Paul Heyman signs deal with WWE to work regular Raw schedule

What an interesting sequence of events that led us here.

When Brock Lesnar realized he no longer wanted to get punched in the face (for real) for a living, he decided to retire from mixed martial arts (kind of) and give Vince McMahon a call to test the waters on a return to WWE. His brand was damaged by consecutive embarrassing losses in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) but not so much that pro wrestling wouldn't offer him a great deal of money to come back to the squared circle.

That's exactly what happened, too, as Lesnar signed a big money deal with limited dates for just one year's worth of work.

Problems quickly arose once the relationship kicked off, namely the fact that WWE needed a way to continue angles involving Brock without his actually having to burn dates on his contract by physically showing up to arenas around the country, something he never wanted to do because it involved such extensive traveling.

Enter Paul Heyman.

The former ECW mastermind was originally paired up with Lesnar as his mouthpiece in his original run with the company back in 2002 so WWE decided to go back to the well and bring Heyman back to work a similar role, appearing in Brock's stead on numerous occasions.

Originally, the idea was to use him only for that purpose and when Lesnar left, he would too. Now, that's changed. As reported by the Wrestling Observer, Heyman has actually signed a new deal with the company and will be working a more regular schedule, a fact made obvious by his appearing with CM Punk on Raw this past Monday night. Some feared, myself included, that was simply a one-off thing but it appears that's not the case and Punk and Heyman will be working together going forward, at least until Lesnar returns.

That sets up a lot of interesting scenarios. Current plans, which of course are not confirmed and always subject to change, are calling for Punk to work with The Rock at Royal Rumble and Lesnar to work with Triple H at WrestleMania 29 in a rematch of their SummerSlam encounter.

How they get there, if that's ultimately where they all decide to go, will be most interesting indeed.