Paul Heyman Details Personal Connection With WWE Clients, Difference Between Roman Reigns & Brock Lesnar

Paul Heyman has revealed how he forms a personal connection with his WWE clients and how he uses it to help develop their on-screen characters.

Over the years Paul Heyman has worked with a variety of WWE stars, from long-standing associations with the likes of Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns or CM Punk to short-lived ones such as Cesaro, Ryback and most recently Seth Rollins.

With Heyman now in the corner of The Vision’s Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed, the Hall of Famer has opened up about the connection he forms with his clients whilst appearing on Stephanie McMahon’s ‘What’s Your Story?’ podcast.

Detailing the importance of trust and openness between himself and his on-screen partners, Heyman said:

“If I’m gonna work closely with a talent the premise is always going to be: you have to let me understand all your trigger points. How can I make you cry? How can I make you angry? How can I make you happy? What’s gonna tear you up in happiness? Did your dog die when you were five and that it bothers you? Did you have a relative that passed away early? Where are you most sensitive?

“If you really want this to work, if you really want to be a star, if you want to be the best, if you want to make millions and millions of dollars, you’re gonna have to be more emotionally and spiritually intimate with me than you are your own spouse. You got to let me in, you got to let me know. Because I need to whisper something in your ear and say something to you, that when that camera comes on people look and go that’s for real. So people go ‘that’s not an acting tear, she’s crying out of happiness.’

“There are things that you (Stephanie) and I know about each other, as friends, that if I’m walking out to the ring and you want a certain emotion out of me that I, even searching my own heart and sole, don’t want to think about at work. I just don’t, it’s too personal. And you could come and whisper to me, and I’m out there in that mindset (on television).”

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Heyman would then discuss his relationships with Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, explaining how Reigns’ evolution into the Tribal Chief came as a result of them peeling back the layers of his character:

“Brock really, we never explored the depth of the character. Brock’s character is intentionally very one dimensional, but the Tribal Chief wasn’t.

“What made the Tribal Chief so different is that on very strategic times we presented layers. Every time you thought you understood the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns we showed you something different. That’s what made that character so breathtaking to watch develop in front of your very eyes.

“It’s like a child star that grows up in front of you. And as much of a grown man that Joe Anoa’i is standing in front of you as Roman Reigns obviously was, he grew up as the Tribal Chief in front of the audience.

“There were things that he entrusted me with that I don’t think any other person on the face of the planet knows about him. And we, whether it was a promo in front of the audience or one of the things backstage in front of the camera on the couch, and he’s searching for that layer that he wants to present, I’ll just pull him aside and say ‘this’ and he’ll just look and say ‘got it’. That’s tapped into it. And you have to trust me to keep that between us and never repeat it under any circumstances even on my death bed; that goes to the grave with me.

“But to get that greatness out of somebody. For a person that admittedly will have reputation for being untrustworthy, there are things that I will take to my grave about a lot of people, that my own children don’t know. That’s the intimacy I work with, and if you give me that vulnerability, I’ll never betray it and we will have a personal and professional satisfaction of achieving greatness together that two other people can’t match.”

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Heyman’s clients Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed will team with Logan Paul and two others inside WarGames at Survivor Series on November 29, taking on CM Punk, Jey Uso, Cody Rhodes and two currently unknown opponents.

For the latest on Roman Reigns’ potential status for the WarGames match follow this link here.