Paul Heyman shared original plans for his role in WWE before being paired with Brock Lesnar in 2002.
Heyman was interviewed by Chris Van Vliet and delved into his plans to be aligned with Chris Benoit before the decision was changed.
In 2001, Heyman was off television after the end of the Invasion storyline and was replaced on commentary in November by the returning Jerry Lawler. Heyman said he was slotted to be assigned to Chris Benoit upon his return from neck fusion surgery.
I was coming back on camera at WrestleMania to manage – I hate that word – Chris Benoit, and that was where we were headed.
Brock was very impatient in OVW and moved back to Minneapolis and told WWE, ‘Put me on the main roster or cut me loose.’ So, WWE was bringing Brock Lesnar in for dark matches. Brock is standing in the middle of the ring during the afternoon, and all these old timers are there. Jack Lanza, Tony Garea, the previous regime of producers, and it’s the same thing, ‘Stand in the middle of the ring, kid, you’ll be fine. Let everybody bounce off you. Don’t move too much. He should be a Russian’. He’s an NCAA Division I champion. Look at his combine numbers, look at what he can do, look at his leaping ability, look at the way that he moves. Have you ever seen anyone move like that, much less someone of that size move like that? And his name, you couldn’t think of a better name for a fighter than ‘Brock Lesnar,’ and you want him to be a Russian?
Taz brought him over to me. Taz was such a big fan of Brock’s amateur career, and he said, ‘Hey brother, they’re going to screw this up, you’ve got to get involved in this over here’. So, I went to Vince McMahon and said, ‘We have a heavy investment in Brock Lesnar, and we’re going to screw this up’ (and he said), ‘Oh. Do something about that. Take over his matches, you produce them.’ So, I started producing his matches, and we just went by the theory of simple, spotlighted, singular. In that, we found a chemistry with each other that was undeniable, and Vince experienced it in the room with us, the night before WrestleMania 18. Vince pulled me aside, and he said, ‘This whole thing with Benoit is called off, I’m putting you with Brock Lesnar.’
Lesnar would make his debut on WWE programming the night after WrestleMania 18 and would win that year’s King of the Ring and become Undisputed Champion at SummerSlam and headline the following year’s WrestleMania.
