Paul Heyman Comments On Backstage Tensions In WWE With AJ Styles

Paul Heyman has responded to criticisms aimed at him by fellow WWE talent AJ Styles over his handling of the release of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson

Heyman and Styles have been deliberately kept on separate rosters in WWE over the past 18 months after Styles blamed Heyman for The Good Brothers being let go by the promotion at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During a stream on his Mixer channel, Styles called the former Raw Executive Producer a 'boldfaced liar' and said almost no one backstage in WWE liked him.

Heyman has now responded to those comments from Styles.

Speaking to Inside The Ropes, when asked about Styles saying they had clashed, Heyman said: "That is an inaccurate portrayal of what AJ Styles has said. AJ Styles has not said that we weren’t on the same page or that we clashed.

"AJ Styles has been quoted as blaming me for the departure from WWE of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. That is what AJ Styles has been quoted as saying. He has never made a statement regarding whether or not our collaboration on Monday Night RAW was to his liking or not—and if he wishes to, I’d be happy to accept whatever assessment he had on our time together behind the scenes.”

When it came to Anderson and Gallows' respective releases, Heyman would not divulge the details of meetings around the duo.

He continued: "In terms of what AJ Styles said regarding the departure of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, I am still of the old school belief—that I would suggest is also a new school belief—what goes on behind those closed doors, in those creative meetings, as far as I’m concerned, is privileged conversation. It’s not for public consumption.

"Triple H had a very interesting analogy the other day that he and Stephanie love to take their kids to magic shows and that the kids are fascinated by the magic that happens in front of their eyes, despite the fact that they understand it’s a trick. And even though you know it’s a trick, no one wants to see the wires that lift the magician up in the air and bring the magician back down, and I really enjoyed that analogy.

"Whatever you think of sports entertainment, I’m not here to expose the wires, so whatever happened between Gallows and Anderson happened behind the scenes, behind closed doors in a meeting that I’m not going to expose to the public because it was an inner sanctum meeting with the chairman of the board, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. And unless Vince wants to talk about it publicly, I’m not going to be the one to expose what happened, why, and what the other conversations were in that meeting."