Moose and Maggie have had a slew of All Elite Wrestling representation on their show of late, so it was time to give WWE the same opportunity – and who better to join the show than one of their best talkers in Paul Heyman, the advocate and special counsel to WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns?
Heyman of course promoted Friday Night SmackDown on FS1 and gushed over Reigns, putting him ahead of MJ, The Great One, and other sports superstars – but in a moment of candor, he explained why fans seem to have a love-hate relationship with The Head of the Table.
“I think like everything else – even Abraham Lincoln didn’t have a 100 percent approval rating. No one does! Roman Reigns is the most dominant champion in WWE history, and his year-plus as champion has been unparalleled,” Heyman said. “There will be people who admire greatness, and now we see what a true GOAT is. Some are jealous and envious of his success, and okay, great – it’s like when the Yankees are the most dominant team ever and everyone starts to nitpick. There comes a time where you just respect the greatness that is before you.”
Wait, that wasn’t candor…but maybe this is: Heyman is genuinely glad that you, the fans, are back at WWE shows.
“It’s miraculous,” Heyman smiled. “I didn’t have a problem doing shows without fans, because we kept doing shows when no one else was. We never missed a week of TV, and of that’s what it took to stay on the air, I was happy for us to do it. But, for us to have them back and have the interaction with the audience, that, as the cliché goes, is priceless.”
This week’s Friday Night SmackDown emanates from California, but WWE will be back in the area around Thanksgiving, including the Survivor Series live on Nov. 21 at Barclays Center. New York is truly the home of WWE and MSG was their “home” arena for years, but now, they have branched out to become a global conglomerate.
And to the notion that Tony Khan and other AEW stars have given about competition being mainly within yourself, Heyman admitted that is true – noting that even if WWE was the only show on television, it’s still up to the fans to tune in or not.
“It’s always going to be more challenging, and more rewarding on the flip side if you do grab the attention of the audience. There are infinitely more channels with infinitely more programming you can watch now, so choices are infinite to a fan,” Heyman said. “Vince McMahon has a saying that our competition includes everything, including the all-night gas station. That’s the challenge today: can we get someone’s attention, and if we do, can we reward them with a product that gets them to tell their friends and come back next week? Every single performance is an audition to be invited back the next day by the audience, and you’re only as good as your last performance.”
So then, given what he knows know, what advice would modern-day Paul Heyman give to his teenage self that started selling photographs at Madison Square Garden?
“Don’t change a damn thing, it all works out just fine!”
Follow WFAN's midday team on Twitter: @MandMWFAN, @MarcMalusis, @MaggieGray, and @TheHoffWFAN
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch