10 Ways Paul Heyman Has Changed WWE Raw

4. The Seth Rollins' Heel Turn

If there's one thing that WWE - well, Vince McMahon - has shown over the past 15 years, it's that they really, really will not change focus when it comes to the top babyface.

Despite both John Cena and Roman Reigns receiving mixed-to-negative reactions across arenas worldwide, McMahon forever refused to acknowledge his audience's feelings and turn either Cena or Roman heel. And so when the crowd began to turn on Raw's top babyface, Seth Rollins, McMahon would have likely ploughed ahead regardless and disregarded the changing response to Seth.

Embracing that burgeoning hatred and capitalising on it by turning Rollins heel reeks of Paul Heyman.

During his days running ECW, Heyman was constantly listening to his audience and adjusting his roster accordingly. Love him or hate him, it's hard to argue that Paul E. didn't always have his finger on the pulse when it came to giving the ECW fan base who they wanted to see and in what role they wanted to see them.

With that said, seeing how Rollins' online behaviour and how the knock-on effect of that had started to impact the perception of him amongst in-attendance fans, it was likely a Paul Heyman idea to run with that feeling - in the process making the bold call of turning the Raw brand's outright top babyface into a no-good, low-down villain.

Andrew Pollard

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.

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