Bruce Prichard: Heyman Thought The Rap Gimmick Would Kill Cena

– During a recent edition of his podcast (via wrestlinginc.com), Bruce Prichard talked about Paul Heyman being against John Cena’s rapper gimmick, why Heyman was removed as head writer of WWE Smackdown…

On Heyman Being Opposed to Cena’s Rapper Gimmick: “To quote Paul Heyman, ‘you put the rap gimmick on Cena and you will kill John Cena’s career. Paul felt that the rap gimmick was going to be the death knell of John Cena and that it would stereotype him and pigeonhole him and he would never be able to work his way out of it. Hated the idea, went to Cena and told Cena, ‘they’re killing your career’, ‘don’t do it’, ‘it’s going to be bad’. And [Heyman] went to Vince and told Vince it’s going to kill [Cena] and the fact that Paul petitioned so hard against it probably helped Vince [decide], ‘yeah, let’s try it.’ And I think it worked out alright for him.”

On Heyman’s Relationship with Vince McMahon: “He didn’t make deadlines. He’d be late for Vince’s meetings. It was a combination of things that Paul was almost begging to be off of the team and begging to just be a talent and not have to worry about writing the show from week-to-week because writing the show from week-to-week also came with heat.” Prichard recalled, “Paul argued at every chance he got! Paul and Vince were oil and water and Paul just didn’t know when to quit! You would think it was over, and then you’d get [imitating Heyman], ‘allow me one more volley, sir.’ There had to just be some point when Vince said, ‘I’m done. No more. I’m done. I don’t want to see him anymore. I don’t want to hear him anymore. I don’t want him on the plane anymore. I don’t want him in the writers’ meeting anymore. I’m done.’ As far as having a five-year no-cut contract, I don’t know of anybody that had a no-cut contract at any time.”

On Heyman Secretly Listening in on a Conference Call: “The conference call story happened at the time of the suspension and Paul was, the phone call story, folks, for those of you who don’t know what the hell we’re talking about,” Heyman explained. “So we were having a conference call on a Saturday, and this was during the time when Paul was suspended from the company, and we used the same conference call number because it was only us that knew the conference call number. And we’re in the middle of a creative meeting and, all of a sudden, we hear a ‘beep… has left the conference.’ There was no name, so Vince says, ‘roll call. Who’s here? Who was here? Who dropped off? Roll call!’ Everybody [says], ‘I’m here, I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.’ Everyone was there, but someone had been on and had left the conference.” Prichard explained, “the call came from a Scarsdale residence that was traced back to a last name Heyman. Correctamundo [it was Heyman’s parents’ house line]. And Paul denied it. Paul denied it for the longest time and it wasn’t till recently where he was [admitting], ‘oh yeah, I was on.'”

On Heyman’s Alliance With Lesnar: “Overall, I’m going to say him aligning himself with Brock Lesnar is without a doubt one of the most genius things Paul ever did for himself and Paul did for Brock Lesnar. They’ve done very well by each other.”

On Heyman Being Insulted Over Water: “Linda just makes the comment, ‘so guys, there’s this water dispensary here – the water is ice cold. It’s all filtered and good, so you don’t have to keep going in to get a bunch of bottles of water. There [are] cups here, big cups, and everything, or just refill your water bottle, whatever you need, whatever is faster, easier, better, whatever, and you’re not having 50 water bottles all over the place.’ Well, Heyman took exception to that! [Imitating Heyman] ‘I guess we’re not good enough to drink their water. I will just bring my own water from now on, so for the rest of the trip, Paul brought like a big bottle of water, which normally he never would have drank, but because he was told, and he wasn’t told, ‘don’t drink our water’, it was just, ‘hey, there’s this other water over here.’ ‘I will bring my own water. Thank you, ma’am.’