For years, fans and non-fans alike have drawn comparisons between what promoters like Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, and Vince McMahon – and now Paul “Triple H” Levesque – put on the screen each week and the soap operas that have dominated daytime television since, well, since daytime television became a thing.

Both have excessive drama, action, and ultimately cater to a fan base who will tune in over and over again regardless of how creative screws around with their favorites. Throw in some good old family drama and a surprise heel turn or two, and the comparison sort of writes itself and has for the last 40 or so years.

And yet, in the opinion of Heyman, the next stage in wrestling evolution is leaning even further into the theater of it all but doing so without the theatrics that, when done poorly – like here with Carlito and Maria Kanellis – lead to some truly bad television. As Sami Zayn said just after his match at WrestleMania 39, The Bloodline's story is like prestige TV, which Heyman echoed and expanded on in his talk with Rick Rubin on his Tetragrammaton podcast.

“The other answer is an amplified aura of theatre without theatrics. The transformative, the revolutionary, the evolutionary disruptor in this industry towards that theory is Roman Reigns. We do movie scenes in the locker room to further tell the story. 3, 4, 5 minute movie scenes showing the vulnerability of his character, the angst of his character, the worry of his character, the sensitivities of his character, idiosyncrasies, nuances of his character, with his cousins, by his cousins, with a spotlight on his cousins at times, and sometimes on me. Sometimes in my sycophantic nature of appeasing The Tribal Chief, while at the same time, also appeasing him based on the fear that he can behead me at any time. A couple of years ago, if I said to you, ‘We're going to do these locker room scenes that are movie scenes, and this villain champion for 1,000 days, unbeatable by anybody is going to cry. Or he's going to pivot because he's exposing his own fears. His jealousy, his envy, his rage. If I would have told you this, you'd say, ‘No, that's not what to do backstage.'”

You know, you really have to give it up to “The Wiseman” on this one, his assertion is dead on; having a Champion like Roman Reigns, who is unbeatable in the ring but so sullen, disconnected, and ultimately filled with ennui isn't just Dr. Manhattan but also Succession, even Shakespeare. The depth of character is far deeper than Carlito asking about how one eats an apple, and the best part? It's expanded out of solely “The Tribal Chief” into something far more emotionally resonant.

Paul Heyman explains how WWE used Sami Zayn as the fool of The Bloodline.

Expanding on his thesis further, Paul Heyman pulled from the tangible example of Sami Zayn, who joined The Bloodline as a sort of Cousin Greg, outsider in an insider's game character but was really allowed to infiltrate the group as a way to toy with Jey Uso moreso than to celebrate “The Underdog from the Underground.”

“But you've never seen just scenes play out the way that we're doing it now. And ones that completely propel the storyline into its next chapter. That was the secret of the Sami story, is what we were doing backstage with Sami. So that when we took the stories out to the ring, and the story of his desire for acceptance, and our refusal to give it to him, and Jey being the strongest minded and not giving it to him, which p*ssed off The Tribal Chief for Jey to make the decision and not for Roman to make the decision. So to spite Jey, and to show Jey who was the boss, that Roman would accept Sami a little more every week just to piss off Jey. The jealousy and the envy within one's own family. Spite. We’ve all dealt with spiteful people and it's and it's not a pleasant personality trait,” Heyman said.

“So, The Tribal Chief as a villain will display spite. These are all things that came to life in the ring based on the backstage drama that we were displaying. Not caring that the camera’s right in front of us. Never pretending that it's not there. We're playing out scenes. Now, this is a moment in time where it's being done so well by Roman Reigns and The Usos, and Sami, and all those around him that it's accepted. That people get into the story. The same way when I opened the door and The Usos left on Monday, I said, ‘Took care of it my Tribal Chief.’ They gasped. If anybody else tried this it would have bombed. Because Roman Reigns as an actor is better than anybody else in WWE, and he pulled it off. So we tailored this to his strengths and now it's become an accepted part of the business.”

Will WWE ever attempt to tell another story as melodramatic as The Bloodline again? Maybe yes, maybe no; Reigns, Heyman, and company have been given a borderline unprecedented opportunity to tell their story over three-plus years, and unless something really goes down at SummerSlam, it's entirely possible Reigns could still hold the new Universal Championship belt when WrestleMania 40 rolls into Philadelphia next April. Then again, if the opportunity presents itself, why not, right? The Bloodline sure beats some of the more fruit-based storylines of years gone by.