WWE Legends Biography Paul Heyman on 28th July 2024
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FunTranscript
00:00This is a Tom Ford custom.
00:07Oh, beautiful.
00:08Yeah.
00:09So yeah, I need something that goes with it.
00:11Okay.
00:12And then if you have other red, high hundred square combos, yeah, I'm, I'm shopping.
00:19Okay.
00:20I'm looking for something louder than this.
00:22Okay.
00:23I'm taking those two.
00:28Definitely.
00:29We made a sale presentation is everything Roman reigns flanked, of course, by the special
00:37council to the tribal chief, Paul Heyman.
00:38There's no denying Mr. Heyman's credentials.
00:39He's managed winners for nearly 40 years.
00:50What compels you to want to be great?
00:54My father was a personal injury attorney in the Bronx.
00:58My mother was a Holocaust survivor that lives inside of me every single day, he can make
01:10people see things that he sees in them, that they don't see in themselves.
01:15The most powerful manager in this sport without Paul Heyman, this business wouldn't be what
01:20it is.
01:21I was going to be a bit different.
01:29I was a disruptor.
01:30Paul did not get along with everyone.
01:31He needed to get along with.
01:32I was immature.
01:33I was a schmuck.
01:34I was thrown out the door.
01:35It was very frustrating, infuriating.
01:36Fatherhood was the great game changer.
01:53Fatherhood forced me to learn accountability.
01:54Paul's got nine lives.
01:55He's going to land like.
01:56You have a priority to down the greatest manager in sports entertainment history.
01:57Paul talks, people listen.
01:58That's a gift.
01:59They ain't going to cancel me because they know if they do, I'm coming back bigger, badder,
02:00stronger than ever before.
02:01The great Paul Heyman.
02:02He's an impeccable character, great storyteller.
02:03Paul Heyman.
02:26The harder the fight, the greater the blessing.
02:34Cinema was a big part of my childhood.
02:37In fact, my parents encouraged me to pursue an appreciation for the arts and part of the
02:44arts is cinema.
02:46Watching great performances.
02:47These are frames of reference for me.
02:49When I watch a James Cagney, a Lawrence Olivier, when I watch someone completely inhabit the
02:56character, a Tom Hardy, a Gary Oldman, never said a word, I get very jealous or envious
03:03of the greatness that that person got to achieve.
03:07And I want to experience that high.
03:09There won't be no plea for absolution or benediction.
03:14That's my fix.
03:17That's my drug of choice.
03:18Step out from a shadow of a national monument.
03:21Greatness is greatness.
03:22I deliver spoilers.
03:23That's who I want to be.
03:24The goat of all goats.
03:28I was bound to be the greatest disappointment of my mother's life if I ended up being anything
03:34but the replacement for God.
03:38Anything short of that and my mother would feel I didn't live up to my potential or my
03:43responsibility as her son.
03:46My father, on the other hand, was going to encourage me no matter what I did in my life
03:52because that was just the nature of that man.
03:56My father was a personal injury attorney in the Bronx.
04:00From the day that he passed the bar, he loved being a lawyer and that's what he wanted for
04:09his son.
04:10The same passion, the same love for what I was doing, no matter what it was.
04:17But my mother, on the other hand, she saw things a little differently and considering
04:25what she went through in life, I understand that.
04:31My mother was a Holocaust survivor, survived the Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
04:39Every moment of every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day, trauma.
04:49And that's what a Holocaust survivor went through.
04:52So the demands for my mother's own vision for her only child, it's not meant for human
05:03comprehension because what she lived through was inhumane.
05:14I don't know how that affected me.
05:17This much I can tell you, I don't blink in life.
05:22I'm ready for anything.
05:25When I was seven or eight, my mother would come to me when my parents would go out on
05:31a Friday or a Saturday night and say, if your father and I get hit by a drunk driver
05:37or if something goes wrong and we never come home, you be ready for life.
05:46You move forward and you don't let the past drag you behind.
05:49That was Sulamita Sharf-Hayman and that lives inside her son.
05:55There was no stopping me.
05:59The first time I saw professional wrestling, I was 10 years old.
06:06And I was mesmerized by superstar Billy Graham.
06:11And I was a fan from that moment on.
06:13I wanted to be part of it.
06:16I wanted to be inside on it.
06:20That's where I'm supposed to be.
06:22That's what I went after.
06:24All I had to do is seize the moment.
06:29Born a New Yorker.
06:32On the Lower East Side of New York at that time, especially in the 1970s, there were
06:37a lot of free radical newspapers.
06:42Now one of these newspapers actually had a sports column, which was more of a gossip
06:46column.
06:47The reporter had chronicled the fact that after Madison Square Garden, Vincent James
06:52McMahon would take his inner circle to Ben Benson Steakhouse in New York City.
07:00This newspaper probably had a circulation of about 150 or 200 people.
07:05So there's no way that Vincent James McMahon knew that his after show steak dinners were
07:11being reported somewhere.
07:14So I called the WWE and I chased down a conversation with Vince McMahon.
07:22I claimed to have been at Ben Benson Steakhouse, where I ran into Vincent James McMahon and
07:29mentioned to him that I needed a press pass for Madison Square Garden.
07:34And it worked.
07:35We're at 15 years old with a great line of BS and a camera around my neck.
07:44I got in backstage, behind the scenes, to start learning the inner workings of the business.
07:53Many times we'd go to the garden and Paul would be in the back in the locker room with
07:58us.
07:59He just became part of the woodwork and part of the family.
08:03Very interesting to listen to and he always spoke up and gave his opinion, which I felt
08:08was really a tremendous gift to do at that time at his young age.
08:13And Paul had a lot of questions and that's how you learn.
08:17I got to see how the show was run.
08:19And I was there when Vincent James McMahon passed the torch to Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
08:28So I saw the transition.
08:30I watched pro wrestling become sports entertainment.
08:35The wrestling extravaganza of all time, WrestleMania.
08:41My education was going to be out there in the real world.
08:45I was bored out of my mind going to school.
08:48I went to college.
08:50I got an associate's degree in three semesters and really had no desire to continue.
08:57There just weren't enough hours in the day for me.
08:5917, 18, 19 years old, I wanted to do it all.
09:04I went from being a photographer to becoming the editor at three wrestling magazines that
09:08had national distribution on the newsstands.
09:11I was a house photographer at Studio 54, the world's most famous nightclub that became
09:17the in-house publicist that also became then a producer and a promoter as well.
09:23I met Paul in March of 1985 when I returned back to my old high school, which was running
09:29an independent wrestling show.
09:32And Paul Heyman was taking photographs.
09:35I was surprised to see someone who had that many responsibilities at such a young age.
09:43Both of us, 19 years old, and I was wrestling.
09:47Paul was pulling the strings.
09:50I wanted to write and direct and produce the shows.
09:55That was my dream.
09:58I had gotten in as far as I could get in.
10:04I was never going to be able to give instructions to the talent if I didn't have the cachet
10:11of understanding their lives.
10:14So I had to become a performer as my ticket in, and I developed the character of Paul
10:22E. Dangerously, and lo and behold, it hit fast.
10:29Are you excited?
10:31I'm going for this mother******.
10:33Now, this is chump change for you.
10:36Nothing is chump change.
10:38Everything counts.
10:39Everything counts.
10:42See, in the old days, Megan would not be so lucky because she's barefoot right now.
10:50And in the old days, I would step on her feet before the interview.
10:55Suddenly, she looks at me like, yeah.
10:58Because if the interviewer has contempt and disdain for me, so will you as the audience.
11:04It's just another little trick of being a villain.
11:07I'm not that active.
11:11There were two guys that I had known from taking pictures of them, and I started booking
11:16us out throughout the Northeast Independence as a manager and a tag team.
11:23So I'm six months into my run, and I wind up in Vern Gagne's AWA, which airs daily at
11:28four o'clock in the afternoon on ESPN.
11:30This is enormous national exposure.
11:33He's a man of a few thousand well-chosen words.
11:36Mid-80s was the age of the Yuppie and the Gordon Gekko wannabes, and I was just such
11:43an insanely intense, ambitious New Yorker.
11:50It permeated every room that I walked in.
11:52Now, there was a movie in the mid-80s called Johnny Dangerously, so I took the name Paul
11:57E. Dangerously because it was so outlandish, so over the top that it drew your attention.
12:04Paul E. Dangerously wants to know something.
12:06He finds out by picking up the phone.
12:08In 1987, the role of the manager was already dying off.
12:11The manager would set up the client's promo.
12:14Isn't that right, Golden Boy?
12:16That's right.
12:17He would inevitably interfere in the match and or get beat up on a nightly basis by the
12:22hero.
12:24Would you say that Mr. Dangerously is not exactly the favorite here tonight?
12:28I think that you may have made the understatement of the year.
12:33Paul and I met each other in AWA, and so seeing this work as a manager, I think everybody
12:38just knew that he obviously was talented.
12:40He's our greatest professional wrestling manager in the world.
12:44I drove the Ganas nuts.
12:47I couldn't stand how old school the AWA was, and the fact that just a young, vibrant personality
12:54on their television show could get so much momentum simply because I was young and vibrant
13:00told me everything I needed to know.
13:02So by the time I got a job in WCW, they already knew we're bringing on someone that's going
13:12to change the way we do things behind the scenes.
13:15If you want me to prove to you that 1989 is going to be the year of living dangerously,
13:21I'm going to prove it to you.
13:23Paul was very good.
13:25Here's a guy who'd been grown up and roomed to do this stuff, and a brilliant mind who
13:31helps make his people better.
13:33Nobody's been able to stop this mind, and now I got this man backing me, and what we
13:38can do together, no man can stop.
13:41First impressions of meeting a young Paul Heyman?
13:44Loud and energetic, but passionate.
13:48Paul's always been very passionate about this business, and when you're trying to come up
13:54in this business, you can get discouraged pretty quick, and Paul may be one of the best
13:59cheerleaders out there.
14:01We're traveling together, and just his energy is infectious.
14:05You never will be half the man that this man is.
14:09He formed the Dangerous Alliance, which I think is one of the most overlooked factions
14:15in wrestling history.
14:17It's an alliance of businessmen who will bring WCW down to its knees.
14:24Steve, you're the man.
14:26Paul and I had bonded tremendously in WCW as he was my manager.
14:31Paul Lee was one of the people in my life who was paramount as far as my success in
14:35his business.
14:38That was a star-making moment for me.
14:41All of a sudden, I'm on the cover of magazines.
14:45I could get into the newspapers, which were big back in those days.
14:49Before the internet, being in the newspaper was everything.
14:53We're on the road in WCW, and Paul's like, hey, it's a Monday night.
14:59It's a Monday night.
15:00Let's go to the China Club.
15:01The China Club was hot in New York City.
15:03I mean, it was the place to be.
15:04There was a line out the door, down the street.
15:08And I'm like, oh, Paul.
15:09He goes, ah, we ain't waiting in line.
15:11So we didn't.
15:12We went right in.
15:13Well, I would go to the China Club, and I'm hanging out with Lawrence Taylor, Brooke Shields,
15:19or Michael Jordan.
15:22He was running around everywhere, talking to everybody, knew everybody, was all hooked
15:27up with everybody.
15:29I'm never in the room going, wow, that's Michael Jordan.
15:32He's the greatest of all time.
15:34I'm an equal.
15:35I'm sitting there going, hey, Michael Jordan is a Paul Heyman guy.
15:39Lucky for him, he got to take a picture with me.
15:43I really never cared about other people's opinions.
15:47I wasn't raised to seek acceptance or affirmation.
15:51It wouldn't have bothered me if my parents were completely unaccepting of my choices.
15:57I don't think my mother was very crazy about it.
16:00My father was always encouraging.
16:02I was raised to pursue what mattered to me.
16:05The most powerful manager in this sport, and he is really on a roll right now.
16:11So the year is 1992.
16:14I'm 26 years old.
16:17And I'm on top of the world.
16:20Say what you want to about Paulie, and you cannot deny that this man is maybe the most
16:24successful manager the sport has ever seen.
16:27WCW, instead of reaching for the future, regresses to the past.
16:35And they bring in Cowboy Bill Watts to run the company.
16:39Yeah, I had idiots.
16:42I was getting Heyman, Paul Heyman or something.
16:45He was a great talent, phenomenal talent.
16:49But he wouldn't fit in with what I wanted.
16:52No, Paul did not get along with everyone he needed to get along with.
16:56He rubbed some people the wrong way.
16:59I'm firing him.
17:03I'm gone.
17:04I'm out.
17:07I'm so bitter by this experience.
17:11I figure I'm done with this business.
17:14Time for something else.
17:17I signed with the William Morris Agency.
17:20And the first gig I land is to go head to head with Howard Stern on New York Morning Radio.
17:29And just as I'm about to start promoting that new gig.
17:39It's like the line from the Godfather movie.
17:43That's when they pulled me back in.
17:49E.C.W.
17:58This is E.C.W.
18:04Hello, everyone, and welcome to Extreme Championship Wrestling.
18:08This is Joey Styles, and you are watching the wrestling promotion that's changing the face of the sport today.
18:14My best friend asked me to start running the creative for a small promotion called E.C.W.
18:22My goal was to start with a blank piece of paper and imagine what it could be and watching it come to life.
18:29We were going to take the entire business to the extreme.
18:36You've got this rogue outfit, E.C.W., that's on the periphery there kind of doing their own thing.
18:42They were really cutting edge with things that they were doing.
18:46And Paul was definitely the visionary there.
18:49When E.C.W. came along and Paul took on a different role as the leader, he was the leader of a revolution for my age group, my people.
18:57He was at the forefront.
19:00There was nobody that the 18 to 34 male demographic could look at and say, oh, yeah, you know what?
19:05That's the new thing that's out there.
19:07There was nothing out of balance.
19:08There was nothing off limits.
19:10We went for it.
19:12Well, E.C.W. understood with Paul Heyman at the helm that you could not out WWE, WWE, and you could not out WCW, WCW.
19:22So they did not even try.
19:25Oh, my God!
19:27They just set about putting out a completely alternative product than most anyone had ever seen.
19:34My younger brother and my dad and I would not miss a show.
19:38I loved E.C.W.
19:40They were the cool thing.
19:42Who doesn't want to be the cool thing?
19:46I did anything and everything to create stars for E.C.W.
19:51I can see the greatness in others that they can't see in themselves.
20:11Paul is a wrestling genius.
20:13The man spent countless hours with us when it came to the art of the promo.
20:20More! More! No, come on! More! Come on!
20:23Come on!
20:26Every now and then, it takes someone else to reach deep inside their soul and their spiritual being and drag that greatness out of them.
20:37There's something about Paul Lee.
20:39He can take anybody and turn them into a walking, talking promo machine.
20:42Paul has a way of dispensing advice like nobody else.
20:47He's like a horse whisperer.
20:49He's a wrestler whisperer.
20:51I'm going to be the superstar that I always knew that I could be.
20:57Paul was good at scouting talent.
21:00Paul's always been good with using wrestlers not noticed abilities.
21:06This is the man that taught me respect.
21:08No, meet him at work.
21:11E.C.W. is a beautiful place to grow because you were given such freedom.
21:17I made my bed of nails and now I've got no other choice but to be power bombed on it.
21:22So yeah, I'm a lot more comfortable here.
21:24I mean, this has been probably the best year I've ever had in wrestling.
21:28And a lot of that has to do with the lack of that corporate pressure.
21:34And so Paul helped people believe in themselves by his belief in them.
21:41And I think it's a primary reason why some of my very best stuff, maybe my best stuff ever, was done in E.C.W.
21:51I really don't know how my parents thought of E.C.W.
21:54I'm sure my mother hated it.
21:57My mother was going to hate anything I was doing anyway.
22:00I could be a Supreme Court justice and my mother would not have been satisfied.
22:05But my parents were very supportive of it.
22:08Four million dollars of the funding of E.C.W. came from my parents.
22:14But E.C.W. didn't have the resources or the wherewithal to last six months in the 1990s.
22:24In the most hyper-competitive environment in the history of this industry.
22:30The Rock stole the people's elbow! The Rock is the champion! The Rock!
22:38There were so many financial problems in E.C.W. where money was owed that it just became unsustainable for him.
22:50I went personally bankrupt.
22:53And we go out of business.
22:56E.C.W. was seven and a half years of my life.
23:00And I loved every minute of it.
23:02Even the worst times, E.C.W. was meant to disrupt the entire industry.
23:09It was so far ahead of its time, it wasn't meant to last.
23:13It was just meant to show everybody else in the way.
23:17We accomplished that goal.
23:20Vince McMahon was very supportive of my tenure at the head of E.C.W.
23:26That I had the sheer ambition to go out and do something on my own in this business.
23:33He could relate to that.
23:36And Vince McMahon made me an offer I just couldn't refuse.
23:47Paul, give us a little bit of pad here, so we get that nice big boop hop.
23:52Kurt, what am I saying?
23:54Baseball, boxing, WWE, it's all based on the same premise.
23:57Who are these two opponents? Why are they fighting? Why should I pay to see it?
24:02Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul.
24:06What will people take away from this and say, wow, now I get it.
24:11What do you think?
24:13What do you think?
24:15Great, I'll take it.
24:17Great, I'll take it.
24:19This all dates back to my father being in front of a jury.
24:21What does my father want the jury to take away from what he's selling to them?
24:27The same thing that I do.
24:30The next big thing.
24:33Brock Lesnar, this massive human being is scared.
24:38When I first came to WWE, I needed somebody to pull me by the reins and point me in the right direction.
24:45And that guy was Paul Heyman.
24:47He's the best in the business.
24:48Paul smartened me up to a lot of different things in the wrestling business.
24:53And I have a trust in Paul and he has a trust in me.
24:57A couple weeks into our run together, Brock and I are on a plane to the UK for an event.
25:02And one of us reveals to the other, hey, listen, nobody else knows this, but I'm about to become a father.
25:11My girlfriend's pregnant with a baby girl.
25:13And then the other revealed, hey, me too.
25:18I'm about to become a father too.
25:20My girlfriend's also pregnant with a baby girl.
25:23And I'm keeping it secret.
25:25We both realized just how our approach to things was so in line with two people that were so different from each other.
25:36And we bonded over it.
25:40I became a father because of 9-11.
25:44We have a breaking news story to tell you about.
25:47Apparently, a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center here in New York City.
25:52It happened just a few moments ago.
25:54It was really the first time I got in touch with my own mortality.
25:58It happened on my 36th birthday.
26:01And I realized that my parents were getting older.
26:05And I wanted my parents to know my children and my children to know my parents.
26:08Becoming a father was the great game changer.
26:12I remember when my daughter was a tiny little baby and I got to a red light and someone ran that red light.
26:21And one's initial reaction is always going to be, whoa, that guy could have killed me.
26:29And my reaction was, whoa, that guy could have taken me away from my daughter.
26:35That guy could have taken me away from my daughter.
26:38What would have happened to her in her life?
26:41And I realized it's not about me anymore.
26:44It's about my children.
26:47My mother was never proud of me until she saw me as a father.
26:53In the eyes of a Holocaust survivor, my life was about one thing.
26:59I was a conduit to the next generation.
27:05My responsibility to those who perished in the Holocaust was to tell their story to my children.
27:12And to make sure that my children tell that story to the next generation.
27:18That's my sacred purpose.
27:28Also about that time, I became the lead writer of Smackdown.
27:36It happened at a time where there was so much concentration on Raw.
27:41I kind of got to do my own thing for a while.
27:43And we were cooking.
27:45Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the crown jewel of world wrestling entertainment, Paul Heyman Smackdown.
27:55We start beating Monday Night Raw on every conceivable analytic that one could try.
28:02Oh my God, look at this.
28:05Paul Heyman was very good for the Smackdown brand.
28:09And you know, I have a lot of respect for Paul because he knows a lot about the business.
28:13And for the most part, he's usually right when he makes a call.
28:16So we all respected him and we did what he told us to do.
28:20Paul was hellbent on making sure that Smackdown was going to be the best damn show in all of sports entertainment.
28:26Action, you'll only see here on Smackdown.
28:28So each and every Wednesday night, Paul Heyman would put us into the studio and we would recall Smackdown every single week.
28:39Until five or six o'clock in the morning.
28:42And I wanted to, you know, kill him at the time.
28:45I want to go home, right? I don't want to be here with you all night long.
28:48And Paul's like, too bad. I'm the head of the show. We're going to do this the way I want to do it.
28:52And I didn't realize what he was doing, which was turning me into a grade A announcer.
28:55It isn't often that you use the word pretty when describing a wrestling match, but that is a pretty maneuver by Eddie Guerrero.
29:01Well, Paul has an idea that he feels strongly about and he's committed to it.
29:05He's going to stand his ground for as long as he can, where a lot of times people will just like,
29:10screw it, man, whatever, let's just do it.
29:13But obviously, you know, the decision ultimately goes to the big man.
29:19I was no longer the final say, the end all, be all, the boss.
29:23And now I'm working for someone and have to do things the way they want it done.
29:30I was immature. I was a schmuck.
29:35But then again, a disruptor by nature can't be mature or complacent in their role.
29:44So by the end of 2006, Vince McMahon and I were just butting heads.
29:49And our relationship becomes toxic.
29:53And one of us has to go.
29:56And it ain't going to be the majority shareholder and the chairman of the board.
30:02It's going to be me.
30:19I was not paid to be a main offender, but here I am.
30:35How are you, darling? How's the family?
30:38All good. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
30:42Thank you, sir.
30:44So I was out and I was starting to pursue other dreams
30:47and never thought I was coming back.
30:50How are you? Thank you very much.
30:53Did a lot of things that I never had the time to do.
30:56Started my own advertising, marketing and branding agency.
31:04When we met as an advertising and branding person,
31:08he went from the guy on camera to the guy behind building brands
31:12or helping brands to discover who they are.
31:14We're writing a movie. The agency is blown up.
31:17We have projects in England. We have projects in Vegas, L.A., New York.
31:22We're in the middle of all these projects.
31:24But Brock and I never stopped working together.
31:26When Brock went to UFC, I was doing all of his social media, all of his digital work.
31:32I co-wrote Brock's autobiography with him.
31:36In fact, the only time Brock and I stopped working together
31:39was when he went back to WWE.
31:42And I had no interest in going back.
31:43When Brock Lesnar was out there without me, he felt naked.
31:47He felt something missing as much as the audience felt something missing.
31:52Did you miss Brock Lesnar?
31:54No. The thing about it, I didn't miss anything.
31:57The only thing in life I ever miss is my parents.
31:59I don't miss anything in life.
32:01My mother died in 2009.
32:06I don't know how it affected me.
32:09Because I was too busy managing it.
32:10I was too busy managing it.
32:12I was too busy worrying about how that would affect my father
32:15and how it would affect my children.
32:17And that wiring inside of me comes from her.
32:22Because if one can change the past,
32:26imagine what she would change about her life.
32:29So I don't think about it.
32:32I move forward.
32:34Because from the time I was seven years old,
32:36she had me ready to move forward without her.
32:41Oh, no.
32:43What? Oh, my God.
32:45Brock Lesnar has indeed sent his legal representation.
32:48That is Paul Heyman, ladies and gentlemen.
32:51The package was not complete.
32:54And Vince McMahon said to Brock,
32:57wasn't exactly what I was envisioning.
33:00And Brock looked Vince dead in the eyes and said,
33:03then make Paul Heyman an offer that he can't refuse.
33:06And so they did.
33:10It's just that simple.
33:13Five years after being taken off the air,
33:16I came back to WWE.
33:19And I am here this evening as the advocate
33:23for Brock Lesnar.
33:29When I came back to WWE,
33:32I wanted to be the advocate.
33:35The fondest moments I have from my childhood
33:38is when I got to skip school
33:41and go to court with my father.
33:44My father put on a show.
33:47And when the judge would admonish my father,
33:51my father would say, oh, oh, your honor, your honor.
33:54I'm just an advocate.
33:58My father died in 2013.
34:03And that's whose shoes I wanted to fill
34:06and that's the persona
34:09I wanted to portray to the world.
34:14I had to go back completely different, reinvent myself
34:17and absolutely top everything that I had done
34:21to such a degree that everything I did before 2012
34:24would pale by comparison.
34:26The Undertaker takes on The Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar.
34:31This match is simply about one thing.
34:33The 21-0 undefeated streak of The Undertaker.
34:37There's no greater victory that could have been offered.
34:41There's no championship, no accomplishment
34:45as big in sports entertainment
34:48as The Undertaker's undefeated streak in wrestling.
34:51The streak took on a life of its own.
34:54I was so glad I had a chance to watch it.
34:57It's our Joe DiMaggio 56-game hitting streak.
35:00If Brock Lesnar hits the streak,
35:01that would cement Paul Heyman's legacy
35:05as the greatest strategist, the best manager ever.
35:10You earned it.
35:12You earned everything in your life.
35:14This history is yours to conquer.
35:19Make it.
35:31One, two, three.
35:45I was the one behind the one in 21-1.
35:52If you're the manager of the guy that did what no one else could do,
35:55I mean, you gotta get some credit somewhere, right?
35:58I'm a manager of the guy that broke the streak.
36:02It's a pretty big feather in a hat.
36:05But I can't call it the greatest accomplishment
36:08because then I've peaked.
36:10If you achieve a dream,
36:13go after the next dream.
36:22Hey, as of right now,
36:24I think Roman is landing at 1 o'clock,
36:28which makes a 1.15 call a little early.
36:31I'm wondering if we switch Roman and Brock.
36:34I will swap it around.
36:38In April 2020, Brock's contract came up,
36:42so Brock went home.
36:44And I thought my performing career was over.
36:47Without Paul Heyman, this business wouldn't be what it is.
36:51Paul, behind the scenes, wears a lot of hats for this company.
36:55There's just a lot of different ways to jockey and position yourself
36:57that would probably dive into the political side of what we do in the backstage.
37:02Watching how Paul and Brock were maneuvering at the time,
37:06it was a powerful duo.
37:08It really was, so much so that I had to snatch it.
37:11There is no doubt that this is a frightening alliance
37:15that has been formed with Roman Reigns
37:17and his special counsel, Paul Heyman.
37:20Brock wasn't here,
37:22and I can't imagine anyone else
37:24that would compel me to go to work every day
37:29with that passion other than Roman Reigns.
37:33I'm not just on camera with Roman Reigns.
37:36I work very closely behind the scenes with Roman Reigns.
37:41He's just such a great mind for the business, creatively.
37:44You're a righteous man and shark infested water.
37:47If you don't ruthlessly, viciously, violently stab the sharks,
37:51they're going to eat you.
37:52When Paul is someone's manager,
37:56it doesn't stop when TV is over.
37:59Text Roman Reigns.
38:03You, sir, are all set with parking.
38:07Dot, dot, dot. I just sent you.
38:09He takes all these little stressors away.
38:11Being on the road is tough.
38:13I can lock in and focus on what I need to focus on.
38:15And he just makes it easier.
38:17I appreciate you more than I can ever f***ing tell you.
38:22The connection with Roman and Paul is tight.
38:25He elevated the hell out of me, too.
38:27He's trying to help everybody.
38:29I see him chopping it up with a lot of other talent.
38:31And if I don't see you talking to Paul,
38:33then you're missing out.
38:35Yes, yes.
38:38Paul Heyman has one of the greatest minds I've ever talked to
38:42about the business of sports.
38:43You put him with anybody,
38:45anybody,
38:47and he's going to make them better than they are by themselves.
38:51This man right here,
38:53the great Paul Heyman.
38:55I mean, there's very few people that have a career
38:58that I look at and I go like this,
39:00I wish I had that.
39:02How do you view yourself?
39:04I'm the greatest of all time.
39:06Please join me
39:08and acknowledge the newest member
39:10of the WWE Hall of Fame,
39:11Paul Heyman.
39:17You damn f***ing right, I deserve it.
39:26I don't even understand what this means.
39:28And then
39:30I get emotional.
39:37What you brought to the table
39:38is this business.
39:40What you've done for the talent,
39:42what you still do for the talent,
39:44what you've done to change this business.
39:46We wouldn't be where we are without you.
39:48I f***ing mean that.
39:50And I know you do.
39:52People think, man, here's this wrestling guy,
39:54best mouthpiece in the game.
39:56But I think if you really want to tap into Paul's legacy,
39:59you have to meet Azealia and Jacob.
40:03I love you.
40:05One of the most impressive things about Paul
40:06is his relationship with his children.
40:09And I think that's his true legacy.
40:13I don't really worry about
40:15my legacy anymore.
40:18I wasn't raised
40:20to seek acceptance or affirmation.
40:23I was raised to pursue
40:25what mattered to me.
40:28That's how I raised my kids.
40:32And if my children can find
40:34whatever it is in life
40:36that elicits
40:38the passion
40:40and the exhilaration
40:42and the lust for life
40:45that I have found in mine,
40:50then I've done them a service
40:53above and beyond
40:55what most other parents
40:57can instill in their children.
40:59Ladies and gentlemen,
41:02my name
41:04is Paul
41:06Anderson!
41:12I don't have any regrets in life.
41:15Everything I've lived through
41:17gets me to this point.
41:19I've learned the lessons
41:21of not only my failures,
41:23but of the enormity
41:25of my past schmuckery.
41:31I'm not done disrupting.
41:34Right now I'm looking
41:35to get a word with Paul.
41:36You mean tonight?
41:38I'm not done creating.
41:41I'm not done dreaming.
41:43I'd like to think that at 58,
41:45I'm just starting to figure this
41:46s*** out.
41:49And that I'm going to be better
41:50at it tomorrow than I am today.
41:52This is what we call
41:54do or die
41:56on the island of relevancy.
41:59And the beauty of it all
42:02is hopefully if you're along
42:03for the ride with me,
42:05you'll get to see it unfold
42:07in front of our very eyes.
42:11I'm an extraordinarily blessed man.