Roman Reigns is not overrated. Name anybody who can compete with Roman in terms of presentation, in terms of psychology, in terms of communication, in terms of aura. Perhaps pre-pandemic Roman Reigns you could call overrated, but this version, no way.

Turn Oba Femi heel, just like Brock Lesnar when he debuted. Have him destroy everybody and let the crowd naturally turn him babyface. Face. Put him with Paul Heyman.

There’s a video going around where Johnny Russo, who is the head writer of NXT, is giving promo advice to WWE tryout attendees. I agree 100%. If you’re a young wrestler, you must check this out. Again, the art of communication. They are seeing if you can convey emotions, if you can convey your story.

Look, you can always spice up promos, you can add in character, and you do not want to see a bunch of athletes with no wrestling experience cutting wrestling promos. It’s going to end up sounding like ’80s wrestling promos.”

He’s brilliant at taking a look at the landscape and understanding: Does this make sense? Is it logical? Does the storyline work? Will it create box office, interest, and intrigue? Does it work for the characters involved? Does it progress the characters involved and take them from being characters on a television show into becoming attractions?

Look at the past eight to ten months in WWE. Oba Femi has become an attraction. Trick Williams has become an attraction. If Je’Von Evans is not labeled an attraction by the end of this summer, then someone’s either not looking at it from the right perspective or we messed up. And I don’t think we’re going to mess up with Je’Von Evans.

There’s a whole bunch of other people as well. Sol Ruca is going to be a star, an absolute bona fide attraction. Look at these people emerging.

We’re how many years now into the Paul Levesque reign? It’s a matter of serving all of these content needs on a creative basis, and he’s doing it better now than he did just a couple of years ago when I stood during my Hall of Fame speech and told everybody, ‘I’m a Paul Levesque guy.’

Because it’s not just how he guides us. It’s the manner in which he does so, and the collaborative effort with him is even better now than it was then.

So, you give me a few billion dollars and say, ‘Start a wrestling company,’ I’m hiring him for the job.”

Heyman: “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, it’s the same thing that happened with Cesaro.

You look at Cesaro, and he checked, especially at that moment in time, he checked every box to become a top star. Everyone who got into the ring with him came back into Gorilla, saying, ‘Give me him.’ Everyone, I remember John Cena worked with him on television and came back and looked at Vince and said, ‘I could main event WrestleMania with him.’ And probably could have, and should have.

Cesaro was placed in that position the day after Brock Lesnar conquered The Streak, so that when Brock took his hiatus, I had an excuse to be on television to say my client Brock Lesnar conquered The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania, and you needed an excuse to have me out there on television, and if you put me on commentary, I can’t say it for two or three hours, I have to say it with impact once a week, just drill that into your head, reinforcement, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition.

So Cesaro became the excuse to see me say the line.

Curtis Axel was cast as 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, 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.”

Van Vliet: “So there wasn’t a long-term plan for either of those guys?”

Heyman: “I don’t believe so. If there was, 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 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.”

Heyman: “No. If I knew he was going to retire, would I have gone on record saying he’s going to dominate for the next 15 years? Why is Harvey [of TMZ] asking stupid questions? I love Harvey. Our kid loves Harvey. But why?”

TMZ: “So you didn’t put a quick one on us. You were genuine, and you were genuinely shocked.”

Heyman: “I was crying. Am I that good of an actor that I could cry on cue? Not I.”

TMZ: “So what was the conversation was like after?”

Heyman: “You should ask me what the conversation was in the ring. I’m hugging the man, and we’re talking to each other in a stadium filled with people, and millions watching when you get home.”

TMZ: “And what were you saying?”

Heyman: “None of your business. Between me and Brock Lesnar. Why would you ask such a question?”

TMZ: “Well, because last time I got you, you said you didn’t know, and we were confused when we saw that he did retire. So, what’s next? ”

Heyman: “Bron Breakker, Logan Paul, Bronson Reed, Austin Theory—The Vision taking over WWE.”

TMZ: “So, it’s so much more that we should be looking forward to and not looking back at?”

Heyman: “Well, the wise man cometh. I’m still around. And after 40 years, I always have a finger on the pulse of what’s coming next.”

TMZ: “Okay. Well, we appreciate you being honest with us today.”

Heyman: “I appreciate me, too.”

Because I know if I wrote that all down or explained what I was going to say, he’d be like, ‘No, you can’t say that. You can’t mention Paul backstage.’ If you mentioned Paul Heyman in a conversation, he would spit on the ground—he did not want you mentioning it. It didn’t make any sense to him.

But I didn’t say anything in that promo that wasn’t something that was already highlighted on our television show, except for maybe dropping a New Japan/Ring of Honor reference. But my fans knew what I was talking about, and that was just enough peek behind the curtain to get people to go, ‘What is he talking about? Oh wait—he’s not supposed to say this.’

So yeah, that’s the line. I try not to leap over it—I just kind of step over it. Then you toe it, and you go back and forth, and you craft that.

And it didn’t take long. It literally just spilled out—almost freestyle.

Well, a lot of it was. One of the things is when I waved at the camera and said, ‘Oh, I’m breaking the fourth wall,’ it’s because I lost my train of thought. The adrenaline hit me at that moment.”

When people chant ECW, they’re talking about the period from September 1993 to January 2001.

To have Hardcore Heaven ‘94 as part of the WWE 2K26 is an honor for anyone who was involved in that—and I certainly was—anybody who was there, and there are many who were, and anyone who wants a genuine, authentic portrayal of ECW when it was revolutionizing the entire industry.”

Okay—how many champions did Bobby Heenan manage? You can count them on one hand. You can’t count mine on one; you can barely count them on two.

How many WrestleMania main events was he in? The only person who’s been in more WrestleMania main events than me is Roman Reigns.

If you want to say, ‘Well, that doesn’t count because you’re a manager, an advocate, a wise man, an oracle,’ okay—let’s put it this way: when I’m in someone’s corner at WrestleMania, the number is ten.

Who’s second place? Stephanie McMahon. You know what number she’s at? Three.

So please tell me how anybody measures up to my accomplishments. Where can you say that Bobby Heenan is even in my league anymore?

I’ve managed more champions—and I hate the word ‘managed,’ but we’ll use it for contextual purposes—for a longer period of time, and for longer stretches within their title reigns, than anybody else in history. No one even comes close. They’re not even in the same universe as me.

So genuflecting respect upon someone who, one, is dead, and two, whose numbers don’t match mine, is like saying your next-door neighbor who just hit the million-dollar lottery is in the same league as Elon Musk. They’re not—and Bobby Heenan’s not in mine either.”

If that kid can’t figure out the things that he’s doing wrong and accentuate all the things that he’s already doing right, then please tell me who can. What doesn’t he have? He has decent size and he’s only getting bigger. He has tremendous discipline. He’s not one of these guys that is out all night in Europe at the Eurotrash rave in Paris at 4:30 in the morning. He’s in the gym at 4:30 in the morning and he’s back in the gym as soon as the matches are over. He’s highly intelligent. He speaks to the youth. He looks great and he can work his balls off.

Once he figures out the difference between a really good match and a money match, once he understands that being out of character while in character and relaxing within the skin of that character, he’s going to, Austin Theory is going to be untouchable.”