Paul Heyman Discusses Backstage WWE Role And The Bloodline Storyline

Paul Heyman isn't officially a WWE writer these days, but he is contributing as much as ever.

WWE.com

Paul Heyman is one of the most highly regarded creative minds in the history of professional wrestling.

As the owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the 1990s, Heyman led a wrestling revolution that transformed the industry.

On the cutting edge of the decade's cultural movements, ECW's edgy booking (and stars) inspired the direction for WCW and WWE. The fabled Attitude Era borrowed many elements from what Heyman had already been doing with ECW.

Following the closure of ECW, Heyman came to WWE and eventually served as the lead writer for SmackDown in 2002 and 2003. He was later brought in as executive director for Raw in 2019 and 2020.

Despite not writing the weekly shows in the same way that he did in the past for both WWE and ECW, Heyman is still involved in the creative process at WWE. He discussed his current contributions and roles on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast.

"The contributions to the Bloodline storyline that I am allowed by Paul Levesque, satisfy a lot of my writing needs," Heyman explained. "I also get to work on a weekly basis with a lot of talent that come to me with loosely written scripts for what is expected of them on this week's Raw or SmackDown. When I sit with a Bron Breakker, ‘What’s the concept here?’ ‘This is the concept.’ ‘Okay. How would you approach that concept.’ I don’t care how Bronson Rechsteiner would approach that concept. How would Bron Breakker approach it? Don’t talk to me as Bronson Rechsteiner, talk to me as Bron Breakker.

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"As he’s talking, Bron Breakker formulates that opinion, and we end up writing it together. The same can be said for Rhea Ripley, Nia Jax, Gunther, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk or anybody else that I will sit down with on a Monday or Friday and help them find their voice in the methods they are being tasked to convey to the audience.

"In doing that, I do spend most of my Mondays and Fridays writing, let alone the long-term writing that goes into the uber-intricate Bloodline stories. I find two days a week, from noon on, and even during the show, I’m sitting there with talent. It’s not really re-writing, it’s writing because here is the concept as the company sees it, but it’s not written in their voice. We find their voice together. When they walk away from me, hopefully, they are walking away with their character and persona truly understanding what they are selling, whether it’s a match, a concept, a vision, or just the scene itself."

Heyman went on to explain that he feels as though he is doing as much now as he ever did, despite not having that official writing role with the company.

"I can’t tell you that I miss writing because I actually think I’m doing as much writing now as I have in the past; it’s just not 11 segments for SmackDown or 16 segments for Raw in a fully fleshed out script that needs to be proofread and commercials added and time breaks," Heyman explained.

"It’s a different style of writing, and it goes along with the fact that I’m collaborating with these talents because I’m following the lead being set by Paul Levesque, who runs the division and the storytelling aspect in a most collaborative effort."

(h/t Fightful for the transcription)

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