Paul Heyman has an extensive history of working with Vince McMahon and Roman Reigns, and he recently compared their work ethic and ambition.
During an appearance on the “Out of Character with Ryan Satin” podcast, Heyman claimed that Reigns can give McMahon a run for his money concerning ambition, drive, and work ethic.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On meeting Vince McMahon in 1984: “I was a photographer, and in 1984 I was invited to come to the Mid-Hudson Civic Center. It was ’84, beginning of ’85, I don’t remember which one it was. Anyway around that time period, ’84, ’85. I was 19 years old, it was right before I started at Studio 54. And I was invited to come to the what’s now WWE, then WWF, television tapings at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York. And and as I came around a corner, I literally almost physically bumped into Vince. [Vince said] ‘Oh! Good to see you, how have you been?’, you know?
“And I walked down a hallway with Vince, and and somehow the conversation came up about work ethic. And his line was, ‘There’s so many people in life that wake up every morning and say, ‘[Sigh] Have to go to work.” And he just stopped where he was and his shoulders got wide, and his chest got really big. And he looks at me, goes ‘I wake up every morning, and I get to go to work.’ I was like, ‘Wow man that’s just — a passion for what you do, that that we should all aspire to finding that fulfillment, that happiness, that that spiritually orgasmic pursuit in life.”
On how proud he is of his work with Roman Reigns: “Infinitely. Inspired and motivated by him, himself, every single day. Because his his ambition rivals Vince’s. He wants it, and he wants greatness at at a level no one has ever achieved. And all false humility aside, that’s always been where my mindset has been. And he matches it, and indeed surpasses it. I have to constantly catch up to him, and I love that. That’s what I want, that’s — oh my God, he just wants every micro moment of every frame of every scene that we do to be Academy, Emmy, Grammy award-worthy, and strives for. And microanalyzes every frame that we’re in, so that the next frames that we are in are even better.
“It’s the old thing — and I say this all the time, you know, ‘I want to be a better man tomorrow than I am today, I want to be a better man two days from now than I am tomorrow.’ Or a smarter man or a more successful man, whatever you put in front of that. More tomorrow than today, more two days than tomorrow. Oh man, that’s him.”
On Reigns’ ambition coming from Vince: “You know it’s funny because you know, you say ‘just just over 900 days’ [as champion] and we never look at how long it’s been. We’re looking at how long it can be, you know. So like, our next goal is a thousand and after a thousand, when we made a thousand, let’s go for two thousand. We make the two thousand and so, let’s go for three thousand. And again a lot a lot of these mindsets and lessons when you’re in this culture, in this company, relate back to the Chairman. I was on the jet, I was executive director at the time of Raw the day the stock hit a hundred… and everybody was celebrating. Everybody. ‘My God, the stock hit 100. Remember when we debuted at 19? The IPO was for 19?’ And everybody’s celebrating. Not Vince. Number one, because he made it. Gave himself the moment. Moment was over, get back to business.
“And two, I’m sitting there on the jet with them, and I look over and I said, ‘Hey. Just for the record, congratulations.’ And couldn’t have been a shorter, you know, ‘Thank you.’ Like, ‘Okay well, that was a that was a short conversation.’ And I was thinking to myself, ‘Okay did I piss him off?’ And I looked at him, I said, ‘Let me see if I get this one. See if — sit under the Learning Tree for a moment. And he says, ‘Okay go for it.’ And I said, ‘Everybody else is sitting there, celebrating 100. You’re sitting there, celebrating, ‘Okay, we got to a hundred. That means we now have to strive to get to 200.” He looks at me, he goes, [Nods] ‘Mmm-hmm.’
“That’s the mindset. See, That’s the ambition, that’s the drive. That’s the pursuit. That the momentary fulfillment that brings you some soulful nirvana that allows you to then focus in on the next pursuit, and the chase becomes everything. It’s a never-ending chase with a few few stops along the way to go ‘Yeah! Okay, what’s next?’ It’s a polyamorous relationship with Pursuit and fulfillment.”
