Jim Cornette has lavished praise on Paul Heyman for his promo on SmackDown in the lead up to Roman Reigns defending his WWE Universal Title against Daniel Bryan.
The ‘Head Of The Table’ put his title on the line against Bryan with the stipulation added that if Bryan lost he would be ‘banished’ from SmackDown.
Speaking on his Cornette’s Drive-Thru podcast, another master orator Jim Cornette gave his thoughts on Paul Heyman’s attempt at building up the match.
Cornette said:
“That actually was the best part of the show, to be quite honest. I’m not gonna knock Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns’ match and everything but it’s just so refreshing to hear somebody cut a f*cking promo. A manager cut a promo for his guy that puts over the other guy. It was a masterclass. Everybody else is in a f*cking daycare centre on this entire programme and Heyman is a college professor.”
“He was leagues above anybody speaking on this programme in any capacity. It was obviously his own – he didn’t come up with it on the spot but he did it. It was his and it was f*cking fabulous. That’s the best promo I’ve seen on a f*cking wrestling show that I can remember actually.”
Cornette appreciated how Heyman created doubt for the audience as to whether his charge Reigns could retain his title:
“He starts out where you believe he’s mocking and fed up of hearing about Daniel Bryan. But the more that he goes and the more that he talks and the more incidents that he raises, I couldn’t do it. That’s a Heyman promo. I wouldn’t try to do Paul’s promo, he probably shouldn’t try to do a few of mine but I wouldn’t try this one. But he was building up to the more that he talked, the more he worked himself up and then he realised at the end that by saying what he wanted to say, he’s just buried his own guy and created doubt in people’s mind.”
“But then he still brings it f*cking back to where he wanted it to be which was he’d been doing ‘yes, yes, yes’ the whole time. Finally, he brings it back to is Daniel Bryan going to win? No!”
Ultimately Reigns did what he was able to do at WrestleMania and defeat Bryan, retaining his title. Since that match details have emerged of Bryan’s WWE contract having legitimately expired.
Credit: Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru