"He is the biggest box office attraction in WWE" - Paul Heyman on former WWE Champion
Paul Heyman recently appeared in an interview on the Out of Character podcast with Ryan Satin. Heyman spoke about working in the wrestling business, his time with ECW, his relationship with Roman Reigns, John Cena, and much more.
Paul Heyman is currently the special legal counsel for Roman Reigns. With his wily intellect, Heyman has ensured that Roman Reigns has kept the WWE Universal Championship by any means necessary. Heyman remains a crucial part of the WWE Universal Champion's impressive reign.
Speaking of Reigns' SummerSlam opponent, Paul Heyman said that John Cena was the biggest blockbuster Superstar in WWE for the last 15 years. Heyman declared that Cena may in fact be a bigger Hollywood star than The Rock. Heyman went on to commend Cena's work ethic and determination.
"He's John Cena," said Heyman. "He's the 16-time champion and rightfully so. He is the biggest box office attraction in WWE for the past 15 years and rightfully so. He is now, and Dwayne Johnson may have a problem with this, but he is pretty much the biggest box office star in Hollywood. Certainly the biggest action-adventure star in Hollywood right now."
"The man had some time at home and said, 'You know, I should learn Mandarin', and not only learned how to speak it, but he understood it," Heyman added. "So when someone communicates with him in Mandarin, he knows how. That's a work ethic. I think John Cena would excel at anything he chose to do in life."
Paul Heyman reveals ECW was inspired by MTV
Speaking on his days running ECW, Paul Heyman said that he was inspired by the business model and outreach of MTV. Heyman detailed that the all-inclusive nature of MTV made the early 90s the MTV generation, and he wanted to capitalize on the rise of grunge in the 90s through ECW.
Additionally, Heyman noted that the camera angles were inspired by watching reruns of the 1966 "Batman" series when he was a child. He recalled using tilted camera angles for the heels in ECW to demonstrate the chaos they brought to the ring. This style was inspired by watching The Joker in the Adam West Batman series.
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