Paul Heyman And Jim Ross On Brock Lesnar's Work Ethic, His Future, How He Was In OVW, More
- Jonathan Snowden of Bleacher Report recently spoke with Paul Heyman and Jim Ross to discuss Brock Lesnar as he prepares to face The Undertaker at WWE SummerSlam this weekend. The full interview is at this link. Below are highlights:
JR on Brock's work ethic:
"He's got a very devoted worth ethic because that's how he was raised. When you're raised on a dairy farm, people have to understand, those cows are milked every morning and every evening every day of the year. So when you're raised on a dairy farm, you understand the word 'commitment' and nose to the grindstone, for lack of a better term. And that's the environment that he knew. That's all he knew. So I think that has helped him establish his character, his integrity, as far as how he approaches his vocation."
JR on Lesnar in OVW:
"Lesnar was not a pro wrestling fan, but he was so competitive that every drill he wanted to be the best at. If he saw somebody do like a moonsault [a backward flip off the top rope] even though he's 300 pounds, he thought, 'Well, there should be no reason I shouldn't be able to do a moonsault.' And athletically, there wasn't any reason, certainly. You know he could do anything he wanted to do. There's nothing anybody else could do in the ring that he couldn't do."
Heyman on pushing for Lesnar years ago:
"If you don't have someone who will champion your cause, it is certainly an uphill battle to break into the main event level. Because when the decisions are always being made at the top by one man, if that man doesn't hear your praises being sung by several people, or at least the influential ones, then he has to second-guess himself sometimes. But when Vince McMahon sees it, and influential people around him also say, 'Hey, you see this, don't you?' 'Of course I see it.' 'You see it too, right?' 'Yeah, we see this too.' It just makes the investment in that human being, let alone the character and the persona, much easier."
JR on Vince McMahon bringing Lesnar back:
"It proved to me that despite all those people who love to stand on their soapbox and talk about McMahon's ego, that he still is gonna do what's best for his company that he's built from the territorial smoky arenas to the global brand that it is. It has been built on his back. And he's had to eat a lot of s–t over the years. That was one of the things he taught me when he promoted me to be in charge of the talent roster and to retool it and to try to change the personality of the locker room. He said, 'You have to learn to eat a lot of s–t.' He said, 'You'll never like the taste of it, but you'll get used to it.'"
Heyman on Lesnar re-signing with WWE this year and his future:
"His timing is impeccable. He knows what he's doing. He is a world-class global athlete in his prime yet understands how to maximize the money he will make based on the exploitation of his persona. Brock Lesnar is not done yet. Brock Lesnar has not accomplished all that he wants to accomplish yet. And there are still things that Brock Lesnar wants to do that the public is going to be in awe of. We're just getting started here."
Source: Bleacher Report