There's been a notable improvement in the quality of
RAW since Paul Heyman was named Executive Director, and during a recent edition of his podcast, Jerry "The King" Lawler credited him with the fact Superstars on the Monday night show are getting more chances to be themselves rather than being forced to stick to scripted promos.
This came during a conversation with Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Lawler used him as an example of someone who was able to turn themselves into a star after being given creative freedom.
"Now that Paul Heyman is sort of in charge of RAW, it's so much not the characters that are being predetermined by the writers or creative," Lawler explained. "They're giving the guys a chance to be themselves just like [Austin was] back when [Austin] became 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. Nobody was telling you, 'oh, this is how it [has] got to be.'"
Austin added: "When you've got somebody micromanaging you and telling you every single thing to do, you kind of turn into a robot and you think, 'am I doing this right? Am I doing this wrong? Am I screwing this up?' You're too much in your head."
"I really do think a little bit of that is changing now with Heyman in charge of RAW," Lawler agreed. "Yeah, he's letting guys - like [Austin] said, giving them some bullet points and letting them go on their own."
That's a huge different to how things have been over the past few years with Vicne McMahon in charge, and it really does feel like RAW is better off because of it. Paul Heyman was once in charge of ECW and an era of SmackDown which was considered to be a highlight of the Ruthless Aggression era, so he certainly knows what he's doing.
What do you guys think?