If there is anyone who knows a thing or two about the art of professional wrestling, it's Paul Heyman.
A veteran performer who has been working in the business in one form or another since the 1980s, Heyman once again helped push his client, Roman Reigns, to a victory in his first singles match since WrestleMania 39, when he left 70,000 fans in Los Angeles shocked that Cody Rhodes' story wouldn't be completed… at least that night.
Asked how he feels to watch Reigns consistently leave arenas disappointed at the end of his title defenses during the post-SummerSlam press conference, Heyman revealed that now, even three years into their act, he still greats great joy out of working with the “Tribal Chief” before comparing his work to arguably the most influential actor of the last 100 years, Marlon Brando.
“The short answer to your question, do I continue to take pleasure in every one of his performances, is yes, the in-depth answer to your question is that that question is based on the premise that the that that I'm most proud of is the match, the victory but I can't think of a fame of television I've been on and shared with Roman Reigns in the past three years that hasn't been a career highlight for me or a life-affirming moment as a performer or a writer, or a producer, or a collaborator,” Paul Heyman said. “I once heard Edward Norton trying to describe what Marlon Brando did to acting, and Edward Norton said that Marlon Brando tiled the axis of how an actor approaches his craft, and to me, that's Roman Reigns. He has so completely re-defined how we approach this industry, this genre, and I truly in my heart don't believe that anyone in that locker room right now is in the same genre right now as Roman Reigns.”
While putting the names Roman Reigns and Marlon Brando in the same sentence may make more than a few fans rolls their eyes, the idea that the former has influenced the wrestling game as much as the latter helped to set the groundwork for the “New School” of acting is a fairly astute observation by the “Wiseman,” as the “Tribal Chief” really has brought something new to the game. Will fans start seeing performers like LA Knight or Seth Rollins cutting whisper promos? No, probably not, but hey, maybe that will catch on like the method style too.
Paul Heyman reveals where The Bloodline is in their proverbial baseball game.
Elsewhere in his post-SummerSlam press conference, Paul Heyman was again asked to revisit the baseball analogy he was asked about at WrestleMania in order to give fans an idea of where they are in The Bloodline's story.
Every the modest man, Heyman gave a conservative estimate, suggesting that his boys may be preparing for the top of SmackDown‘s order when they're done at bat.
“Bottom of the third,” Paul Heyman said via Fightful.”We're just figuring this stuff out. We haven't even hit our stride yet. If you want to take the arrogant approach, I'm sure Paul Levesque will tell you all the box office records that have been smashed. Every Friday night when we show up at SmackDown, we're always told, ‘this is the largest gate of this and the largest gate of that.' ‘This is the largest premium live event.' ‘This is the largest WrestleMania.' Okay, we can sit there and point to what clearly drove all this, and it's the Bloodline, and when I say the Bloodline, I mean the ‘Tribal Chief' Roman Reigns. We're just figuring this out. There is so much more to learn. There is so much more for us to grasp. There is so much more for us to master. It's a craft, and it's an evolving craft. It's an ever-evolving form of entertainment, and if you sit there and you think, ‘we got this, this is it, we're cruising to WrestleMania,' we're going to be replaced, and we should be. If you don't come at this with the greatest ambitions to be much better tomorrow than you are today and much better two days from now, then you're not here to be the greatest of all time. That's what Roman Reigns wants to be and is determined to be. That's the only reason why I agreed to have life after Lesnar. How could I have ever topped the run I had with Lesnar? Roman Reigns because he's that ambitious because he wants it that badly. What inning are we in? Bottom of the third. Wait until you see what we have in the fourth.”
Alright, so is it really realistic to expect The Bloodline to be telling their story for the next six years, give or take, on SmackDown? No, probably not, but then again, after watching Jimmy Uso cost his brother Jey a shot at the “Tribal Chief” at SummerSlam, where this story goes moving forward is really anyone's guess.
You need to hear why @HeymanHustle feels that @WWERomanReigns is in his entirely own genre.#SummerSlam pic.twitter.com/5EoG0Y7SuL
— WWE (@WWE) August 6, 2023
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