Who Is Responsible For Burying Paul Heyman’s ‘SmackDown Catering Crew’ On WWE RAW

Vince McMahon is not high on Aleister Black and Andrade. They’re still on Raw, but neither of them seem to have much momentum. What is really going on?

Ringside News has learned that the feeling backstage is that the reason why Vince McMahon isn’t high on Aleister Black and Andrade has to do with Bruce Prichard being “in his ear.” If you remember our exclusive about why Bruce Prichard invented the Wobbly Walrus character, then this falls in line with the same thinking.

A member of the creative team with very close knowledge of the situation told us that people like Andrade, Zelina Vega, Aleister Black, Murphy, Humberto Carrillo and AOP were “all sitting in SmackDown catering doing nothing.” It was explained that “they couldn’t get the time of day from Eric Bischoff or Bruce Prichard” on the blue brand. Prichard was Bischoff’s “right hand man” prior to Bischoff’s termination. Prichard was eventually appointed Executive Director of SmackDown. After Paul Heyman’s firing, Prichard was put over both main roster brands.

Paul Heyman took that group of Superstars under his wing and decided he wanted to push them on Raw. That group was eventually “jokingly referred to as ‘The SmackDown Catering Crew.'” Those were the young Superstars who Paul Heyman wanted to push.

Things obviously didn’t work out for a few of those names. Humberto Carrillo has been off television for a while and AOP was released. Aleister Black and Andrade are seemingly being pushed down the card while Murphy and Zelina Vega seem to be the only two with anything going on right now.

It was additionally told to us that “with Bruce Prichard as the primary voice in Vince’s ear, these people, who need to be championed up the ladder, don’t have that anymore with Heyman no longer running Raw.” At this point, a growing internal sentiment is that WWE is “throwing a lot of necessary young talent into the garbage.”