WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman spoke with SHAK Wrestling’s Shakiel Mahjouri about various topics, including how he has identified the next generation of top stars throughout his entire career.
Heyman said, “It’s the same thing I’ve been doing my entire career is anointing the next generation and solidifying their position on top. I did it in WCW when I knew that Mark Calaway’s future in WCW was not secure and behind WCW’s back passed him to WWE where he became The Undertaker. I did it in WCW when I managed Stone Cold Steve Austin, then stunning Steve Austin when I brought him into ECW and got him in touch with his inner rage and taught him how to let that rage out on television, which was the impetus of Stone Cold Steve Austin. I did it with a rookie named Brock Lesnar. I did it with an established veteran named CM Punk, who had just started off the campaign of a 434-day historic title reign. I did it with Roman Reigns, who was already a multi-time world champion and multi-time WrestleMania main eventer, but was never understood to be the generational talent, the all-time great, if not even the GOAT that he truly was. So now, if you look at a trajectory of this industry, for those of us who knew, there was no doubt Mark Callaway would rule. There was no doubt Steve Austin would rule. There was no doubt ECW would rule. There was no doubt that Brock Lesnar would rule. There was no doubt in my mind that CM Punk was going to rule. There was no doubt that Roman Reigns was going to rule.”
On what it means to work with The Vision:
“Okay, who rules next? Well, there are so many spots now at the top of the card. There are so many WrestleMania main event positions that are about to open that if you look into the future, it’s not just one person. It’s multiple people. It’s Bron Breakker. It’s Bronson Reed. It’s Logan Paul. It’s Austin Theory. How could it not be? So if you look, we are at a point in time that is unique in history and that the opportunity is there to anoint the next generation of WrestleMania main eventers, not just the one next WrestleMania main eveter. It’s plural. And no one has the history or the cache or the resume or the ability to do that upgrade to do that refinement to get these people ready for where they are destined to go more than Paul Heyman.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
