DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
TNA Fan World
HTML https://tnafans.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: WWE News
*****************************************************
#Post#: 33226--------------------------------------------------
Chat with Paul Heyman. Talks Lesnar, WWE Failing Ratings & M
ore
By: ChrissiCalvert Date: October 3, 2015, 4:41 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Before having one of the greatest non-wrestling careers in pro
wrestling, Paul Heyman was a teenage fan looking for a break.
He found his way into Madison Square Garden, earning a few
dollars as a photographer. Almost 30 years later, Heyman is
gearing up to walk into MSG one more time when his client Brock
Lesnar battles the Big Show during a live special on WWE Network
Saturday, Oct. 3 at 8/7CT. It marks the first time Lesnar has
competed in The Mecca in more than a decade.
“As any kid in New York, you live with the legend of the New
York Knicks winning the championship, the Rangers winning the
Stanley Cup, Frank Sinatra playing the Garden, Muhammad Ali
versus Joe Frazier. It’s folklore in New York to just go to an
event in Madison Square Garden, let alone perform,” Heyman said
during an interview ahead of Brock Lesnar’s Go to Hell Tour
running through Brocktober (October).
“As a kid I grew up learning a lot about this industry from the
three managers who had a monopoly on that role in Vince
McMahon’s father’s promotion WWWF. There was Captain Lou Albano,
Freddie Blassie and The Grand Wizard. To be able to bring a
modern day version of that role as an advocate for the top box
office attraction in sports entertainment — not just in WWE, but
UFC or any kind of combat sports or sports entertainment — it’s
a fantasy come true. It’s a dream. I get to live it out Saturday
night in Madison Square Garden.”
The respected — and at times controversial — figure was an
intricate part of Lesnar’s first WWE run back in 2002. During
this time the two formed an unbreakable bond. “Brock Lesnar and
I, for how different we are, we have the same core values both
personally and professionally,” Heyman said.
“We became friends instantaneously because when we met we were
both about to become fathers for the very first time. Our
daughters were born just a few months apart. We both had kept it
private. We weren’t telling everybody, ‘Hey, I’m going to be a
father!’ We just kept it a secret. It just came out in a
conversation when we first started working together. Instantly
we hit it off on that because the only people we would talk to
about our daughters were each other. We both put our family
first.”
Heyman says he and Lesnar each grew into a situation where they
learned to work to live instead of live to work.
“Professionally we push and motivate and inspire and support
each other in a way that probably only the two of us
understand,” Heyman explains. “Every single time I perform on
television as Brock Lesnar’s advocate, I’m obsessed with making
sure that this performance will be the best one ever delivered
—knowing that next week I’m going to need to do better than I do
this week. Then in two weeks, I want to top whatever I do the
next week. A lot of that inspiration comes from Brock Lesnar,
because he wouldn’t have it any other way. He wouldn’t let
someone just be his advocate. You have to go out there every
night as if it were the last performance of your life and
deliver the best performance of your career.
“By the same token, every single time Brock Lesnar steps foot in
the ring he is determined that this will be his best performance
in the ring ever,” Heyman continues. “Some of that comes from me
because when he has that mindset some people would say, ‘You
have WrestleMania. Don’t go out there and do things. Save things
for WrestleMania. Save things for the biggest shows of your
life.’ To Brock Lesnar, every show he performs on is the biggest
show of his life. He wants whatever his performance is now to be
the best of his career because he knows he will be driven the
next time to top it. He gets that support from me. So we play
off each other and inspire each other and compel each other to
do more and go further and take chances and be the best we could
possibly ever be every single time we go out there.”
After MSG, the Go to Hell Tour heads to Boston on Oct. 5 for
Monday Night Raw on USA Network at 8/7CT. Lesnar will then be a
featured guest of Steve Austin’s Stone Cold Podcast on Oct. 19,
immediately follow Raw. Austin has made it clear he will not be
facing Lesnar at WrestleMania 32 next year in Dallas, but that
doesn’t stop many fans from rooting for the dream match. This
show may be the closest we get.
“I think it’s a very interesting scenario,” Heyman agrees.
“Brock Lesnar has not been in a position where he had to speak
for a full hour. This is a first time for Brock. Austin is a
great host, and he does tremendous research on the subject
matter. Then he goes with his gut when he is on the air. So you
have two very interesting people with great passion for what
they do. There is no shortage of topics for them to talk about.
I am watching this as a fan because I really don’t know what to
expect. I don’t think either one of them knows what to expect
yet.
“Brock has no game plan walking into this podcast,” Heyman
continues. “I would suspect that Steve Austin is going to feel
it the night that he sits in front of that microphone. While he
will be profoundly researched and have all his facts and
figures, I think Steve is still going to improvise it with that
ammunition and having the resource of all that information. I
still think Steve is going to feel it the night of the show and
go where he feels he needs to deliver the best podcast for the
audience.”
The last stop of this trek leads to Lesnar squaring off with The
Undertaker at Hell in a Cell, Sunday, Oct. 25 on Pay-Per-View
and WWE Network. This will be the third match in their historic
series, and Heyman believes the timing couldn’t be better for
the cataclysmic collision.
“There is such an interest in this final confrontation,” he
said. “I think it’s very safe to say Brock Lesnar versus The
Undertaker at Hell in a Cell is the final time these two will
step in the ring against each other. This interest was there for
their rivalry at SummerSlam and when we made our case after
SummerSlam the next night on Raw. This is the time to exploit
that public interest. Holding this match off until WrestleMania
would have been a mistake.
“The people want it now. The audience wants it now. There is a
long time between now and WrestleMania. Someone could get hurt.
The audience could lose interest. Something else may garner more
attention. This is the time to exploit that opportunity. No, I’m
not surprised it is happening this fast. I’m very happy that we
are doing this particular match on this particular
pay-per-view.”
Following Lesnar’s one last battle with The Deadman where does
The Beast Incarnate go next?
“This may sound like a cliché answer, but it’s really up to the
audience,” Heyman said.
“Who does the audience want Brock Lesnar to face? Who will the
audience be willing to pay or to subscribe to the WWE Network or
buy a ticket to see as an opponent for Brock Lesnar? What will
entice the audience to spend the most money? That is how I would
approach any suggestion I would have as Brock’s next opponent.
Is there someone that intrigues the audience as to what would
happen when they stepped in the ring with Brock Lesnar?
“That is how I gauge what is best for a Brock Lesnar scenario
going into WrestleMania. What does the audience want to see?
What do they want to see the most? What is the attraction that
more people want to see?”
Heyman is no doubt a master of the mic, but he also had
tremendous success as the ECW visionary and being a part of
various creative teams. Even though WWE’s ratings the last few
weeks haven’t been the best competing against the NFL and the
return of Fall TV, he doesn’t believe there should be kneejerk
reactions.
“I think if there is erosion in the ratings then we are in a
cycle within the industry where fans are going and looking for
or finding other interests,” Heyman said.
“This is not dissimilar to any other forms of entertainment. The
key has always been to replace those who leave, to bring in more
fans at any time you are losing fans. At this particular point
in time there is a search to find the new fan. I am not one who
looks at the ratings every Tuesday and says, ‘Well, we haven’t
replaced everybody that is left. The ratings didn’t double.’ I’m
not expecting that type of increase tomorrow or the next week or
the week after that. Any business with longevity, and this is
the one company in the business that has survived, deals with
this. They survive because when there was an erosion of the
audience and they had to replenish the audience, there isn’t a
panic. Panic is never the answer. Panic never brings up the
ratings.
“A long-term solution is with a number of brand new stars, all
in compelling situations with riveting storylines and new
match-ups. That is what will bring an upswing to the ratings
ever so slowly to where the average rating goes up a little bit
each month. Then a couple of years from now the erosion have
taken place of the people that have left being fans and a new
generation or group or crop of fans has come in. It’s natural
evolution of any form of entertainment.”
*****************************************************