Paul Heyman to be with WWE for the foreseeable future.
The WWE is inching closer to their two-night WrestleMania 38 event[s] that kicks off on Saturday, April 2nd. Talents and personalities within the company are making the media rounds to promote the shows and Paul Heyman appeared on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch to chat WrestleMania among other conversational topics.
Heyman was asked how much longer he plans on being in wrestling and as that conversation continued, Heyman shared that he signed a long-term deal with WWE in 2021. He added that the company presented him with something that would have been foolish not to accept.
It was public knowledge that my contract came up last year and I kept it very close to the vest because I’m not one of those people that A, want to negotiate in public and B, I’m reading an awful lot lately about who’s signed for how long and for how much and I just never want that to be me. This much I will say… I re-signed with WWE last year. It was a long-term agreement and they created a situation where I would have been a fool not to take them up on their offer. So I’m locked in for a while. I also — and this has been the case for a long time with me because I do have outside projects just because I like to multitask and I’m very A.D.D and I just can’t concentrate on one thing at a time ever in my life. I have carve outs to allow me to do other projects, which is also to WWE’s benefit because I’m locked into WWE as well. So I’m always gonna be, oh, that WWE guy is doing this outside project and I would never do anything that would betray my deal with WWE because they went out of their way to make sure that I was here, I’m happy, I’m locked in and we’re mutually satisfied with each other’s contributions to the offer.
The topic of All Elite Wrestling came up and Heyman says he watches the product like he watches a myriad of other pro wrestling products. He has no problem speaking highly of AEW, but touched on what WWE accomplishes with WrestleMania. Heyman feels that AEW cannot match what WWE is about to do this weekend and until they do, he’s not concerned with praising them.
Well first of all, I have no problem putting AEW over if AEW does things that’s worth being put over. I don’t live in a bubble. I would also offer to anybody that wonders why I would be so willing to put over the competition, if you look at WrestleMania and you look at the fact that over the course of these two days, WWE has sold more tickets than to any — and I’m gonna have to call the two nights ‘one event’, okay? We’ve sold more tickets to this event, this WrestleMania than to any other event in WWE history, combine those two nights. So with that in mind and the spectacle that this show will be and you combine that with the worldwide publicity that it’s going to garner and the fact the entire industry is focused on what’s going to happen at WrestleMania and therefore what comes out of WrestleMania, I would argue the case that I could sit here and praise AEW all day long. They can’t match what we’re about to do [this] weekend and until they’re in a position to match what we do [this] weekend, I’m not that concerned with praising the competition because they’re still a long way away from what we do and our level of success and our market dominance. That being said, do I watch AEW? Of course I do, but I also watch everything else that’s out there as well. If I can get my hands on Buenos Aires championship wrestling, I’d watch it. If I can get my hands on… Antarctica all star wrestling, if there is such a thing, I’d watch it. I’d watch it. I watch anything to do with this industry. It’s why I had eyes on Gable Steveson when he was in tenth grade and he was an undefeated high school wrestler that was being touted in Minnesota as the best high school wrestler in the country.
Heyman is currently paired with Universal Champion Roman Reigns. They’ve been working together since Roman returned to WWE in the summer of 2020. Heyman spoke highly of WWE senior writer Michael Kirshenbaum, who Heyman says keeps him on track when it comes to promo material.
We [Heyman & Roman Reigns] work with a writer named Michael Kirshenbaum. He is an unheralded hero in WWE. I love working with Michael Kirshenbaum. He’s a great writer, gives honesty back. ‘No, don’t go there. You don’t wanna go there because then, you know, you’re diluting the core of the message.’ ‘Wow, okay.’ He keeps me very much on track and he’s very good when there’s five minutes to go and I decide to edit down what I wanna say. He’s very good with that.
Reigns’ WrestleMania opponent is WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. Heyman, the former on-screen advocate for Lesnar, said Brock never wanted to know what Heyman was going to say during their segments. Lesnar wanted his reactions to be organic and would be upset if Paul told him what he was going to say.
This will surprise you but Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns are very different human beings [Heyman laughed]. Brock never wanted to know what I was going to say, ever, ever and the few times I had to buzz him, ‘Hey listen, I just want you to know what I’m saying here,’ he ended up getting mad at me because he just — he didn’t wanna know what I was saying. He wanted all his reactions to be authentic and genuine and organic.
Heyman was present on the 3/28 Monday Night Raw alongside Roman Reigns and The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso). To hear POST Wrestling’s recap of last night’s Raw, head over to our YouTube channel for a review of the show.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit ‘Sports Media with Richard Deitsch’ with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
