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Like any compelling show on television, what works best in WWE is relationships. What's the relationship between these two people, and how does the conflict manifest itself into box office?
Working with Brock Lesnar is a daily challenge because every Monday night that we're on television, I feel compelled to deliver, at least from my end, the best performance I've ever put on.
Madison Square Garden to any New York kid is the center of the universe. Even going there as a fan is like stepping up to the plate at Yankee Stadium. You know you're in the grand cathedral.
I'm not someone who concerns himself with whether people pay to cheer Roman Reigns or whether people pay to boo Roman Reigns. People pay to see Roman Reigns. They pay to react to Roman Reigns.
I knew Roman Reigns when he used to come into the locker room with his father, holding his father's hand, barely out of diapers. And I don't say that as an ironic statement... I mean it sincerely.
MMA and the UFC have taken all of the pro wrestling fans because it's pro wrestling from 30 years ago, just in an Octagon and the fights happen to be real. But they're marketed exactly the same way.
In the old days, talent owned their costumes, their intellectual property, their gimmicks. They were not employees and could wrestle anywhere they wanted to, and that just is not case in today's WWE.
I don't think you can ever tell the story of Ted Turner's involvement in professional wrestling-slash-sports entertainment without devoting several chapters to the rise and continued ascent of Sting.
Even though wrestling is getting more popular - wrestling being more popular than it was five years ago is like being the nicest guy in prison, it's not a huge compliment, but it's still taking place.
Amateur wrestling was never considered a big box office draw because they're really competing but they're not getting a chance to call each other 16 kinds of names before the fight to get you interested.
When MLW first called me, they said, 'Take a look at the product, see what you think, and see if you can make it even more edgy and more dangerous,' and give me a live microphone and I'm going to do that.
If the Midnight Express were getting honored, I would be right there with it. I don't care if Satan or Saddam Hussein is going to honor the Midnight Express, they deserve it and I'll be up there with them.
Shane Douglas's work in the first 11 months as The Franchise of ECW was so groundbreaking. He made people forget about his on-air persona in WCW and successfully reinvented himself as The Franchise in ECW.
I mean, truly, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, and if you can't spot that CM Punk is magic from the moment he walks in the door, then you're reading a playbook from an antiquated writer.
It's said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In that case, the WWE 'creative' team must be as crazy as a rainbow trout in a car wash.
Between the '80s with The Midnight Express and the '90s with The Heavenly Bodies, and then in the 2000s on the reunions with The Midnights, I think only Bobo Brazil and The Sheik had a longer-running rivalry.
I would probably confess that I was the greatest disappointment of my mother's life, but my father only admired his son's moxie, drive, hustle, and wherewithal to pursue his dreams no matter how I achieve them.
I've had experience in management and TV and hope to be able to lend some of that to TNA and maybe persuade some wrestlers to come in this direction because of the influence I've had on their careers in the past.
I think you should start the first 90 minutes of Raw with a Paul Heyman promo and the second 90 minutes of Raw with Brock Lesnar wiping out the entire roster. But then again, that's my vision for Monday Night Raw.
I know Vince made the call for Roman Reigns to win the Royal Rumble and be the guy. We know that much. I don't know what knucklehead didn't say to Vince that maybe we shouldn't put Daniel Bryan in the Royal Rumble.
In 1986, wrestling was so huge in Charlotte that we did four events at the Coliseum with the Rock 'N' Roll and the Midnights in a 10-week period - and sold almost 45,000 tickets and drew almost $400,000 at the gate.
I don't want to be one of these guys who sits in a room watching old footage of himself, reliving old glory. It's just not me. I want to create new adventures. I'm not trying to live vicariously through my own past.
I dearly believe in my heart that Goldberg is a family man who has a profound love for his wife and son and wants his family to see him as that superhero that people romanticize him being during the height of his fame.
I think people are realizing that whereas now the 'Ultimate Fighting Championship' has taken over what people used to like about pro wrestling in the '70s and '80s. We just want to see who's going to fight for the title.
The way that you teach wrestling is by finding good talent that you think can learn and putting them in the ring with a variety of other good talents who have experience and giving them the opportunity to pick things up.
The crowd is a performer. En masse, a crowd has its own personality, its own character. And there are going to be nights when the crowd delivers a great performance. And there are going to be nights when the crowd bombs.
I don't think Roman Reigns should for one moment of his life be worrying about earning the respect of the WWE audience. Because what he has is their willingness to pay to see Roman Reigns whether they respect him or not.
It's the unbridled passion and the fearlessness to just go into something with reckless abandon that allows you to create something from nothing. That allows you to innovate. That allows you to take things to the extreme.
To me, a WrestleMania Sunday is 'I serve at the behest and at the pleasure of my beast.' I'm there to lighten the mood. I'm there to keep the mood light and not make it too heavy, and to keep the pressure off Brock Lesnar.
I always tell Brock Lesnar the truth. I don't appease Brock Lesnar. I don't placate Brock Lesnar. When Brock Lesnar asks me for an opinion, I give to him an honest opinion that I'm willing to back up with facts, with theory.
Where Brock Lesnar would be without Paul Heyman? He would certainly be on top. He would certainly be the number one box office attraction. He would just be doing it without someone who truly understands his persona like I do.
Ronda Rousey is a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, and anything that Ronda Rousey does is going to come with extreme scrutiny because she is such a pivotal figure in not only American sports but in global sports as well.
If you're content in WWE, then you have peaked. You have peaked in your own earning capacity for what you're going to bring home to your family, and you've peaked in what you offer to WWE in terms of your own talent to exploit.
How could you look at CM Punk and not think that he has the 'it' factor? I don't think I'm any great visionary or genius because I saw something in CM Punk; I think everyone else is a stupid schmuck for not seeing it in CM Punk.
I would never commit acts of domestic or family violence, stalking or sex offenses against Vince Russo or his household members or any other kind of member that he might have hanging around. Never would I do such a thing. I swear to that.
I'm involved with projects that strike up a passion with me, that stir up completion inside of me. People come at me and go, 'My job makes me feel alive.' OK, well, good for you. My job doesn't make me feel 'alive,' my job makes me feel alive!
WCW wasn't what I thought it should be. I thought it could be better. I would make suggestions, but nobody would want to hear them. They think you want their job. Please. It would be easier doing their job because they're used to doing nothing.
Maybe Rock and Elizabeth Warren could team up and shore up each other's weaknesses. Elizabeth Warren has a plan for everything and all the experience, and The Rock could sell it to the people, 'cause the people could smell what Rock is cooking.
Here's the funny thing: Nothing drives a performance like an audience that gives back and even takes over. ECW was a product that will be remembered as much, if not more, for its audience interaction as for the things that happened in the ring.
Unlike Frank Sinatra, I have no regrets in my life. Zero. Whatever hardships I have faced, or have caused myself, are moments I have to embrace in order to move forward. I have no problem coming to grips with either the highs or lows in my life.
I've always been a big believer in diversification for anybody. It's never good to put all of your efforts and all of your time and all of your financial resources into just one project. Diversification is key for any individual and any business.
The fans in Lake Charles, La., were crazy. The Freebirds would get their tires cut, so they started driving to the police station and having the police bring them to the show. The fans then cut the tires on the police car that brought The Freebirds.
The problem with these UFC fighters - and they're all fantastic athletes, top of the line in the entire world - is that they wear their bodies down in these training camps. All these guys that are cutting weight are just destroying their own bodies.
My role is different than Freddie Blassie, the Grand Wizard, and Lou Albano's, and Bobby Heenan's, Jimmy Hart's and J.J. Dillon's as well. I legitimately consider myself Brock Lesnar's advocate. That's my primary purpose to serve to the WWE Universe.
My off-camera friendship with Brock Lesnar has always been different than my off-camera friendship with CM Punk. But I could not tell you that I am closer to either one of them or either one of them is closer to me. It's just a different relationship.
We would get VHS tapes from wrestlers who wanted to come to Smoky Mountain. I got this tape from a guy called Lance Storm who I saw leaping from the top rope and cutting these great dropkicks. And the kid Chris Jericho he was with wasn't too bad either.
You have to look like an athlete and you have to look like you could whip somebody. And let's face it, unfortunately Shawn Michaels couldn't whip anybody in a real fight as proven with every single fight he's ever gotten into with everybody in the business.
I truly am of the belief that I should be nominated and elected 'Emperor of North America' and given a shot at being ruler of the universe, and I haven't had the chance to craft my campaigns for these offices yet because I've been very busy with Brock Lesnar.
I expected women to get mad at me because I was knocking pregnancy any way shape or form even though I wasn't against the act, just the timing. And also they said, 'Well he's mad because Becky Lynch is pregnant.' No I'm not mad, once again, I'm astonished! At the timing!
Even if people that I was in love with - even if Bobby Fulton inherited a billion dollars and opened All Elite Wrestling, I was never going to be the manager of The Revival on a weekly television basis ever because that would require me being on the road on a weekly basis.