In a recent interview with Bleacher Reports’ Graham Matthews, WWE’s Paul Heyman discussed what the company is looking for when it seeks out new WWE superstars who may be trying out with the company.
The interview took place following WWE’s latest tryouts in Nashville, Tennessee. According to Heyman, some of the key traits the company is looking for are ambition, desire, and simply how badly they want to pursue their dreams.
“Youth enthusiasm, vision, desire, ambition, the unknown,” said Heyman. “The pursuit of a dream. And for an old guy like me, that’s something to be around, you know? I just take all of that youth and rub it up against yourself, and, you run with it, and I’ve learned from them. Because I’m in my 50s, so I don’t, with the exception of my children, who are always going to be my children, and therefore they’re going to be guarded in what they say around me, I’m not around a bunch of 20, 21 22, 23, 24, 25 year olds, so to hear them in their own environment, around their own peers, within their own culture, speak their own lexicon, tell me what resonates with them.”
Heyman went on to note that he also benefits from interacting with the talent, in that he gets to interact with and see a younger perspective of people, which in turn helps him perform better in the ring.
‘Well, what motivates you to become a superstar?’ ‘Well, you know, I want to be mental health advocate. Well, you know, I have a brother or sister who’s afflicted with this, well, I had an uncle who was a fan than this was his downfall, or, well, you know, when I was a child, this was who I looked up to, and here’s why they resonated with me.'” Heyman said. “And to understand what people today of that age are motivated by, are inspired by, what they aspired to be, and what changes they want to make in the world brings an understanding of the youth to me.
“Because when I speak on television, I not only had to communicate with people my own age, I had to communicate with people who were far younger than I am. So if I’m out there, and I’m just the old guy talking about the Sammartino days, I’m yesterday’s news, and there’s nothing older than yesterday’s news. But if I want to stay relevant, which is the entire concept of being on the island of relevancy with the biggest star in the industry today, then I need to be able to communicate with an audience of that age. So hearing them, seeing them, feeling them, understanding them, resonating with them, interacting with them is an education process for me as well. Yeah, I’d benefit from this probably far more than they do.”
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