Paul Heyman did not just randomly start saying Brock Lesnar’s name like he was summoning a monster. There was a whole strategy behind it.
While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Paul Heyman explained that his famous delivery of Brock Lesnar’s name came down to branding. To him, the words matter, but the way they are delivered matters even more.
“Well, that’s all branding. I mean that that’s all a matter of what is the emotion that you want to convince. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. I tell that to everybody.”
Heyman then pointed to Joey Styles in ECW as an example. He said Styles had to learn how to say “ECW Arena” like it actually meant something, comparing it to how someone would speak about Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, or even the Sistine Chapel.
“When Joey Styles first came to ECW, Joey Styles would say, ‘We are here live at the ECW Arena,’ to stop, cut, break. If you go to Rome and you go to the Sistine Chapel and you look at Michelangelo’s work on the ceiling, you sit there and say, ‘I’m here at the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo painted that.’ No, I’m here at the Sistine Chapel. Look at the ceiling. It was painted by Michelangelo on his back for 5, 10, 15 years, whatever the story is. Say the ECW Arena like you’re saying Madison Square Garden, like you’re saying Yankee Stadium. Say it with such honor and prestige that it carries weight.”
That same thinking carried over to Brock Lesnar. Heyman said everything is about presentation, and the announcer has to make the audience feel the weight of the name before they even see the person.
“So Joey Styles would say, ‘We’re here live at the ECW Arena,’ and it’s looking up because it’s majestic, it’s opera, it’s operatic. So it’s never looking down, the ECW Arena, it’s the ECW Arena. So everything that you want is about the manner in which you present it.”
Then Heyman broke it down in the most Heyman way possible, using a dog and a cookie as his example. His point was simple: the same word can mean nothing or everything depending on how it is said.
“I used to call it the dog and the cookie. So if you go home tonight and you say to that dog, ‘Do you want a cookie? Do you want a cookie?’ OK, that’s great. But you know what? ‘Do you want a lump of shin? Would you like a lump of shin?’ And it’s the same way. If you say, ‘Do you want a cookie?’ dog’s going to run away from the cookie. So it’s not the fact that you go cookie, you know, it’s how you say the word cookie.”
Then he brought it right back to Brock. Heyman said Brock’s name was never supposed to sound happy, hopeful, or heroic. It was supposed to feel dangerous before Brock even walked out.
“Same thing with Brock Lesnar. It’s not, as I once teased on a viral video with Bruce Buffer, it’s not, ‘Oh, it’s Brock Lesnar.’ It’s not supposed to invoke happiness. It’s not supposed to invoke hope. It’s not supposed to invoke a hero’s identification within your spirit.”
That is why Heyman says the name with so much force. He wants the audience to understand exactly what Brock Lesnar represents without needing one extra word.
“It’s supposed to be violent and guttural and something that instills fear just in hearing the name. It’s not Brock Lesnar, it’s Brock Lesnar. It’s that level of intensity that is brought with the name that makes you understand who that person is without ever having to see him or what he can do.”
So at the end of the day, Paul Heyman’s Brock Lesnar introduction was never just a catchphrase. It was branding, theater, intimidation, and salesmanship all rolled into one loud, terrifying name drop.
What do you think about Paul Heyman’s explanation of how he says Brock Lesnar’s name? Is it one of the best introductions in WWE history? Leave your feedback below.
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