One of the biggest talking points of wrestling is the Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman partnership. Heyman recently sat down with TV Insider, to discuss his alliance, being executive producer of RAW and more. You can see extracts from the interview below.
On being executive director of RAW:
“When I was executive director of Raw, I refused to talk about being the executive director of Raw because when you’re in that position, you’re privy to [the] inner sanctum of WWE. I’ve always felt there is an expectation and responsibility of confidentiality and secrecy that goes along with that job. I honored it then and continue to honor it to this day…. That being said, on a general basis, my favorite part of the job and the part I’m most proud of was development of talent. I’ve always loved developing talent. It was unofficially at times in WCW [World Championship Wrestling]. Certainly, I’ve built my reputation in doing it in ECW [Extreme Championship Wrestling] and have done it with certain tenures with my run in WWE. Certainly, with Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey and now Roman Reigns…On a specific basis, what I’m most proud of after the fact is that even after my run concluded, the chairman of the board, Vince McMahon, was asked on a quarterly earnings call about Paul Heyman no longer being the executive director on Monday Night Raw. His answer was how happy he was with the creativity I’d brought to the role. Any time someone is replaced in that level of corporate positioning, you will always hear, “We appreciate what he brought to the table, but it was time to do something else. He was great at what he did, but this other move is even better.” Vince offered nothing but how happy he was with my creativity. Even after the fact, for the chairman of the board of a publicly traded company to sing the praises of what I brought to the job is something I am exceedingly proud of.”
On his alliance with Roman Reigns:
“If you remember how Roman Reigns debuted in WWE, it was in 2012 as part of The Shield. The Shield was brought in to protect the title reign of CM Punk. The idea of [my] being paired with Roman Reigns is something that dates back to his debut on the main roster of WWE. This is something we have discussed for many years. It’s no secret—we’ve acknowledged this for a long time. The timing was never right. With everything that happened this year—Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, Roman Reigns not at WrestleMania, the entire landscape of sports and sports entertainment changing, Roman Reigns taking a hiatus, Paul Heyman being removed as executive director of Raw—it was just the perfect time to put these two together and see the level they could push each other to achieve on camera and behind the scenes.”
He also discussed if Brock Lesnar will return to WWE:
“Whether you watch Fox News, CNN, MSNBC or whatever channel, here is what they put in the lower-third breaking news. And it’s the same breaking news for the past 20 years. Brock Lesnar does whatever Brock Lesnar wants to do. You can say that about winning the NCAA Division I heavyweight championship, becoming the youngest WWE champion ever, winning the UFC title from the greatest heavyweight of all-time Randy Couture, coming back to WWE and conquering The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania. When Brock Lesnar wants to do something next, he will do it because Brock Lesnar does what Brock Lesnar wants to do.”
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