And the Oscar goes to…Paul Heyman!

Paul Heyman tears up during his interview with Renee Young, realizing his relationship with Brock Lesnar might be over. Courtesy of the WWE.

By Matthew Klink (@klinkmatt)

August 7, 2018

In the greatest performance…of all time, Paul Heyman delivered a promo of a lifetime to help build the Brock Lesnar story line to epic, new heights! This promo is better, more emotional, and more real than anything Mick Foley ever did as Mankind, Stone Cold Steve Austin, CM Punk, or even an adrenaline filled John Cena.

Hell! He just put the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Tom Hardy, and Sir Ian McKellen to shame!

I may feel different a week from now or after we see the result of SummerSlam’s main event, but for now, I’m recognizing this promo as the height of emotional fear, sadness, and pain from a WWE professional.

Heyman’s tearful realization of the demise of his friendship with Brock Lesnar was actually heart wrenching. His disheveled look (beard fuzz, red eyes, lost stare) is a length of commitment that we have never experienced before on WWE programming. To see a man who was so sure of his future have to come to terms with the fact that it won’t happen, was beautiful and sad at the same time. Renee brought a lot of great questions to the table. Some that we didn’t get answered last night, but were questions we’ve been asking ourselves since Brock tossed Paul around the ring on Monday Night Raw. More important than getting those answers was witnessing the breakdown of the last remaining link to Brock Lesnar’s popularity.

Now, obviously this could have been done in so many different ways. Some would argue that there have already been many attempts to make Brock less popular. Some of them are: Brock could have beat down a face, an old man (Vince maybe) or a WWE Legend. Instead, he beat down the one relationship that kept us rooting for Brock. Rooting for him due to our high level of respect we all have for Paul Heyman. Respect garnered through his trailblazing management techniques, his ability to grow and thrive through different generational audiences, and his mic skills that could make almost any superstar (sorry Curtis Axel) a main eventer.

Paul Heyman used that respect earned to keep us interested in a guy who would only show up at big shows and very rarely to a Monday Night Raw. After all, if Paul Heyman still believed in Brock Lesnar, then we would too. Brock could spend months on end at home, keeping healthy and safe, hunting on his property, raising his kids, and doing absolutely anything that isn’t professional wrestling.

In the most recent run as a Universal Champion, Brock became one of the longest title holders of all time. The length, mostly due to his lack of matches at WWE events, but also because of the WWE’s necessity to keep Brock as a primary superstar. Keeping him in that window highlights the WWE’s lack of creativity, but also their genius in keeping Paul Heyman around. Of course, the fact that the WWE pays the guy and has made a documentary starring the man, it’s no secret he is crucial to the success of their main event storylines.

The importance of SummerSlam’s main event has been talked about for a few years, although we all thought it was going to happen a couple years ago and again this past WrestleMania. It is the proverbial passing of the torch from one tough badass to the guy the WWE hopes we’ll one day see as the new badass. We all know, it should’ve been much easier to define a new torch bearer than the WWE Universe has made it for the WWE. However, the world we live in is one without a wrestling fan base that cooperates and acts accordingly.

Roman Reigns has struggled to get the fans on his side ever since his build began. The fans don’t like to be told who to root for and they especially don’t like seeing it for four straight years. It could be argued, while not official, that the WWE has put off the ‘torch passing’ mainly due to their lack of confidence in Roman Reigns’ character in getting cheered. Because of that, the strategy was to find a way to get the fans to cheer for Roman (opposed to finding a new torch bearer).  Since focusing on Roman Reigns has backfired for the past four years (keeping him on top, beating the best in the business, and having him win awards), the WWE decided that the next best idea would be to focus on his rival. Making his rival the most hated man in Pro Wrestling would finally get a cooperative response from the fans. The idea being that the rival (in this case, Brock Lesnar) would be so hated that no matter who they fought, the fans would cheer for Reigns.

The final step in this plan has yet to be executed, but the key for this whole plan to work was Paul Heyman’s response to getting tossed around by Brock Lesnar. Like I said, this was Brock’s last connection to the fans. Paul Heyman’s introduction of the Beast became the battle cry for all of the fans of Suplex City. The fans would never fully separate themselves from Brock as long as Paul Heyman came out and obliged the fans with his patented growl and roar. The reigning, defending, conquering…Universal Champion…was kept relevant and popular because of Heyman. And now that they have officially shown a vulnerable and fragile relationship, Heyman’s job was to garner sympathy. And boy did he do it!

It’s a risk, because it’s just another way for the WWE to tell us who to root for, but I would say it was such a damn good performance, I can’t imagine rooting to see Heyman cry again.

Paul let us all know that he has lost control of the Beast and that we finally have no reason to feel an emotional connection. Brock is to be feared and to be hated. Just as the WWE wanted. This is either a perfectly executed plan to get fans behind Reigns or the WWE is giving us a new reason to hate Lesnar and itself.

The fact that the Money in the Bank is still a solid option for SummerSlam puts this match as a relative coin-flip in my opinion. Even if Brock was to retain, Braun Strowman or Kevin Owens are taking the title home.

Regardless, Paul Heyman did his job and I hope he’ll stick around and build somebody else. There are a ton of names on the roster that could use the help. Do it organically and with purpose and the WWE Universe will accept it and believe it.

That's not the only news that'll be huge for WWE fans in August, with SummerSlam right around the corner!

As we continue to get more matches booked (so far, six in total), I am loving this card. If you haven't made plans yet, don't forget to be on your couch on August 19th for the biggest show of the summer: SummerSlam!

Carmella vs Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship
Ronda Rousey vs Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women's Championship
AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe for the WWE Championship
Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Title
Dolph Ziggler vs Seth Rollins for the Intercontinental Championship
Daniel Bryan vs The Miz
Sunday, August 19th, 7PM EST

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