Paul Heyman has elaborated on the success of one of the most popular sitcoms of all time to how he looks at WWE programming, which includes the inspiration behind his famous catchphrase.
Unlike other TV shows that are scripted with a set number of episodes per season and breaks in between, professional wrestling runs virtually every week of the year. While some fans may have been watching since the first episode of Raw back in 1993, or even earlier, others could be tuning into the show for the very first time.
With this in mind, Heyman has discussed his approach to how he introduces himself and Roman Reigns on TV, noting that there are similarities to early episodes of Friends.
Appearing at an event for Bloomberg Live alongside Reigns, Heyman stated that he assumes in his promos that fans have not seen the show before so introduces himself and highlights the importance of Reigns from the outset:
“I go by the sitcom theory. The most successful sitcom of all time is Friends. And if you watch the later episodes, it’s, ‘Hi. How you doing?’ ‘Great.’ ‘What’s going on?’ This and that? But if you watch the first two seasons, every single time the characters address each other, they call each other by their names. ‘Hi, Ross’, ‘Hi, Rachel’ ‘How you doing Ross?’ ‘I’m good. Rachel.’ ‘What’d you eat for lunch today Ross?’ ‘I don’t know. Rachel, what’d you eat?’ And they just keep on saying their names, so that when you watch it, you go, Oh, that’s Ross. Oh, that’s Rachel, and you know all the character’s names.
I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years. My shtick is, that the first thing I say is, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman.’ Because I always presume that the person watching has never seen me before. And anytime I address Roman on television, the first thing I say is, ‘Yes, my Tribal Chief’, because they go, Oh, okay, I’ve never watched this before. I don’t know who this guy is, damn he looks good. But you know what? That’s The Tribal Chief. So if you don’t know who we are, within a minute of us presenting ourselves, you at least know okay, that guy’s Paul Heyman. That’s his Tribal Chief.
It’s always the understanding that there are going to be more first time viewers every time we’re on television, or we’re not growing our audience.”
Also in the interview, Roman Reigns gave his thoughts on finding the balance.
Paul Heyman Praises The Stars Of WWE’s Women’s Division
At the event, Reigns and Heyman discussed the present and future status of the company as it gets set to start a new era in 2025 with Raw moving to Netflix. While at the event, Paul Heyman praised the female roster in WWE and compared them to some of the all-time greats in the world of tennis.
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