In an interview with Rolling Stone, Paul Heyman commented on WWE’s best in-ring performer, why his pairings with Cesaro and Curtis Axel did not work and more.

Highlights of the interview are below:

On the WWE RAW contract signing and the company’s best in-ring performer: “What happened there was I was watching on the monitor and you look at who is in the ring. You have John Cena, the top name in this industry for the past 10 years, you have Triple H and all of his accomplishments, you have Stephanie McMahon standing there, you have The Big Show standing there and you have Seth Rollins, who is, in my opinion, the single-best in-ring performer in the world today, undisputed and you’re about to have Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman join this group. So we’re standing backstage, waiting for Brock’s music to play and I looked at him and said, you know, you can barely tell the players without a scorecard and Brock said, say that and I did, because I figured before this all breaks down into some spectacular scenario, why don’t we let everyone here understand exactly what they’re looking at and by the way, listen to the people whose names I’m calling out, because they’re all A-listers. Why not take that moment to catch your breath and realize this is an all-star cast in front of your eyes?”

On why his pairings with Cesaro and Curtis Axel didn’t work: “I think the bar was set so high with the chemistry that Brock and I have and the chemistry that CM Punk and I had, that it would be very difficult to match that. It’s not just a situation of stick manager A with wrestler B, especially when you’re shooting for the top. I’ve never walked through the curtain with someone I wasn’t trying to audition as a WrestleMania main-eventer and I never want to and I’m sure the performers I’ve worked with didn’t want to have an advocate whose goal was anything less, but sometimes, the chemistry just isn’t there.”

The interview is available in full at this link.