Paul Heyman on His Current Backstage Role in WWE, Him Loving AEW Existing and AEW’s Place in Wrestling Being “An Alternative, If Not A Competitive Brand”, & His Belief WWE Squandered Claudio Castagnoli’s Potential

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Heyman’s thoughts about his current role within WWE’s creative team.

“I do not go into the weekly television meeting. I don’t get into that level of micro anymore. I stay very macro. I attend the long-term meetings. The long-term creative meetings, I take the ride up to Stamford and I sit in on those meetings and love those days.

My latest obsession has been — let’s book out Saudi Mania. Let’s get that done. I’m looking at the year after Saudi as well. If it was up to me — and it’s not — let’s start there. We’ll change it every week if we have to, we’ll change it every time we meet, but let’s get something that we’re building towards. Let’s write the last page now, and then let’s build towards it. I would love to know what we’re doing the year after Saudi at WrestleMania. I would love to have a concept for that. Who is Roman Reigns’ opponent then? Who’s CM Punk’s opponent then? Who’s Logan Paul’s opponent then? Who’s Bron Breakker’s opponent then? Who’s Seth Rollins’ opponent then? Jade Cargill’s? Becky Lynch? Liv Morgan? Rhea Ripley? What are we building towards? Because if we know that and we have a concept for that, then it makes Saudi Mania really easy.”

Heyman also gave his thoughts about his current backstage role at WWE television shows.

“If I were to list my scope of services, what would be number one? I’m the liaison for some talent in terms of — I’m the creative liaison between that talent and the creative team, the creative team and that talent. So a lot of the creative will flow through me, in both directions. I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes business for members of The Vision, obviously for Brock Lesnar, and there are others. And more so on Fridays than on Mondays, because Mondays I’m on air a lot.

I just sit there and I watch the show. And I’m watching for things that, ‘We need to follow up on that.’ ‘Oh, you know what? Let’s not follow up any more on this. Let’s pull that segment coming up in 12 or 13 because it’s a good mystery as it is now.’ I can give instant feedback during the show,” he said. “But more importantly, I’m there for any talent. I’m there all day for any talent, top to bottom, newcomer to veteran, NXT talent moving up to legend that’s there for a cameo. I’m there for anybody that wants to talk about their performance that night or their creative process or how they’re going to approach a certain scene or their match or their finish or anything that they want to talk about this business. In the art form of the presentation, immediate or long-term, I’m there to talk to them to — if I can have the liberty of using this phrase — to bestow some wisdom upon them.”

Heyman also gave his thoughts about if pro wrestling is in a better place now because of AEW’s presence and Tony Khan’s impact on talent compensation.

“Well, I certainly hope so. I mean it shortchanged the compensation packages for a lot of talent because there was a wolf across the river named Tony Khan that had a billion dollar checkbook that he could afford to pay a lot more money for talent that talent was making back in 2017, 2018-2019. So it certainly changed the compensation for talent. And they’re on a viable network. They have a style that’s different than WWE’s. They present an alternative, if not a competitive brand. I look at AEW and I realized the influence that ECW had on that project on that product.

Not just like, for example, like Moxley is a total ECW Sandman new jet style performer, but if you look at the AEW style, it’s Rob Van Dam versus Jerry Lynn from 1999. AEW is RVD and if you were a fan of what RVD and Jerry Lynn were doing in 1999, a lot of what AEW presents today is derived and is influenced by what RVD and Jerry Lynn were doing back then.

Well, that style went into the PWG, which then became, you know, I think a basis for what AEW is doing now. So am I glad that they’re there? Absolutely love the fact that there is an alternative for an audience. Love the fact that there’s something else out there. Love the fact that there’s something that captures the imagination of the pro wrestling slash sports entertainment. If we still use that phrase today, audience, I’m glad. I wish there were more promotions out there. Right now it’s just going to make us work harder to be better than all of them. And we certainly have the advantage in terms of distribution and in terms of lineage of this industry.”

Heyman also gave his thoughts about his belief that WWE had squandered Cesaro’s, also known as Claudio Castagnoli in AEW and the indies, potential as a star during his time in the company. Heyman also gave his thoughts about why his partnership with Curtis Axel fell through.

“Because I don’t think it was meant to work out. I don’t think there was ever an overall grand scheme to move Curtis Axel all the way up the ladder. Curtis Axel filled the need for there to be people around me to feed the CM Punk at the time. It’s the same thing that happened to Cesaro.

You look at Cesaro and he checked specially at that moment in time, he checked every box to become a top star. Everyone who got into the ring with him came back into gorilla saying ‘Give me him’ everyone, everyone. I remember John Cena worked with him on television and came back and looked at Vince and said I could main event WrestleMania with [him]. And probably could have and should have. Cesaro was placed in that position the day after Brock Lesnar conquered the streak, so that when Brock took his hiatus, I had an excuse to be on television to say my client Brock Lesnar conquered The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania.

And you needed an excuse to have me out there on television. If you put me on commentary, I can’t say it for two or three hours. I have to say it with him once a week. Just drill that into your head. Reinforcement, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. And so Cesaro became the excuse.”

Heyman also gave his thoughts about his belief that WWE missed a major opportunity by not capitalizing on Cesaro’s ability to speak five languages and how that unique trait could have been used for promos.

“If Cesaro was given the opportunity to answer every question in a different language, you’d have seen a side of his personality because he will put emphasis in the dialect and you will see his mannerisms match the dialect that he’s presenting. So I think Cesaro could have been a fascinating promo if he was given the chance to do that in WWE. He wasn’t. And, that’s our fault. That is a major fumble that was a crime that was committed against the career of Cesaro and a crime that was committed against the audience for not allowing this gifted performer to do what at the time, certainly he could do better than most anybody else on the face of the planet.

And by the way, when you realize what he’s capable of, what an opponent he could have been for Brock Lesnar. Had I turned on Cesaro and we built him up to be a threat to Brock, the matches the two of them could have had are mind boggling. A tremendously wasted opportunity and no one for us to blame but ourselves, including me.” 

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com 1, 2, & 3