Paul Heyman has done it all throughout his career to date in professional wrestling, leaving his fingerprints all over the industry.
Whether it is his reign at ECW, his 20 year partnership with Brock Lesnar or his current relationship with WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Heyman has been to the top of the wresting mountain on more than one occasion.
While the former owner of ECW is still busy building his legacy, perhaps his greatest achievement in WWE came during his time as lead writer on SmackDown in the early 2000’s. During this period, Heyman brought together the heralded ‘SmackDown Six’ of Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Edge and Chavo Guerrero, elevating each of their careers to new heights.
When Paul Heyman was made Executive Director of RAW in June 2019, he set about brining the same philosophy to his new role featuring the likes of Ricochet, Andrade and Aleister Black more heavily on Monday night’s.
Speaking in a new interview with Esquire, Middle East, the former Paul E Dangerously, has reflected on his philosophy, highlighting how important it is to find and promote new talent.
“Well, I think if you take a look at my career in this industry, it’s always been about pushing and promoting marketing new talent. How do you get new fresh, different blood into the main event tier? That’s the only way for an industry to survive, and indeed, thrive. You have to have new matchups, you have to have new people in the mix. Otherwise, the product goes stale.
In ECW, it was the same thing. It was creating new stars of our own. We didn’t rely on the cast-offs from WWE, WCW, etc. We built new stars because we needed always new fresh blood on top. So my role as the lead writer of SmackDown 19 years ago was the same thing. We made Edge a singles star, we broke the Guerrero’s out into the top mix.
We brought in Rey Mysterio as a top star. It was always the concept of building, making and marketing new people into the main event mix. So when I became the executive director of Raw, it was the same thing. It was about who can now become the next big star in WWE.”
In response to suggestions that Superstars such as Andrade have struggled without his backing, Heyman added that none of the people that he’s promoted were charity cases, explaining that cream always rises to the top.
WWE is like any other business. It constantly redefines itself and constantly assesses its placement in the marketplace, and it’s constantly disrupting its own business model. The cream will rise to the top, as the saying goes. There are great talents. And the people that I chose are not people that—the people that I chose to promote, are not charity cases, they are extraordinarily talented men and women. And they will find the trajectory to the top.
They will, because they’re top stars that are waiting to happen. Whether that path is as smooth as I tried to make it—and admittedly, I tried to put everybody on a fast track—or not, is a matter of conjecture. But these are extraordinarily talented people. And they will find their way to the top of the industry.
Throughout the wide-ranging interview Heyman touched on many of the roles that he has held during his career, right up to being the Special Council to Roman Reigns today. Speculating about the future alongside the ‘Head of the Table,’ Heyman went on to run down a list of potential big money matches for his latest client.
Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman will be back in action at WWE Fastlane, when the ‘Tribal Chief’ defends his Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan with Edge serving as the Special Enforcer.