Ray Hui has an interesting post up at MMAFighting.com about an Ariel Helwani interview with Paul Heyman where Heyman claimed that he told Vince McMahon to use the control over Raw's lead-out to not allow the first season of The Ultimate Fighter to air after Monday Night Raw. From the article:
"I was there in the room when we decided whether to let The Ultimate Fighter come on after Monday Night Raw," Heyman told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. "They had the right to approve or decline any programming that followed them."
"I told [the WWE], they better not let [the UFC] on ... Yeah, I'm the a--hole that almost turned it down," Heyman said with a laugh.
Heyman recalled telling McMahon, "You should be afraid of anything that will take away from your pay-per-view dollar. They are going to reach into your pocket, rip it open, and all those dollars are going to flow right there."
"Here's the best way I can tell you about Vince McMahon. It's the ultimate Vince control story," Heyman said. "If you're in the room with Vince McMahon and he sneezes, go on your Blackberry for the next 20 minutes because nothing you say to him is going to get through ... Cause he gets really p-----d off. Cause he can't control the sneeze."
While it's a subject that's come up often since the UFC boom started, this is the first time that a former WWE office worker has commented on the decision-making process. Since it's Heyman, he could just be making it up to make himself look prescient, but he's also someone who really is that aware, so...yeah...