Paul Heyman recently appeared on Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Heyman talked about Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, John Cena, Vince McMahon, his own family, and more. During the discussion, Heyman commented on Brock Lesnar’s negotiating skills:
“He’s one of the savviest, most instinctual, most instinctual, most ruthless businessmen and I’ve known a lot of people like that and I put him up against any one of them. He’s amazing. His timing of when to strike, of when to leverage, of when to renegotiate, of how to pit companies against each other is that of the best litigator, the most brilliant agents or managers I’ve ever been exposed to. I’ve seen him in a room negotiating with Vince McMahon, who’s not bad at it, I might add, and he matches. He’s great.”
If he believed Vince McMahon would let The Undertaker retire with his WrestleMania winning streak intact:
“No. It’s not in Vince’s nature. It’s just not. I’m gonna get something out of this. I invested this much into it, and I want something out of it. He just never saw the time yet where he needed it and that was something that was going to be pulled when he needed it. Would he have let The Undertaker retire at a SummerSlam or Survivor Series, mid year, and retire off into the sunset? Yea, we will keep you on retainer. We’ll cut a merchandising deal with you. We’ll keep you active in some way so that you can make a living and a handsome one at that and still have the benefit of the intellectual property and everything. But one of the reasons why Vince would do that is, oh, this is a great WrestleMania for you to come out of retirement and defend the streak, and by the way, I found the person to beat you. I don’t care if Undertaker was 85 years old at the time. If he’s alive, if the Dead Man is alive, so to speak, then the streak is exploitable and if it’s exploitable, the promoter in Vince McMahon wants to exploit it.”
Heyman continued, “Brock becomes the successor to the streak, becomes the holy grail, becomes the victory no man can attain and becomes the embodiment of the impossible mountain to climb so that when someone climbs that mountain, when someone beats Brock Lesnar, they are instantly made in the same way that Brock Lesnar is instantly made, the moment the referee’s hand hits three at WrestleMania 30, signifying Brock had conquered the streak, and we had someone in mind to be the next big thing, the company’s next big star, the guy that would pull the wagon, the successor to John Cena, the person to become the one who beat the one in 21-1. We had someone in mind, even at that time. Do you know who that person was? Roman Reigns.”
You can check out the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
