Paul Heyman Had No Desire To Be On Television Before Signing with WWE

Paul Heyman has been one of the most well-known and established names in the pro wrestling world for decades. His mind for the industry is genuinely genius, as Heyman truly understands the business. It appears that he had no desire to be on television after joining WWE.

Paul Heyman was the brains behind ECW and worked hard to make it a viable company. Unfortunately, the company still went bankrupt in the end. Heyman ended up joining WWE back in 2001.

The Special Counsel to The Tribal Chief first began his WWE career by joining Jim Ross on commentary. While speaking on the Tetragrammaton podcast, Paul Heyman talked about joining WWE.

Paul Heyman revealed that when he first met Vince McMahon before debuting on Monday Night RAW, McMahon told him to join the commentary team after Jerry Lawler quit. Heyman admitted that he had no desire to be on television and relayed the same to McMahon, but he ultimately accepted the deal.

“I came to WWE and my first thing I said to Vince (McMahon) in coming in the door was, ‘I don’t wanna be on television. I’m 35, I had my fun. I wanna be behind the scenes only’ and then the whole thing happened with they fired Jerry Lawler’s wife and Jerry Lawler quit and I wasn’t supposed to get into WWE until WrestleMania because I was too busy dealing with the ridiculous amount of legalities of what was the pending ECW bankruptcy.

So I’m going into a personal bankruptcy and a corporate bankruptcy and I’m jumping into WWE and I cut my deal to come in behind the scenes and I get a call from Vince on a Tuesday and he says, ‘Are you aware that Jerry Lawler quit last night?’

And I said, ‘Yeah. I heard the whole story. I’m sorry to hear that’ and says, ‘Well I’m gonna need a little bit of a favor from you’ and I said, ‘Well, I’m not really in a position to turn down a favor from you in this moment. My company’s gone. I’m entering bankruptcy and you’re offering me a lifeline in life. So the answer to the favor is yes. Now please tell me what I’m doing’ and he says, ‘Need you to start on commentary next Monday night’ and I’m like, oh my God. I’m back on television. That’s exactly where I don’t wanna be and then of course I realized, well, I get to play with Jim Ross a little bit.

I always liked being Jim Ross’ color commentator and you know, if I’m gonna have to do anything in the public eye anymore, replacing Jerry Lawler on Raw is not a bad way to debut. That’s a pretty iconic position. That’s what today, we would refer to as relevant.”

Paul Heyman also recently revealed the racial undertones he wanted to use during a segment wit Sami Zayn. Heyman remains an integral part of WWE programming even now and fans are glad he decided to stick with the company no matter what.

What’s your opinion on what Paul Heyman said? Are you glad he is a big part of WWE programming? Let us know in the comments!