What would Paul Heyman have been without Brock Lesnar? What would Brock Lesnar have been without Paul Heyman? Though there have been “Paul Heyman guys” in the past, double-digit “Paul Heyman guys” to be exact, and Lesnar has had multiple segments of his career without the ECW owner by his side, the duo have been at their best when working together, even if some would suggest that the “The Wiseman's” current tun alongside Roman Reigns might give it a run for its money.
But did you know that Heyman almost didn’t manage Lesnar at all and would have instead stood next to a do-it-all wrestler who could have very legitimately changed the tenor of his career forever? It's true; Heyman shared the story with Rick Rubin on the Tetragrammaton podcast, and needless to say, the story is fascinating.
“So I lost a bunch of weight going into WrestleMania 18, which was in 2002, and I was going to end up managing Chris Benoit. When Vince brought me in, he asked me, ‘What do you think is the greatest contribution you can offer our company?'” Heyman said via TJR. “I said to him from the beginning, ‘what a crew there was back in 2001, but boy, what we don’t have is the next big thing. Who’s that next one with lightning in a bottle? Who’s the next one that’s going to set the world on fire? Who’s the next guy we can hang our hat on? Who’s the guy that’s going to be the poster boy for WWE that when we put him up on his screen, people go, ‘Whoa, that’s that WWE guy,”” Heyman said via TJR.
“So I went to Vince, and I said, ‘Taz brought me Brock Lesnar.' ‘Oh, yeah. Keep an eye on him. I’m wondering what you think of him.' ‘I’ll tell you two things. Number one, I think he’s the next big thing, and number two, we are screwing this up.' ‘How are we screwing this up?' I started telling him what the advice was, and he goes, ‘Oh, godd**n Paul. Get involved in this right now.' I said, ‘You want me to produce him?' ‘Yea, you take over. He’s yours.' Okay, so I started lining up his matches. Here’s what I want you to do, and here’s how I want you to display it. I put together a couple of matches of his. It was two that week, and I think maybe two the next. The opponents were the same, Spike Dudley and Funaki, because I knew they would make him look like what he needed to look like.
“The night before Mania, Vince comes to me, and he says, ‘I’m not going to put you with Benoit.' I’m like, ‘thank God I’m not on television.' I didn’t want to go back on TV. I was like, ‘okay, that’s great. Thank you.' All right, I found peace in my ability to pull out of the public eye. He says, ‘I’m going to put you with Brock Lesnar,' and I just said, ‘Bingo.' Okay, money. Oh, my God. You just gave me a completely new life because I knew, ‘oh my god, you want me to talk for this guy? Okay, this is the easiest job in the world.'”
Wow, could you even imagine a world where Heyman managed Benoit instead of Lesnar, especially so close to when he murdered his family? What would have happened to Lesnar? And how would Heyman's career have recovered, if it would have at all, had he been managing Benoit when he did such a horrible thing and was effectively washed from WWE history forever? Fortunately, fans will never have to know.
Paul Heyman details being on the other side of a Brock Lesnar entrance.
Elsewhere in his appearances on Tetragrammaton, Paul Heyman discussed what it was like to stand in the ring with Roman Reigns while Brock Lesnar did one of his entrances, and much like… well, basically everyone else in the WWE Universe, he was incredibly impressed.
“I was standing in the ring this past Monday. We are taping this on the Wednesday after WrestleMania. I’m standing in the ring with Roman Reigns, who’s an impressive individual. Let’s just state that for the record. I mean, this is not a slouch standing there. This is someone that looks like a man because he is one,” Heyman said via Fightful.
“I’m standing in the ring, and Brock Lesnar’s music hits, and Brock walks out in his fight gear. I looked at Roman, and I went, ‘Holy f**k, look at that!’ After all these years, I’m still not used to being out there watching him come at us. I’m used to being on the other side of that. I’m used to walking out with him, looking at the faces of people going, ‘Holy f**k, look at that!’ Roman looks at me, and he says, ‘Yeah, now you know what we all saw.’ I just said, ‘Man, he is freaking huge. Holy s**t! What the f**k?’ When I said that, I realized the camera is picking us up, and I did say, ‘My Tribal Chief.’ He just looks at me, and he says, ‘Man, it just never ceases to amaze me. Standing here, watching him, and when he circles you like a shark, you realize I’m in for a physical evening.”
In professional wrestling, few Superstars, regardless of brand, promotion, and country of origin, have the same gravitas as Brock Lesnar, who is a gigantic force of nature so physically imposing, he won a shoot fight for the UFC Heavyweight Championship without so much as having to hit an F5 for the 1-2-3, opting to instead close out contests with the punches and the arm triangle. If his very sight can send a shiver down Heyman's spine, then Reigns' assertion that he's likely in for a “physical evening” is probably an understatement.
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