WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman recently appeared on the Six Feet Under podcast, where he discussed various topics, including the origin of his pairing with World Heavyweight Champion “The OTC” Roman Reigns.
Heyman said, “In 2020, when COVID hit and the decision was made corporately that we are going to produce live television or live-to-tape television twice a week, Raw and Smackdown — and we’re still going to do what were then called pay-per-views, now premium live events. Brock’s contract wrapped up just as the whole world shut down. Vince made the business decision that we’ve got to take a break for a while. ‘I’m not going to just have Brock Lesnar wrestle in this cavernous atmosphere.’ We knew we were down for at least a year, and who knows? We didn’t know when the world was going to come out of this. And the opportunity arose at that time that Roman had taken so much time off, and the decision was made for us to finally work together.”
On what he told former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon about Reigns’ Tribal Chief character:
“When I asked Vince his vision for it, he just said, ‘He’s the Big Dog, and you’re his advocate.’ And the first thing I said was, ‘He can’t be the Big Dog anymore. We’ve run with the Big Dog since 2012. He needs to evolve into something completely different. And I can’t be his advocate — I was Brock Lesnar’s advocate. I must be something different to this character.’”
On the example that sold it:
“The examples that I continuously gave, and this is what sold Vince on it, were the Dead Man and the American Badass. It has to be that shocking of a metamorphosis, and it has to make sense. The Dead Man grew into the American Badass because times had changed around him. The ’90s had evolved, and the audience wanted more out of the Dead Man, to where the Dead Man returned as the American Badass. And even though that’s a seismic shift in character, you never alienated the Dead Man. You incorporated him into an evolved character. It’s a progression. It’s a metamorphosis. Here’s what I have on my resume, here’s where I’ve been, and now here’s where I’d like to take you next. I need to wear a different suit. I need different colors. I need a different scheme of things, because that worked with Brock, but what worked with Brock did not work with Roman.”
On tailoring the role to each performer:
“And what worked with Roman did not work with CM Punk, and what worked with CM Punk did not work with you, or with Steve, or with Rob Van Dam, or anybody else that I’ve worked with. Everyone’s an individual. We need to create an act like a marriage, a professional marriage. If I understand my role right, I’m the supporting player, and I take great pride in that. A great supporting player makes the main character — and makes the main character to such a degree that the main character could not pull that off on their own, male or female. Robert Duvall in the Godfather movies, the greatest supporting actor I’ve ever seen. Look at the cast: Brando, De Niro, Pacino. And yet Robert Duvall was the glue, and made everyone else around him look better. That’s the role.”
On whether anyone can replace Brock Lesnar:
“I don’t know if that’s a void that can ever be filled. I think now it’s the art of reinvention again. I don’t know the next step, because I have to look at the landscape and see — let’s invest our time here. Let’s buy into this stock and grow it and watch it rise to the top.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
