Paul Heyman On His Approach To Saying Brock Lesnar’s Name: ‘That’s All Branding’

Paul Heyman has turned Brock Lesnar’s very name into a catchphrase, and he recently discussed his approach regarding the matter. Heyman’s elongated styling when saying “Brock Lesnar” has become a trademark phrase for the Adviser-slash-Wise Man-slash-Advocate, who has been associated with Lesnar since the Beast’s start in WWE.

Heyman spoke about his special introduction for Lesnar in his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He spoke about how it’s a matter of branding and related it to how he coached Joey Styles on how Styles opened ECW shows back in the day.

He also talked about why Vince McMahon buying ECW as opposed to Shane McMahon, which was something Shane was rumored to have wanted to do. You can see the highlights below:

On His Approach to Saying Lesnar’s Name:

“Well, that’s all branding, I mean, that’s all a matter of what is the emotion that you want to convey. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. I tell that to everybody. The first thing, if someone comes up to me with a script and they say, ‘Oh, these are the words…’ The very first thing I do is, ‘Are you ready? Tell me what you need to do. Tell me your assignment.’

“When Joey Styles first came to ECW, Joey Styles would say, ‘We are here live at the ECW Arena…’ Stop, cut, break. If you go to Rome and you go to the Sistine Chapel and you look at Michelangelo’s work on the ceiling, do you sit there and say, ‘I’m here at the Sistine Chapel…’ Michelangelo painted that. ‘Look at this ceiling, it was painted by Michelangelo on his back for 5, 10, 15 years,’ whatever the story is. Say the ECW Arena like you’re saying Madison Square Garden, like you’re saying Yankee Stadium, say it with such honor and prestige that it carries weight. So Joey Styles would say, ‘We are here live at the ECW Arena…’ and it’s looking up because it’s majestic, it’s opera, it’s operatic, so it’s never looking down the ECW Arena. It’s the ECW Arena, so everything that you want is about the manner in which you present it.”

On Why Shane McMahon Didn’t Buy ECW:

“Vince found it more valuable to have — as Vince would say, ‘I’d rather have Paul Heyman in the castle pissing out than out of the castle pissing in.’ It’s the same move that Apple made in buying Beats. Apple didn’t need Beats, Apple wanted Jimmy Iovine.

“Vince McMahon was tired of me being out on my own, being an independent, doing my own thing. Decided we need Heyman and wanted Heyman involved, and to get Heyman, you had to at least secure the assets of ECW, or promise the bankruptcy court to secure the assets of ECW, so that there’s a curator for our library, and along with that comes Paul E.”