In a recent interview with Jimmy Traina as part of the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast, WWE’s Paul Heyman discussed several topics, including whether he is surprised at how well The Bloodline storyline has turned out on WWE television, Sami Zayn getting involved in the storyline, who is responsible creatively and much more.

Highlights of the interview are below:

On whether he is surprised at how well The Bloodline storyline has turned out: “With all false humility aside, no I’m not, the reason why is because of my belief in Roman Reigns as a performer. When we made the decision and Roman Reigns and I talked about working with each other for several years, and the time was never right, I was too attached to the hip of Brock Lesnar, and rightfully so, because we kept on elevating each other and we were needed for each other at the time. Roman Reigns was still finding his own way, and still telling his story to the audience, because to get to where he is now as the tribal chief, he had to have weathered all the storms, fought all the battles and he needed to be more seasoned, he needed to be older than the Big Dog Roman Reigns, so the time was right, and it was in the middle of COVID, this is where we had virtual audiences and everyone looked at that as a restriction. In my first conversation with Roman Reigns about how to become not only the number one superstar in the industry, not just WWE, but also to become the most compelling character on television itself, the first thing he said was, wow what an opportunity we have to do things differently. Right there, I knew that we hit gold, because we weren’t looking at well, there’s no fans live in the arena, we were looking at, wow we can actually put the camera right in the ring with us, we can whisper things and have the camera mics pick it up, we didn’t have to talk into the microphone at all times to deliver the message. All the things that you are given as brilliant opportunities, when there’s 20, 30, 40, 50,000 people in an arena or a stadium, the flip side of that is the intimacy when there’s no one there and how you can position a camera literally right here to the face and at the last second of the show, turn into the camera and just say Acknowledge Me and whisper it and have everyone hear you, so long answer even longer, I’m not surprised, because from the moment Roman Reigns and I got a chance to work together, the entire goal was to present the most compelling, the most riveting, the most forward-thinking character on television itself, let alone in professional wrestling, sports entertainment, WWE.”

On Sami Zayn becoming part of The Bloodline storyline on WWE television: “I didn’t imagine Sami Zayn becoming a massive part of this. To his enormous credit, Sami Zayn seized the moment, we’d give him crumbs of a segment and he would just turn it into a moment that he had to connect with the audience with what I think has ended up becoming the most endearing character that we’ve presented in decades, if not ever. As great of a talker as Sami Zayn is, and he is a magnificent talker, I think Sami resonates with the audience, just because Roman Reigns will turn to him and lean in on him about something, and Sami gets that hush puppy face, and that sad look on his face, and the camera zooms in on the sad look on Sami’s face and everybody feels for him, he just endears himself to the audience, they absolutely fall in love with him and his plight and pursuit of acceptance, and that was the tale of Sami Zayn. He just did it so well, and did it so brilliantly, and with such authenticity, and with genuine angst on his face and pain when spoken down to, that people just felt for him and as you know, it’s not just constrained to WWE. In any form of television, movies, Broadway plays, if you get the audience to feel for you, you know, touchdown, victory, it’s everything that a writer, director, producer and performer seeks.”

On who is creatively responsible for The Bloodline and this storyline: “You know the old expression that it takes a team, it certainly has with us, there are a lot of people who have worked really hard to make this work, you know it kind of all filters through Roman Reigns’ feel, there are several people that come to me to present things to Roman, and then Roman and I will talk about it and come back with either something that fits into their narrative, or we would hope we can perhaps enhance it or put it in our own words, or come back with, that doesn’t work for us, but what about this, and then start a different process in that we’re bouncing ideas off of them. When I say them, you know the thing with Sami started when Vince was still running creative, so it started under Vince McMahon’s creative regime, it was a seamless transition to Paul Levesque, there are times where we’re sitting in a room, and it’s Roman and it’s me, and it’s The Uso’s, and one of The Uso’s will just say, you know what would be really good with Sami, and it’s Oh My God, why aren’t we doing that already, you will find things that come from The Uso’s that would shock you just how great they are. There’s Michael Hayes, and Michael Hayes has an understanding about telling a story within the body of a match that very few in history could ever claim to be on par with. The SmackDown writing team, which is led by Ryan Callahan, who is an unsung hero in what we’ve put together, there’s Michael Kirschenbaum, who you never hear about you know, Kirsch as we call him, who on a week-to-week basis, along with a gentleman named Chad Barbash, and another name’s Zack Hyatt, these are all people that will come and sit in the room with us, or sit in a locker room with us or on Roman’s bus or in a conference call, we’ll throw around ideas and you know, hey what resonates with you, do you have teenage kids, well this is a story of acceptance, what tales are they telling from the cafeteria at lunchtime in high school. It’s really a team and a lot of unsung heroes, a lot of people that you don’t read about online, because they very intentionally keep their names out of the headlines who have worked their a**** off to put this all together.”

The full interview is available at this link.