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After spending parts of four decades in the WWE Universe, Paul Heyman has experienced the ups, the downs, and everything in between in the promotion's bookings, from the heyday of Vince McMahon to the current product executive produced by Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
But how do they compare, and which creative officer does a “better” job of putting together storylines for television? Well, on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch, Heyman gave his take on the situation, noting that he is, in fact, still a huge Paul Levesque guy.
“With the same amount of freedom, if not more encouragement to teach others how to ingratiate themselves into the mix to the point where they are trusted enough to get some of those same freedoms. Paul Levesque is a very interesting Chief Content Officer. I’ve worked with many different CCOs and executive producers and showrunners and story creators. He is, by far, the most collaborative. He understands, there is no doubt he understands that the buck stops with him and he has to make a decision. He doesn’t waver from that at all, but at the same time, he’s very open to starting on a different page than he originally envisioned,” Heyman explained via Fightful.
“For a long time, in this industry, and then it was taken to a far different level by Vincent Kennedy McMahon, but for a long time the head writer, the ‘booker’ starts with a blank piece of paper. From that blank piece of paper comes the vision of what the storylines are going to be that lead to the payoff at the show in the big arena or pay-per-view or Network special. The word of the head writer was final. There was no appeal unless you went to the owner of the territory or the company and you challenged the booker, in which case you were challenging the booker for the role of the booker.”
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Whoa, interesting stuff, right? Well wait, Heyman wasn't done, as he had plenty more to say, including what he felt was missing from McMahon's creative strategy.
“With Vincent Kennedy McMahon, it became quite the micromanaged creative process in which Vince had a vision and the people around him were to embellish, exaggerate, enhance, elevate, upgrade the vision Vince had from the blank piece of paper,” Heyman said. “Paul Levesque can walk into a room with a blank piece of paper and say, ‘Where are we headed? Let me have some opinions. Pitch me. Seduce me. Inspire me. Motivate me. Hook me on something.’ He may say, ‘I’m seeing Mr. ABC vs. Dr. LMNOP, that’s the main event next year. How do we get there? What are the interweaving stories that are told? What are the spinoffs from this story? The main theme for WWE next year will be the build for Mr. A vs. Dr. LMNOP.’ There are many different ways Paul Levesque approaches the collaborative process. They are all open to everyone’s ideas. Then he, like a great editor, will narrow it down and narrow it down even further.”
While fans have largely seen a difference in what WWE looks like under Levesque versus McMahon, getting that inside look into the behind-the-scenes side of wrestling is fascinating.
