Paul Heyman, the former boss of ECW has commented on the need to build new stars in the wrestling business and how he did this in the land of extreme.
Heyman was in conversation with Esquire Middle East when he was asked about his interactions on Talking Smack. As a regular host on the show, Heyman has sought to motivate the likes of Big E, Cesaro, and Kevin Owens. Superstars that aren’t necessarily headlining events and winning world titles every month.
Heyman stressed the importance of getting new faces into the main event picture as he replied:
“Well, I think if you take a look at my career in this industry, it’s always been about pushing and promoting marketing new talent. How do you get new fresh, different blood into the main event tier? That’s the only way for an industry to survive, and indeed, thrive. You have to have new matchups, you have to have new people in the mix. Otherwise, the product goes stale.”
“The very first event I ever promoted, was when I was 19 years old at Studio 54, the world’s most famous nightclub in New York City. That was where I not only gave an award to Ric Flair, but I also presented the pro wrestling debut of Bam Bam Bigelow. With all this media there, I opened my career introducing a new star.”
Paul Heyman then touched on his time in ECW as well as his time in charge of SmackDown in the early 2000s as evidence of his quest to make new stars:
“In ECW, it was the same thing. It was creating new stars of our own. We didn’t rely on the cast-offs from WWE, WCW, etc. We built new stars because we needed always new fresh blood on top. So my role as the lead writer of SmackDown 19 years ago was the same thing. We made Edge a singles star, we broke the Guerreros out into the top mix.”
“We brought in Rey Mysterio as a top star. It was always the concept of building, making and marketing new people into the main event mix. So when I became the executive director of Raw, it was the same thing. It was about who can now become the next big star in WWE.”
Paul Heyman has also relived the hysterical tale of the former Big Show, Paul Wight causing a stink in Alaska.