10 Ways Paul Heyman Has Changed WWE Raw

9. Sex Appeal

Raw Lana Lashley paul heyman
WWE.com

For the majority of wrestling fans, the situation between Lana and Bobby Lashley vs. Rusev and Liv Morgan has been awful to watch play out from week-to-week on WWE television. Regardless of how channel-changing the rivalry has been at times, you can't argue that the Raw content hasn't been sexed up in recent months - and this is without making mention of the god-awful cuck storyline involving the paternity of Maria Kanellis' unborn child.

In the heyday of ECW, Paul Heyman was famous for making sure his product always had a certain level of sex appeal. Hardcore wrestling may have been what drew in many ECW fans, but the company's foundations were also made up of great mat wrestling and raunchy storylines.

Whether this sort of approach works in 2020 is open to debate, yet that's not stopped Raw from featuring this more sexualised content in recent months. For those turned off by such content, the good news is that it looks like maybe - just maybe - the situation with Lana, Lashley, Rusev, and Liv is being quietly dropped. At least, that's what we can all hope for.

Given Paul Heyman's penchant for raciness, however, expect to see similar steamy storylines on Raw in the future.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.