Paul Heyman doesn’t believe Vince McMahon ever saw himself as a good man.
Heyman sat down with Graham Bensinger for In Depth with Graham Bensinger and was asked how he views McMahon today.
“As a supremely complicated human being of great accomplishment,” Heyman said. Asked if McMahon is a good man, he answered, “No, I don’t think Vince ever considered himself a good man. I don’t think he cared about it. I don’t think that was part of his self-judgment. I don’t think he felt he was placed on this planet to be a good man.”
“Do I think he’s a man of great accomplishment? Yes,” Heyman continued.
Paul Heyman on working for Vince McMahon
Heyman said the worst part of working for McMahon was trying to match his work ethic.
“He expects you to keep up with his work ethic and that’s impossible,” Heyman said. “24/7, 365. He didn’t take holidays. He did what everybody in his business will talk about. He missed weddings. He missed funerals. He missed ball games.”
“Never have I met anyone that works as hard as Vince McMahon,” he added. “It’s the exploitation of your gifts and your knowledge and your ability and your talent that drives him and makes him as successful as he had become. And at the same time, he’s riding that vehicle until the wheels fall off. You’re the vehicle and it’s your wheels that are falling off.”
Asked about the best part of working for McMahon, Heyman said, “Everything I just said.”
Bensinger brought up Heyman’s 2008 comment that it would take Freud himself to explain how McMahon’s mind works. Heyman said he stands by it and pointed to McMahon’s childhood. He said McMahon grew up thinking his name was Vince Lupton until he was 12, had several stepfathers, “several of whom were abusive according to Vince,” dealt with dyslexia and had to fight his way into his father’s business.
“So he created his own universe in which no one could ever hurt him,” Heyman said, calling McMahon’s success “a ruthless pursuit of becoming teflon, of becoming invincible and invulnerable.”
Paul Heyman on the 2006 ECW relaunch
Heyman said his worst battle with McMahon came in 2006, when WWE relaunched ECW.
“When he relaunched ECW, told me he was putting me in charge of it and 30 seconds later started stripping me of any authority that I had in controlling or contouring or tailoring or creating the product,” Heyman said.
“He got off changing ECW on me, and it became just such a personal battle that was one, terrible for the product, terrible for the company, even worse for the audience,” he continued. “That was the most miserable six months.”
Heyman left WWE that December and returned in 2012. Asked if he and McMahon could reconnect now, he said, “Right now we’re on different paths in life. So do I think we reconnect? I don’t know. I don’t think about it and I can very much guarantee you neither does he.”
McMahon resigned from TKO in January 2024 after former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault and trafficking. McMahon has denied the allegations.
Paul Heyman compares Vince McMahon and Paul Levesque
Heyman said creative under Paul “Triple H” Levesque is a different environment.
“Vince was a dictator,” Heyman said. “It was his money and therefore it’s his show.” He said pitching McMahon was “the constant chase for Vince to buy into your ideas over his own.”
“That’s not the way it works today,” Heyman said. “Paul Levesque is not a dictator. He’s a collaborator. See, Vince loves a blank piece of paper. Paul Levesque doesn’t like the blank piece of paper. He accepts the fact that the paper has writing on it already. He’s the best editor I’ve ever worked with in my entire life. Ever.”
