Paul Heyman Details His Current Role In WWE, Is Looking Creatively Past WrestleMania 43

Paul Heyman wears a lot of hats in his work at WWE, and he recently detailed his role in the company and talked long-term creative planning. Heyman is an on-screen talent of course, providing advocate, Wise Man, or advisor services to a number of talent. But he also has a role backstage, consulting on creative and being a liaison for much of his on-screen partners.

Heyman spoke about his role in the company during his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He noted that in terms of creative, he is focused on the long-term creative meetings and is currently looking to next year’s WrestleMania and well beyond right now. You can see the highlights below:

On His Current Role In WWE:

“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. More so on Fridays than on Mondays, because Mondays I’m on air a lot, I sit all the way in the right corner in Gorilla. Paul Levesque is up in the position with the headsets on, Bruce Prichard or Ed Koski or John Beckstrom or Ryan Ward will sit next to Paul. So of the thousand details per show that Paul has to hold on to, anything that needs to be taken care of, ‘Okay, take care of that.’ As he navigates the macro, the micro will fall down to the person next to him.

“In front of them will be [Billy] Kidman or Jason [Jordan], who keep the show honest in terms of time, commercial breaks. ‘We have to hit this crossover, we have to be off the air by this moment.’ And next to them will be the producer of the segment on headsets, to this side will be the writer of the segment on headsets, and next to the writer is me. And 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 anymore 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, 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 in this business. In the art form of the presentation, immediate or long-term, I’m there to talk to them. If I can have the liberty of using this phrase to bestow some wisdom upon them.”

On Working With His On-Screen Clients Beyond WWE TV:

“Well, again, it depends on the person that we’re talking about. The way I work with Brock Lesnar is a lot different than the way I would work with Roman Reigns. The way I would work with Roman Reigns is a lot different than the way I would work with CM Punk. The way I would work with CM Punk is a lot different than the way I would work with Bron Breakker. It really depends on the need of the artist. What does it take for Brock Lesnar to achieve the greatness that I know Brock Lesnar can achieve? What does it take for Roman Reigns to achieve the greatness in the form of The Tribal Chief that I know that he can achieve, and whatever it takes to get them there, I’m willing to do, because I want to be in on that greatness. I want to be challenged to rise to that occasion. If all they have to worry about is the actual performance and everything else is taken care of, okay. ‘What’s your nutrition for the day? Tell me your nutrition for the day, so that when you arrive at the arena, that food is waiting for you. It’s prepared, it will be delivered to you at the time that you eat. You eat at 1 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 7 o’clock? You eat at 1 o’clock and 7 o’clock? Is there a particular type of vehicle that you are more comfortable being driven in than another type of vehicle that takes you to the arena, so that when you’re in that vehicle, you can think about your performance.’

“If we just designate the fact that the performance is everything, it’s the end-all, be-all. It’s what we spend our lives crafting and desiring and wanting and needing, and the need to achieve something within that performance at a higher level than everyone else on the roster, if not in the entire industry. If we disagree, if we just come to the understanding that we both want it that bad, past the point of obsession, past the point of it even being a healthy obsession that we’re willing it to be an unhealthy obsession in that pursuit, and we both agree to it. Let’s go for that. That’s where I go, and I fall short of my own expectations many times, but I won’t let you fall short of yours.”

On What Fans Don’t Understand About Putting Together a Wrestling Show:

“That it’s not about the immediate moment. You asked me before, what I do behind the scenes in WWE? I do not go into the weekly television meetings. 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 Stanford. I sit in on those meetings and love those days. My latest obsession has been, let’s book out SaudiMania. Let’s get that done.”

On Planning For WrestleMania 43 Already:

“Oh, I’m looking at the year after Saudi. 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’d 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? Jade Cargill, 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 SaudiMania really easy. It’s not about, oh, you know what I would do this Monday, okay? But how does that affect next Monday? How does that affect what I want to do in January? How does that affect the Royal Rumble? How does that affect SaudiMania? How does that affect what I want to do the year after? Here’s an example. Okay, right now we have lined up for Crown Jewel, the trilogy. The champion on Raw is Roman Reigns. The champion on SmackDown is Cody Rhodes. It’s 1-1. If they both retain the titles all the way to Crown Jewel, we get the trilogy at Crown Jewel. What an enormous main event. What a prestigious main event. What a historic main event for Crown Jewel. You want to sell Crown Jewel, you want that to be one of the biggest PLEs of the year. You want that to be a hot ticket, both in terms of selling tickets and on the secondary market? Put the trilogy match there.”