Paul Heyman Says Alliance With Ex-WWE Star Was Never Meant To Succeed
Paul Heyman has elevated many of his clients to legendary main event status, yet his Midas touch hasn’t succeeded with everyone.
In 2013, Heyman was paired with Curtis Axel. However, despite being positioned as a “Paul Heyman Guy,” Axel never made it to the main event.
Heyman was asked why his pairing with Axel failed during his recent interview with Chris Van Vliet on the Insight podcast. The veteran manager revealed that it was because WWE didn’t have any long-term plans to push Axel to the main event. Instead, he was used as a supporting character to serve CM Punk’s storyline.
Heyman stated Axel’s role was to help with Punk’s story, not build his own. Therefore, once the feud with Punk ended, his purpose was also over.
Because I don’t think it was meant to work out. I don’t think there was ever an overall grand scheme to move Curtis Axel all the way up the ladder. Curtis Axel filled the need for there to be people around me to feed to CM Punk at the time…
Curtis Axel was cast as a Paul Heyman guy, generic Paul Heyman guy. You may as well have put a mask on him and call him the Mad Russian, Mr. X, The Assassin, The Punk Destroyer, so that we could feed the babyface CM Punk and that’s a shame for Curtis Axel.
Paul Heyman Says Curtis Axel Had “A Lot More To Offer”
Paul Heyman acknowledged that Axel was talented and capable of more, but WWE never truly committed to pushing him beyond that role.
Because he had a lot more to offer but he delivered in those matches with Punk and that was the assignment, and once that assignment was over, there was no plan to propel him further and he didn’t have the cache to go in and pitch for something that would continue the momentum coming out of that program.”
I don’t believe so. If there was (a long-term plan for Axel), I was never clued in on it. When I was told I was getting Curtis Axel, my question was, ‘What are we doing with this?’ And Vince’s answer was, ‘Going all the way to the top.’
I don’t think Vince (McMahon) really felt that about him and I don’t think — I mean, I could tell by the third week I was with Cesaro, oh, I understand what we’re doing here. I get it. I see how this is going to play out, that as soon as Brock is back, this is going to get discarded.”