STAMFORD, Conn. — Paul Heyman had to pause for a moment as we stood in the lobby of WWE headquarters when I asked if he remembered his first time coming to WWE for a meeting.
“It had to be when I was the owner of ECW,” Heyman said, looking around. “I don't really remember when it was because I was probably stoned out of my mind when I went up there to see them.”
Back then, Heyman was doing anything and everything he could to keep the lights on at ECW as pro wrestling’s popularity exploded during the Monday Night Wars. With WCW winning the weekly ratings battle, ECW and WWE entered a short-term partnership that eventually led to ECW invading WWE Raw. ECW would become the inspiration for the Attitude Era, which turned around the fortunes of the WWE and later Heyman, whose character evolution at WWE has seen him go from manager to advocate to "Wiseman" to "Oracle."
“I would never call it a partnership,” Heyman said, smiling. “It was sort of a collaboration. Isn’t that the word today? Collaboration. There are no real partnerships anymore. It was just something where we were plotting against Eric Bischoff and WCW.”
Despite all the twists and turns in pro wrestling over the past 40 years, one of the few constants has been Heyman — in various roles both in front of and behind the camera. He has not only survived but remained on the cutting edge, helping the next generation of superstars achieve their goals.
I’ve been in the room with Heyman during a few WWE tryouts over the years and was always amazed by his ability to push talent to perform beyond even their own expectations. Heyman simply refuses to give up on someone he believes in.
“Get in the door,” Heyman said. “Just get in the door. Kick it down. Scale the roof. Drill a hole. Parachute down. Build a tunnel. Climb up. Get in the door. Don’t take no for an answer. A no is a yes that is yet to happen. So you just get inside. If that’s your dream, why would you ever give up on your dream? Why would you ever let someone impede on that vision you have for yourself? Make it happen.”
Heyman's ability to read the marketplace is legendary, ranging from his complete disruption of the industry in the 1990s with his ECW promotion to co-founding New York City's "L4L - Looking4Larry Agency," which recently merged with MCM Studios to create New York's largest midtown production space, complete with LED walls and AI technology.
Heyman was at WWE headquarters on this day to promote WWE 2K26, which is available now globally, and unveil new details on MyRISE, the story-driven mode that puts players at the center of a dramatic comeback orchestrated by "The Oracle." Heyman isn't just working with 2K as a talent, he has worked with the video game publisher for over 15 years in various capacities. Over the years he has been involved with in-game performances, voice overs and on-camera work, creative narrative of modes, producing spots, promotion in PR, ads, social, strategic marketing collaboration and ideation. For 2K26 specifically, Heyman recorded voice-overs for over three hours and is featured in the launch commercial.
Games are another way to engage consumers in how they consume media today.As Heyman prepared to speak with media outlets ranging from newspapers and radio stations to podcasts and social media creators, I asked him about the future of sports media as someone who has always find a way to adjust and thrive. How can the currently struggling industry survive when sports have never been more popular and profitable?
“By taking it seriously as you do,” he said. “I am, in all candor, a fan of your work because you take what you do seriously. And you're not looking for the punchline; you're looking for the headline.
“Too many people try to make themselves the story, and therefore they water down the newsworthiness of things that should be discussed among sports fans. They muddy the waters. They infest your credibility with their lack of it. In terms of credible sports journalism, it's just a matter of letting your credibility shine way over those who have no credibility at all.”
While certain platforms may be dead or dying, the future of sports media lies in telling the same stories with the same seriousness and credibility but delivering them across multiple platforms.
Instead of simply writing a game story and calling it a day, reporters must now take that same reporting and share it with a larger, younger audience through social media and podcasts that fans can consume immediately after a game instead of waiting until the next morning’s newspaper or the next day’s radio show.
“It’s all in the platforms,” Heyman said. “It’s a microphone to the youth. In the same way that no one looks to traditional media anymore. How many people actually listen to terrestrial radio? Platforms continue to change. To me it’s a platform of communication to a younger demographic that I'm going to reach greater than through traditional methods.”
As much as I’d like to simply write my game story, pick up the newspaper the next day and turn on sports talk radio, those days are fading away — or already gone — for a new generation that consumes sports news differently.
“However you or I feel about it is totally irrelevant,” Heyman said. “That’s the way it is. So I have to accept it. Would I do it that way? No. But that's me, and I'm not the one driving the train.
“I can sit here and say, ‘Back in my day.’ But my day is forward. My day is today. My day is tomorrow. My day is next year. My day is five years from now. That train is leaving the station. I can either let it leave without me, or I can get on that train.
“In 40 years, I've never been a passenger. I've always been a conductor. So I want to be one of the conductors of the train. I have to get aboard it, whether I agree with it or not. I have to understand how to use it, how to present with that in mind and how to exploit the opportunity.”