WWE World Tag Team Champion and member of The Vision, Austin Theory, recently spoke with The Early Bird Special about his first encounter with WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman.
Theory shared that he first met Heyman at an EVOLVE show, which was set to be the main event. He approached Heyman to introduce himself and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the legendary manager was a big fan of his work. Heyman eventually introduced Theory during the main event.
Theory said, “Me and Paul Heyman actually go way back. My whole time on the main roster, I’ve always spoken to him. He’s always given me great advice. He’s always had my back. He took me under his wing. The first time I met Paul Heyman was when I was on the indies; it was the first time Evolve and the WWE did a show together in the ECW arena. Gabe Sapolsky pretty much told me, ‘Hey, you’re the main event tonight. I got a surprise for you.’ I was like, ‘Alright, I don’t know what that is.’ Then Paul Heyman walks in. The time I met Paul Heyman, I went up to him and said, ‘Hey, how you doing sir?’ I’m Austin.’ The first thing he said was, ‘I’m a big fan of your work.’ I was like, ‘Holy sh*t!’ So that was cool. He comes up to me a little later, like in the night as the show’s going on. He goes, ‘Hey, If I’m going to introduce you tonight, what are the things I call you?’ I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ So he ended up doing the introduction for the match, and the rest is history.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
