, that would give Heyman the chance to make a decision. Do I duplicate another cage competition or do I do something else? Well, the logical answer is probably to do something else. ” [29:53 – 30:36]
Heyman went to work in 2006 on the renewed ECW brand of WWE before he left the company. After an absence of six years, he returned in 2012 as a personality on the screen.
Jim Ross defends Paul Heyman after the dispute of Stephanie McMahon
With reflection, Jim Ross sees no problem with a creative team member who listens to the plans of another WWE show.
The legendary announcer believes that Stephanie McMahon’s ego played a role in Paul Heyman who was removed from his SmackDown position:
“He should have listened, but he was not welcome,” Ross continued. “They wanted to divorce, and they had a competition and all these other s ** t. It is strange. It would not seem strange, Conrad. It’s weird! It is egos and politics and all those dogs * t. Heyman had Happiness is not very lucky. ” [30:42 – 31:07]
In the same episode, Ross gave his honest response to the recent eruption of Corey Graves after he was relegated to NXT.
What do you think of the issues of Paul Heyman and Stephanie McMahon in 2004? Press the discussion button and let us know.
Credit JR and give an H/T to Sportskeeda struggling for the transcription if you use JR’s quotes from this article.
Published by Danny Hart