Top RAW Backstage Rumors: Reason for Paul Heyman's pairing with Roman Reigns; Lesnar update; Heel turn planned for top babyface; Drew McIntyre's return plans (31st August)

WWE looks to give the fans an exciting episode of Monday Night RAW this week. Last night we saw the Universal Championship change hands at Payback. The recently returned Roman Reigns aligned himself with RAW Superstar Brock Lesnar's 'advocate' Paul Heyman and managed to beat Wyatt and Strowman to become the Universal Champion.

There has been a lot of speculation regarding WWE's decision to move former RAW Executive Director and Brock Lesnar's manager to SmackDown. One reasoning given was that Heyman has associated with Roman Reigns in order to help him complete his heel turn.

Let us take a more in-depth look into why WWE decided to have Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman paired-up, and more!

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#5 Reason why WWE moved former RAW creative head Paul Heyman to SmackDown

Paul Heyman was removed as the head Monday Night RAW creative a few months back. Heyman was replaced with Bruce Prichard. However, Heyman is still has an on-screen talent contract with WWE. With Brock Lesnar not being around anymore, WWE was not using Heyman at all who was just sitting idle and still making big bucks.

As per Dave Meltzer of WON, Heyman was paired with Reigns so that WWE could utilise him as he was already under contract.

''His performer’s contract, he wasn’t doing anything at all ever since Lesnar left and that’s been months now and he’s making a lot of money so I think that you want to justify that by having him work and being with Reigns, he’s being paid like a top guy so he should be in a top program and it’s not gonna get any bigger than Reigns. Reigns is going to be the biggest heel in the promotion.''

With WWE choosing to pair Heyman with Reigns for the fear of his contract not being used, it leads us to believe that the Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar will not return anytime soon.

#4 Reason why Brock Lesnar has been absent from competition on RAW

Brock Lesnar was last seen in action at WrestleMania 36 where he lost the WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre. It was reported that WWE doesn't want to use RAW Superstar Brock Lesnar for the shows being held at the PC as they believed it would be a waste.

Road Warrior Animal revealed while talking on SportsKeeda's Legion of RAW, why Brock Lesnar has still not returned to WWE even though others like Roman Reigns have.

"Brock doesn't want to go back there because of the COVID thing... coming down from Canada, he can't. He lives in Canada, so there's no travelling allowed. I know people see that and they go 'Brock Lesnar should be here'. No, he's living in Canada. He has dual citizenship. You can't cross the border right now. So that's why he's not on TV."

With Paul Heyman being used as Roman Reigns' new manager, it makes it even more certain that Brock Lesnar will not be returning to RAW anytime soon.

#3 Vince McMahon wants to see Keith Lee as a heel on RAW

The Limitless Keith Lee made his RAW debut last week in a match against Randy Orton. The former NXT Champion also took on the Viper at Payback. While Keith Lee is being pushed as a babyface on RAW, it is being reported that Vince McMahon sees him as a monster heel.

There had been reports that suggested that the Chairman was mighty pleased with Keith Lee at Survivor Series. It is now being reported that Vince McMahon wants to push Keith Lee as a heel and has some major plans for him.

Many fans were upset that WWE changed Keith Lee's attire and theme song on RAW. Here is the reason behind the changes made as per Tom Colohue:

There's a number of reasons for this. Vince likes to make sure that (there's) something of a clean slate between NXT and the call-up, and a large part of that is to get the audience talking. So, essentially, the WWE believe that what he has now is better than what he had on NXT, so they expected people on social media to say 'oh, this is great'. And as part of that (about his music) 'this music is new, it's exciting' let's get people talking, let's make sure Keith Lee trends - and Keith Lee did trend, not necessarily what they were going for.

#2 Samoa Joe's future as a RAW announcer

Samoa Joe, who is a former US Champion, has been serving as a RAW commentator ever since he suffered an injury. MVP had recently stated that he believes Samoa Joe is ready for an in-ring comeback. Now, Dave Meltzer of WON has stated that even though Joe has impressed as a commentator, he will return to in-ring action eventually.

“Probably not but for now, he does such a great job with announcing and he’s had a lot of concussions but for now he’s doing this. I know that when he first did the announcing, and of course things changed, I was told that it was temporary because he’s too valuable as a talent to have him as an announcer. But obviously, minds changed from when I was told that to when they decided to revamp it and he is great as an announcer. In theory, he’s supposed to wrestle again but who knows.” (H/T WrestlingNews)

It will be interesting to see how WWE treat Somoa Joe once he makes his in-ring return on Monday Night RAW.

#1 Return update on RAW Superstar Drew McIntyre

Drew McIntyre was brutally attacked by The Viper Randy Orton last week on RAW. The WWE Champion was punt kicked thrice by Randy Orton which apparently led to a 'skull fracture'.

As per WrestlingNews.co, this was a way to keep Drew McIntyre out of Payback and he will be making his return to RAW soon after the show.

“We were told that the current plan is for McIntyre to return sometime after the Payback show to set up the rematch with Orton for Clash of Champions on 9/27.”

Initial speculation had fans believe that Randy Orton would be winning the WWE Championship from McIntyre at SummerSlam. It had been reported that WWE wanted Randy Orton to face Edge in a WWE Championship as the main event of WrestleMania 37 next year. However, those plans have also been changed as per the WON.

“At one point WrestleMania was to be headlined by Orton vs. Edge in an I Quit match. It was not a lock that Orton would be champion, but it was something under discussion. At last word there was no longer a 100 percent clear main event direction for the show.”