What is the next stage of story evolution for WWE? Now that the promotion has embraced incredibly long-form storytelling, at least when it comes to the likes of Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, and the rest of The Bloodline, what can WWE do to help push the industry further and produce something new that feels both compatible with their product and revolutionary within the wrestling world at the same time?

In the opinion of Heyman in an interview with Rick Rubin on his Tetragrammaton podcast, the answer is to be more inclusive and elevate voices and performers who are oftentimes stuck in the mid-card – or worse, not booked at all.

“The safe answer, to sound pseudo-intelligent, is inclusive storylines. A transgender hero. A female that competes at the same level, with the same marketing behind her as any of the male competitors,” Paul Heyman said via Fightful. “[One] that's not Ronda Rousey from the outside world coming in as a celebrity, but a homegrown Rhea Ripley. Or Bianca Belair. Or Charlotte Flair. Or Becky Lynch. Or Bayley. Or Nattie. Or any of these fantastic performers that we have on the roster. That [they] get a platform as lucrative and that carries as much opportunity on a global basis as any of their male counterparts. That's a very safe thing for me to say. I wouldn't be wrong in saying that's a place we should go, could go, and will go.”

Now, excluding the first bit, as WWE has never pushed a transgender babyface wrestler and has a, shall we say, spotty record of storylines that focus on gender – Santina Marella, anyone? – the latter part has sort of already happened, as when Becky Lynch became “The Man,” she was arguably the most popular performer in the entire promotion, effectively lapping the likes of a pre-Tribal Chief Roman Reigns, and her own husband Seth Rollins. Still, it would be interesting to see how a younger booker like Paul “Triple H” Levesque would handle booking Rhea Ripley as a true top star, as the black and gold era of NXT was very good to female wrestlers like Asuka, and that same booking could elevate a star on RAW or SmackDown too. If Levesque wants to give it a shot, Ripley is likely the perfect performer for the job.

Paul Heyman explains his off-camera dynamic with Roman Reigns.

Elsewhere in his appearance on Tetragrammaton, Paul Heyman touched on his backstage relationship with Roman Reigns, which could understandably be different from what fans see on television each week.

Though Reigns and Heyman took different paths to the WWE, the duo are both constantly thinking about what they can do to maximize their storytelling and produce the best content possible for the WWE Universe.

“Roman Reigns is a fascinatingly intelligent human being. Brilliant. All false humility aside, behind the scenes, I serve as ‘Wise Man' for Roman Reigns — for that human being. 100%. But I learn as much from him … every day as he will ever learn from me,” Heyman said via Wrestling Inc.

“He is forward-thinking. I gotta keep up with him. I'm challenged every day to keep up with the progressive approach that he takes to our industry. He looked at pandemic WWE with a digital audience in a manner that no one else did.”

Discussing how WWE and specifically Reigns attempted to optimize the potential presented by COVID-19 to tell a story in a revolutionary, “sophisticated” way few others were able to accomplish, Heyman complemented his “Tribal Chief” for not only “upgrading” the product but drawing in an audience who didn't have much else to keep them entertained.

“When there's no audience, you can whisper, and you can start doing movie scenes,” Heyman said. “We can bring a sophistication to this product. We can upgrade the product. We can elevate the product. We can bring better acting to this product. We can do scenes instead of angles. … We can literally draw an audience — attract a crowd — to see the next chapter of the story play out, and it doesn't even have to be a match anymore.”

Now, to Heyman's credit, it's hard to argue that The Bloodline wasn't the clear highlight of the COVID-19 era of WWE, with their storytelling, matches, and backstage segments drawing in fans and getting them invested in the story. Fans “Acknowledged” their “Tribal Chief,” wanted to see Jey Uso beat Reigns, cheered on Sami Zayn as “The Honorary Uce,” and sat jaw agape as Solo Sikoa made his debut at Clash at the Castle when he ended Drew McIntyre's championship aspirations once and for all. When fans look back on this era five, 10, or even 20 years into the future, the storyline Reigns and Heyman put together will stand up as clear headlines, right up there with the Boneyard Match, and Dominik Mysterio's molton heel heat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5v327D8YhY&t=321s