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When Paul Heyman brought out CM Punk to be the fifth member of the Roman Reigns' OG Bloodline WarGames team, it felt like a full-circle moment in more ways than one.
Sure, it's been years, nay, decades since the duo worked together, outside of a nice cameo at Heyman's Hall of Fame induction, but their actual on-screen relationship? Well goodness, that dates back a decade when they initially linked up in 2012 and until their eventual breakup the following years.
Discussing his connection with Punk and their renewed on-screen relationship with SHAK Wrestling, Heyman noted that he never actually needed to be a “Paul Heyman Guy” to succeed in WWE, with that designation actually holding more harm than good at that point in their respective careers.
“CM Punk battled against the perception that all he was was a Paul Heyman guy. He got, unfortunately, dragged down by that tag. By becoming collateral damage from the fallout between my fallout with management,” Heyman noted via Fightful. “Because of my fallout with management, that’s how they described him. ‘The Paul Heyman Guy.’ All of a sudden, he fell victim to being described. If I had made him a star by some of the smoke and mirrors we used in ECW, for some people that weren’t up to the level of the national stars, but we used enough ingenuity in our approach of promoting them in hiding the weakness and accentuating their strength that we made them look like stars. That wasn’t the case with Punk.”
Whoa, what is the case with Punk? Well, Heyman had plenty more to say on the subject, noting just how important a figure the “Second City Saint” has become to the WWE Universe.
Paul Heyman credits CM Punk for putting himself over in WWE
Discussing Punk's place in the WWE Universe and how his own involvement in the act impacted it, Heyman noted that the “Best in the World's” connection with the crowd is what ultimately got him over.
“He was a magnificent performer, an all-time performer, a WrestleMania main eventer, and a top-of-the-card-worthy performer from the moment he walked in the door. He fought against that perception and proved himself, through his hard work, through his connection with the audience, through the fact that no matter how stupid of a concept they threw at him, he made it work,” Heyman noted.
“Imagine if you let him have input into something that is good, to the point that he was undeniable. You could not stop the progress, no matter how hard they were self-sabotaging their own product, to the point that he rose to the top of the card because the audience shoved him to the top of the card. They weren’t accepting the way he was being presented, knowing he had so much more to offer.”
You know, you have to give it up to Heyman on this one: he is 100 percent correct. Even after Punk was out of WWE for a decade, fans were still cheering his name because the “Straight Edge Superstar” deeply connected with the audience regardless of whether he was fighting with The Undertaker or leading his own version of The Nexus. If that doesn't scream generational versatility, something few “Paul Heyman Guys” before Reigns could muster, I don't know what is.
