Why Paul Heyman Feels WWE Is Using His Creative Skills
Paul Heyman is very content in his current role in WWE because of how he can help talent behind the scenes.
The headliner at the 2024 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony was Paul Heyman, who is one of the greatest minds in pro wrestling. Heyman has been involved in pro wrestling for over 40 years as a photographer, manager, booker, owner, and of course the “Wise Man” for Roman Reigns.
During his WWE career that started in 2001 after ECW died, Heyman was eventually hired as the head writer on SmackDown in 2002. Heyman had other creative roles in WWE as the guy in charge of ECW in 2006 and he also became the Executive Director of Raw in 2019.
In his current role, Paul Heyman doesn’t have an official job title behind the scenes, but he is heavily involved in segments involving The Bloodline group led by Roman Reigns. That pairing has been together for over four years with no signs of slowing down.
Paul Heyman spoke to Sports Media with Richard Deitsch about his role in WWE and why he’s satisfied doing what he is doing.
“The contributions to the Bloodline storyline that I am allowed by Paul Levesque, satisfy a lot of my writing needs. I also get to work on a weekly basis with a lot of talent that come to me with loosely written scripts for what is expected of them on this week’s Raw or SmackDown.
When I sit with a Bron Breakker, ‘What’s the concept here?’ ‘This is the concept.’ ‘Okay. How would you approach that concept.’ I don’t care how Bronson Rechsteiner would approach that concept. How would Bron Breakker approach it? Don’t talk to me as Bronson Rechsteiner, talk to me as Bron Breakker. As he’s talking, Bron Breakker formulates that opinion, and we end up writing it together.
The same can be said for Rhea Ripley, Nia Jax, Gunther, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk or anybody else that I will sit down with on a Monday or Friday and help them find their voice in the methods they are being tasked to convey to the audience.”
Paul Heyman Is Following The Lead Of Triple H
When Paul Heyman did his Hall of Fame speech, he made a point to mention the WWE’s Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, and how he is leading the company. While talking about his behind-the-scenes work in WWE, Heyman once again credited Triple H for leading the way.
“I spend most of my Mondays and Fridays writing, let alone the long-term writing that goes into the uber-intricate Bloodline stories. I find two days a week, from noon on, and even during the show, I’m sitting there with talent. It’s not really re-writing, it’s writing because here is the concept as the company sees it, but it’s not written in their voice.
We find their voice together. When they walk away from me, hopefully, they are walking away with their character and persona truly understanding what they are selling, whether it’s a match, a concept, a vision, or just the scene itself. I can’t tell you that I miss writing because I actually think I’m doing as much writing now as I have in the past; it’s just not 11 segments for SmackDown or 16 segments for Raw in a fully fleshed out script that needs to be proofread and commercials added and time breaks.
It’s a different style of writing, and it goes along with the fact that I’m collaborating with these talents because I’m following the lead being set by Paul Levesque, who runs the division and the storytelling aspect in a most collaborative effort.”
The “Wise Man” Paul Heyman also said recently that WWE was driving pop culture and he strongly believes that Roman Reigns is leading the way.