Paul Heyman makes a bold comparison when it comes to Roman Reigns.
Roman Reigns walked out of WrestleMania 39 with his historic WWE Universal Championship reign intact, and fans are still left to wonder when it will come to an end. Ariel Helwani sat down with Paul Heyman on a new episode of Ariel Helwani Meets to discuss where things go from here.
“I don’t know, I haven’t had a chance to digest it yet,” Heyman said. “I like the fact that everyone walks in now thinking, ‘This is the last title defense.’ I experienced this before with something I had a hand in ending, which was The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania. And every year, you sat there and said, ‘Oh, no, this is it.’
“During the match, the audience is actually anticipating and salivating for this to be the moment that they get to witness the historical three-count on The Undertaker, to which The Streak would finally end.” Heyman continued, “Then of course when The Undertaker would defend The Streak, they’d sit there, ‘Oh yeah, I don’t want to see this,’ and they can’t wait for the next chapter. Then it finally ended and the audience was shocked because they thought they would see it, they thought they would see it, then no, they didn’t get to see it, and year after year after year, then they finally got to see it.
“I think that’s the same thing with Roman Reigns’ title defenses now. You hope this is the one, you think this is the one. You’re sure this is the one, you watch the match happening and you know this is the one, and then it turns out not to be the one. ‘Oh man, I can’t wait to see the next chapter.'”
Paul Heyman noted that the response on Monday’s RAW to Cody Rhodes was louder and more passionate than the week before, not because he disappointed the fans, but because The Bloodline disappointed the fans. Reigns took that moment from him and the audience blames him for it. Now fans will think their next encounter will be “the one.”
“That’s the business,” Heyman said. “That’s the business at its very best. That’s promotion at its very best. That’s storytelling at its very best. That’s what you want. You want the challenger to come out a bigger star than he would have been if he had won the championship because then where do you go from there? What’s the story to tell? Now you know the story, it’s Cody’s redemption.”
When it comes to addressing the fans who thought Rhodes winning at WrestleMania had to be “the moment,” Paul Heyman reiterated that it’s all part of the promotional business.
“We’ll be hearing this all summer long, won’t we? ‘Oh this is perfect, the stars are aligned. Here it is, it has to happen now.’ But we’ve been hearing it the whole time. I heard it last summer at SummerSlam with Brock. I heard it at the Royal Rumble with Kevin Owens. I certainly heard it in Montreal with Sami. [I] did hear it as well in Cardiff with Drew McIntyre. I heard it two summers ago with John Cena,” Heyman recalled. “Of course it’s in line for it. That’s how you make a challenger. If the challenge is like, ‘I guess this would be okay,’ well nobody’s gonna buy that. ‘Oh, this is it, it’s perfect. It has to happen now,’ that’s the promotional business.”
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If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Ariel Helwani Meets with a h/t to WrestleZone for the transcription.
