We live in a society that has ever-changing values and ever-changing standards and ever-changing criteria to determine who is a superstar or not. If you want to be a superstar, if you want to main event, if you want to profit in the entertainment business, you have to go with those trends and spearhead new trends.
— Paul Heyman
Even my enemies would acknowledge that I'm a great judge of talent, and this statement will be proven true time and time again.
If Brock Lesnar wants to fight in UFC, Brock Lesnar will fight in UFC. If Brock Lesnar wants to fight in WWE, he will fight in WWE.
A little humbling never hurt a great advocate.
How could you look at CM Punk and not think that he has the 'it' factor? I don't think I'm any great visionary or genius because I saw something in CM Punk; I think everyone else is a stupid schmuck for not seeing it in CM Punk.
The key to WWE's success and longevity is that they are, as modern and as relevant as the company may be in modern social media and platforms and contemporary distribution, the company is still built around old-school promotion. Who are these two fighters? Why are they wrestling? And why should I pay to see it?
CM Punk clearly established during his time as a Paul Heyman Guy that he was, as the billing suggested, The Best In The World.
If you're content in WWE, then you have peaked. You have peaked in your own earning capacity for what you're going to bring home to your family, and you've peaked in what you offer to WWE in terms of your own talent to exploit.
I think the fact that Brock Lesnar is not on the road 52 weeks a year, is not on 'Monday Night Raw' every episode, is not performing 300 matches per year... I think that dictates to the public, 'Brock Lesnar is special.' That an appearance by Brock Lesnar in an of itself is newsworthy. It's not commonplace.
If you show me someone who's afraid of failure, I'll show you someone who is not a groundbreaking, innovative pioneer of a certain industry.
Brock Lesnar is the most unique athlete in this history of World Wrestling Entertainment, and I say that with without embellishment or exaggeration.
Vince McMahon can end up in a federal lawsuit with you where there is mudslinging back and forth that makes the front page of 'The Wall Street Journal,' and if tomorrow he figures out a way where the company can benefit from your involvement, you will be at a negotiating table with him at lunch.
I don't think Roman Reigns should for one moment of his life be worrying about earning the respect of the WWE audience. Because what he has is their willingness to pay to see Roman Reigns whether they respect him or not.
I broke into the business in the '80s, and the '80s was based on hyper-exaggerated reactions.
I've always been a big believer in diversification for anybody. It's never good to put all of your efforts and all of your time and all of your financial resources into just one project. Diversification is key for any individual and any business.
I can't tell you that it would be bad exposure for me to be associated with someone who has the global Q-rating of Ronda Rousey. She certainly knows how to attract attention and garner tons of publicity, and just to be in on the merchandising of Ronda Rousey, would love for her to be a Paul Heyman girl.
I would probably confess that I was the greatest disappointment of my mother's life, but my father only admired his son's moxie, drive, hustle, and wherewithal to pursue his dreams no matter how I achieve them.
We live in an ever-changing global pop culture community.
The problem with these UFC fighters - and they're all fantastic athletes, top of the line in the entire world - is that they wear their bodies down in these training camps. All these guys that are cutting weight are just destroying their own bodies.
I think Brock Lesnar does whatever Brock Lesnar wants to do.
Defeat is a wonderful experience if it motivates you to never forget you're only as good as your last performance.
I took the antiquated, outdated, passe role of the wrestling manager, and I upgraded it into the upper echelon of sports entertainment to be known as an advocate.
I can't deal in ifs or in hypothetical situations. I only deal in absolutes.
I think Sting would be denying his fans a great moment if Sting did not step into WWE competition at least once. I have always been a huge admirer of what Sting brings to the table and his relationship with his audience, and I would be dramatically disappointed if Sting does not wrestle a WWE match.
I never looked at ECW as wrestling. I always considered it more of a theology. I don't know whether I had or didn't have a messianic complex during that time. But I bought into the movement as much as, if not more than, anybody else. If I sold anyone on the religion of extreme, I was its number-one customer.
To me, a WrestleMania Sunday is 'I serve at the behest and at the pleasure of my beast.' I'm there to lighten the mood. I'm there to keep the mood light and not make it too heavy, and to keep the pressure off Brock Lesnar.
I knew Roman Reigns when he used to come into the locker room with his father, holding his father's hand, barely out of diapers. And I don't say that as an ironic statement... I mean it sincerely.
Vince McMahon became a billionaire based on Attitude, and Attitude was spawned by the ECW experience.
Very few people I know deserve to live out their dreams more than Daniel Bryan.
Brock Lesnar is a fascinating human being.
Here's the funny thing: Nothing drives a performance like an audience that gives back and even takes over. ECW was a product that will be remembered as much, if not more, for its audience interaction as for the things that happened in the ring.
Oh, I'm a huge fan of 'Lucha Underground.'
I'm involved with projects that strike up a passion with me, that stir up completion inside of me. People come at me and go, 'My job makes me feel alive.' OK, well, good for you. My job doesn't make me feel 'alive,' my job makes me feel alive!
I can go off-point, I can go off-word, I can go off-paragraph, but I can never go off message.
Curtis Axel has more talent than his grandfather and his father.
Brock Lesnar does what Brock Lesnar wants to do.
Who cares if the locker room would embrace Conor McGregor. If Conor McGregor can be a revenue driver for WWE, if he can sell network subscriptions, or if he can sell thousands and tens of thousands of tickets, if he can move millions of T-shirts, who cares if anybody in the locker room likes it or doesn't like it.
I mean, truly, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, and if you can't spot that CM Punk is magic from the moment he walks in the door, then you're reading a playbook from an antiquated writer.
I think The Undertaker is, much like Brock Lesnar, a once-in-a-lifetime wrestler, a once-in-a-lifetime athlete, and a once-in-a-lifetime performer.
My father was an attorney in the state of New York, which is where I came up with the term 'advocate.'
Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns are the main event of WrestleMania 34 because neither one is content, and both are ambitious enough to push the limits of what is now considered their greatest moment, and that's the point that neither one will ever accept. They will never accept the idea that they've peaked as individuals.
Where Brock Lesnar would be without Paul Heyman? He would certainly be on top. He would certainly be the number one box office attraction. He would just be doing it without someone who truly understands his persona like I do.
I don't ever recall being nervous before performing because I've already stepped into the shoes and the clothes of the character.
I've known the members of Roman Reigns' family since I was 15 years old.
The thing about Brock has always been, who can push Brock to a level where you actually get to see the best of Brock Lesnar, because very rarely have people ever gotten a chance to see that. I mean, really, who can keep up with him? This is not wrestling hype: he's a once-in-a-lifetime athlete.
People are willing to pay for the right to cheer or boo Roman Reigns. That is your job as a box office attraction. Your job and the manner in which you feed your family is not dependent upon whether the audience respects you or disrespects you. It's dependent on the audience's willingness to pay to see you.
I approach my interviews with the mindset of, exactly what are we selling? How can I sell it the hardest and the most effectively in the fewest words possible? And how can I make each word that I say mean as much as it possibly can? And I bring that perspective to the table because I used to focus a lot on the character that I had to play.
The crowd is a performer. En masse, a crowd has its own personality, its own character. And there are going to be nights when the crowd delivers a great performance. And there are going to be nights when the crowd bombs.
Usually, people that I like to work with are people that I believe in more than they believe in themselves, and they just need that extra boost and the person to give them a little more time and understanding and introspection into their own character to find that box office that lives inside of them.
I love what I do. I'm passionate about what I do. I live for what I do. And every morning, I can't wait to stop sleeping and to jump up and get out of bed and start doing what I do.
