Paul Heyman Credits WWE Name With Discovering Austin Theory

Published: Dec 24, 2025 by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: Dec 27, 2025 by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

Paul Heyman Credits WWE Name With Discovering Austin Theory

Paul Heyman has credited a WWE name with discovering Austin Theory, noting his own role in bringing him to the main roster.

Austin Theory signed with WWE in August 2019, having appeared at WrestleMania Axxess the previous year.

His journey through WWE would see a call up to the main roster in March 2020 before returning to NXT in August of that year and being brought back up the 2021 Draft.

With an image of Paul Heyman shaking hands with a then-Evolve Champion, the WWE name has now addressed the belief that he was responsible for bringing Theory into the company.

In a post on Twitter, Heyman gave credit to Evolve founder and WWE Creative Consultant & Domestic Talent Scout Gabe Sapolsky for discovering Theory and revealed his own involvement in the young star’s WWE progress, tweeting:

“For the record, @BookItGabe deserves all the credit for the discovery of @_Theory1.

“As Executive Director of @WWE #RAW in 2019/2020, I drafted Theory from @WWENXT for (ironically enough) @WWERollins’ group.

“Now, he’s a seasoned veteran with a chip on his shoulder ready to step into the spotlight.

“But the credit for discovering Theory goes to Gabe!”

With Austin Theory now a member of The Vision, Heyman has also described the recently returned star as a ‘glimpse of the future‘.

Theory was unveiled as the masked man who has sided with The Vision over recent weeks, having been sidelined through an unspecified injury since his last match in July.

Evolve is under the ownership of WWE, with Gabe Sapolsky continuing to oversee the brand and the WWE ID program.

. @itsjoeykarni

For the record, @BookItGabe deserves all the credit for the discovery of @_Theory1. As Executive Director of @WWE #RAW in 2019/2020, I drafted Theory from @WWENXT for (ironically enough) @WWERollins' group. Now, he's a seasoned veteran with a chip on his… https://t.co/NF0SmfE9kk

— Paul Heyman (@HeymanHustle) December 24, 2025