Paul Heyman Reveals The One WWE Star He'd Have Worked With Besides Roman Reigns
Since the August 28, 2020 episode of "WWE SmackDown" — albeit with a brief detour between December 2021 and January 2022 — Paul Heyman and Roman Reigns have been aligned. In that time, we've seen "The Head of the Table" turn heel, unite his family, and etch his name in the history books, most recently celebrating 1,000 days as Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. And in nearly all these moments, Heyman has been by his side.
But there was always one other superstar Heyman was willing to work with after leaving former client Brock Lesnar behind. On a recent episode of "Tetragrammaton" with Rick Rubin, "The Wiseman" discussed that one non-Reigns superstar who would've been in contention for his advocacy, what led to his partnership with Reigns, and what it felt like when the two of them eventually got together.
"So Vince [McMahon] removes me as Executive Director in June of 2020," Heyman began. "I thought I had a bunch of months left on my contract, and I was gonna ride it out, and we'll see where we go from there."
Settling was never going to happen. Heyman had a vision of the type of superstar he was going to work with — they needed to already be a star, for one thing; he'd simply be the catalyst to take them to the next level. That was very clear.
"There were limited options in my agreement as to whom WWE could put me with. When I had the leverage, I wrote that in," Heyman continued. "Because we had reached a point — the cache of being Brock Lesnar's advocate — that anybody else you put me with could either make them instantly a star, or you're watering me down and ultimately hurting the other person because they don't belong with me."
The Baddest Woman on the Planet
Heyman wanted a star that was either WrestleMania main event ready or very close to it. That left a relatively short list, but it did include the first-ever UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion and a three-time WWE Women's Champion.
"One of the few names on this list was Roman Reigns," he said. "Another was Brock Lesnar obviously. Another was Ronda Rousey."
Yet little by little, and relatively quickly, those three options were trimmed down to just one.
"Ronda Rousey was having a baby. Brock Lesnar wasn't coming back with Saudi [Arabia] being down. Kind of left Roman Reigns in there," Heyman continued. Putting on his best Mr. McMahon impression, he added, "So Vince calls me in the middle of August, and he says, 'We're gonna take you back into television.'"
Initially, Heyman took that to mean WWE was going to put him on commentary. Yet with Jim Ross no longer around to work with, he was concerned about who they were going to pair him with. He was also concerned about the role he could play as an announcer in 2020. As it happens, though, McMahon was ready to pair him with Reigns. Heyman never saw it coming.
"I said 'Okay, what do you got in mind?'" he said. "And he says, 'I'm gonna put you with somebody...' And I'm trying to tip-toe into a delicate situation here where I'm about to butt heads with him ... And he goes, 'I'm envisioning Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman.' And I'm thinking 'Oh my god, he's gonna pull the trigger on this.'"
Roman Reigns Has His Darth Vader Moment
For years prior to their partnership, Reigns had been the top babyface of WWE. Even when crowds weren't responding to him, or at least weren't responding to him in the way McMahon had hoped, WWE kept pushing Reigns as "The Big Dog." It was similar to John Cena's trajectory in that there never seemed to be an end in sight. No matter the reaction, no matter the time, Reigns was destined to be a babyface forever, much like Cena was. Then, much to the surprise of Heyman, McMahon shook things up.
"He would never pull it with Cena," Heyman declared. "Cena was gonna be Anakin Skywalker his entire life, he was never gonna be Darth Vader. A heel. A villain. An antagonist."
But Reigns did turn heel with Heyman by his side, and the rest is history.
"When Roman Reigns and I finally talked in August of 2020, in a continuation of conversations that we had had for five years, four years, about 'Boy if we ever got together. Boy if Brock Lesnar's advocate ever switched sides and got behind this guy,'" Heyman recalled. "We'd set the business on fire."
That fire still burns to this day.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.