Paul Heyman On Storytelling: I Write The Final Page First

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Paul Heyman details his mindset regarding storytelling.

Heyman is often praised for his mind for the wrestling business. He has been a key figure behind the scenes in WWE in recent years, and he has been heavily involved with the Bloodline story.

Heyman recently spoke with Logan Paul on his IMPAULSIVE podcast, and he was asked to describe how he would book Paul in 2025.

“It all depends on other circumstances right now. Here is the honest answer, the question is how I would book Logan Paul in 2025, my answer is I wouldn’t book him just for 2025. My question would be, who is Logan Paul’s opponent for WrestleMania 42, and more importantly, who is Logan Paul’s opponent for WrestleMania 43? If we’re just looking at ‘who is his opponent for (WrestleMania) 41 or 42,’ then we’re narrowcasting here. In an industry that has now enabled its fanbase to embrace long-term storytelling, I’m capping you at 18 months. ‘Who is my opponent for 42?’ That’s 18 months from now.”

Paul Heyman On Knowing Where The End Is First

Heyman went on to state that he had never written a script without knowing the final page first. He stated that he wrote the final page first, and it was important to work backward.

“Who is your opponent for 43? Once we figure out who your opponent is for 43, you work backward. I have never written a script or answered an idea without knowing the final page,” Heyman said. “I write the final page first. Here is the end, it may transition to something else, but here is how this story ends. How do we get there? How do we milk it? How do we tease them? What’s the intrigue? What are the other characters’ dimensions that play off of this? How does this story affect all others? If you write it from the beginning and you project it out, that becomes a thing of ‘it’s complicated’, and it takes on so many different variables that you lose the focus of where you’re going. If everything drives to this point, then you know the narrative you want to tell.

“Making sure Solo never said ‘Acknowledge me,’ before he said it at Madison Square Garden. Making sure he was never referred to as the Tribal Chief before Madison Square Garden. Making sure all roads led to that moment and that 15-minute segment that engrossed everybody because everything since WrestleMania was built to that moment. I wouldn’t book Logan Paul just for this year or until WrestleMania 42, I’ve screwed you if I did that. I’ve given you an 18-month trajectory and you have nowhere to go after that. If we give you a two-and-a-half-year trajectory and take you that far out, we know everything we’re building towards and can create the pivots. If something comes along and a new character rises, ‘We have to get him in there with Logan Paul’ or something else happens that changes the narrative, then it gets added to the narrative as we still go through the line up to (WM) 43.” (H/t Fightful for the transcription)

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