Paul Heyman was interviewed on the “Out of Character” podcast this week to talk about WWE WrestleMania 39.
Paul Heyman talking about how proud he is of the work Roman Reigns is doing:
“His ambition rivals Vince’s. He wants it and he wants greatness at a level no one has ever achieved. All false humility aside, that’s always been where my mindset has been and he matches it, and indeed surpasses it. I have to constantly catch up to him and I love that. He wants every micro moment of every frame, of every scene that we do to be Academy, Emmy, and Grammy award worthy, and strives for that and micro analyzes every frame that we’re in so that the next frames that we are in are even better.”
On Roman Reigns’ ability to tell a story:
“The main event of most SmackDowns or Raws that have the privilege of Roman Reigns appearing live, is a promo segment. We don’t even bother teasing you that he’s gonna wrestle on television anymore. We’re not gonna bother with it. The story takes precedence over everything, and you’re going to see the next chapter of the story play out in a scene in the ring in segment, it’s like 11 for SmackDown and segment 16 for RAW. That’s it. The backstage that we do now, if I told you that two years ago, you’d point your finger and laugh at me. You’d go, ‘This guy is out of touch. He has no clue where the business is headed.’ Plug in Roman Reigns and look at what we’ve done with it. We do movie scenes in the back now. We do scenes like out of Peaky Blinders, or Breaking Bad, or Better Call Saul, or whatever the hot show is today.”
Heyman talking about the Bloodline storyline:
“The Sami story was easy. It’s acceptance. Anyone that has been past eighth grade who has sat in the cafeteria, has been, or have known people, or been involved with people, and be like, ‘I want to sit with those guys over there. They’re a**holes. I know they’re a**holes, but I want to sit there.’ They’re not even cool. They are just a**holes, but they get all the attention.’ That is, in cafeteria terms, the island of relevancy. They’re relevant. I want to be relevant. To be relevant in this school, I got to sit with them. They’re a**holes, but I want to sit with them and walk up to them. I know I don’t belong here. I know I don’t fit in. I want to sit at this table. I want to be accepted on the island of relevancy on the table of relevant kids in his high school, and guess what? You worm your way in. You sneak your way in. You connive your way. in. Your cajole you’re way in. You get in, and once you’re in, you’re there, and you look around and you go, ‘These guys a**holes.”
“Cody is not about acceptance. Cody has a completely different story than has ever been told. It’s the most basic human emotion everyone can relate to. With the recent passing of a parent, there’s jealousy and there’s envy because what you find out is that you had to share that parent with other people in life.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Out of Character with Ryan Satin with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
