Paul London and Brian Kendrick’s move from SmackDown from Raw was done at least partially as punishment.
London has “megaheat” on him due to a security leak. As reported earlier, he talked business with a fan he often sees at a Texas area airport where he flies out of. It is not uncommon for wrestlers to talk with fans, but most wrestlers are smart enough to not talk to people who tell everyone publicly that they talked to them. Ashley had just been “suspended” at around the time he talked to the fan, so that was an obvious conversation starter. He told the fan that the real reason Ashley was taking time off from television was because she was going away for a while to film the reality show Survivor in China. This was supposed to be kept a secret. The fan posted about his encounter online on a wrestling message board, and he mentioned the Ashley note in passing. As you can imagine, the fan encounter quickly spread online as it was soon everywhere. So much so that people in WWE eventually got wind of the report as well. Now everyone knows that Ashley is going to be on Survivor, and WWE actually has someone to blame for a change for leaking inside info out, and that’s Paul London.
Although they debuted on Raw last week beating Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin, the long-term role is for them to put over Cade & Murdoch, as well as be the stepping stone to put over heel teams before they get matches with Cryme Tyme. WWE plans on giving Cryme Tyme a push in late summer/early fall. On the otherhand, much like other situations in the past few months (Orton, CM Punk, Carlito), if they’re over enough, or if a serious injury occurs, their punishment, official or un-official, will probably be forgotten within a matter of weeks.
