Paul Heyman says ‘it meant everything’ to tell CM Punk he would headline WrestleMania 41

Paul Heyman learned how to cry on command as a young troublemaker. He suspects it was a convenient way to evade his mother’s wrath. It’s a tool that’s served him well as one of professional wrestling’s most prolific actors. However, the emotions he shared with CM Punk before WrestleMania 41 were anything but crocodile tears.

“It meant everything,” Heyman told CBS Sports, reflecting on how it felt telling Punk he’d headline WrestleMania Night 1. “I couldn’t imagine anyone else telling him. This was our dream.

“When I left [WWE] in 2006, I said, ‘I’m out, you’re not. Don’t f— up. When you main event WrestleMania, make them bring me back and force them to deal with us.'”

In 2013, Heyman walked down a WrestleMania ramp for the first time after eight combined years with the promotion. That evening, Heyman accompanied the same person he walks to the ring on Saturday. It was the first taste of the promise Heyman and Punk made each other seven years earlier.

“The first match I ever managed — and I hate that word — at WrestleMania had CM Punk in it,” Heyman said. “When we walked through the curtain, I said, ‘That was a blast. We’ll do this again, but next time in the main event.’ 

“So I understand his desire for the first time he walks down the aisle at WrestleMania for a main event that we do it together because we’ve been talking about it since 2005 and praying for it and dreaming of it for each other.”

Heyman has staunchly supported Punk during his WWE tenure. Punk likely wouldn’t have survived WWE’s system if Heyman hadn’t fiercely advocated for him. Heyman saw in Punk what he once saw in the man who would eventually become “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Heyman was prepared to stake his job on it. That created an unwavering bond no matter where either man was in their tumultuous relationships with WWE.

“I was told to fire him,” Heyman said. “I refused to do it. I refused to do it because — like when I met Steve Austin in WCW, and I told everybody he would be the industry’s future — I told everyone, ‘CM Punk will headline WrestleMania. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer. This guy will go to the top of the industry and disrupt the status quo.’ They didn’t see it. 

“That’s not a credit to me for seeing it, it’s a discredit to everyone else for not. If you were in WCW in 1991, the only two people who saw Steve Austin for the future he was going to have were Jim Ross and Paul Heyman. That’s not credit to Jim Ross and Paul Heyman, it’s a discredit to everyone else in WCW who didn’t see it. It’s the same with CM Punk in OVW in 2005.”

WWE’s sanitized 2006 revival of Extreme Championship Wrestling was a mess. ECW mastermind Heyman is the first to disavow it. But the show’s critically panned remake might have been worth it for no reason other than allowing Heyman to bring Punk to the main roster.

“When we created the revamped ECW, which was an unmitigated disaster, the one thing about it that wasn’t an unmitigated disaster is that I got to draft some people,” Heyman said. “The first person I drafted from developmental was CM Punk. In the same way, when I was the lead writer for SmackDown in 2002, the first person I drafted from OVW was John Cena. I have a pretty good track record for picking the future of the business. 

“When I brought CM Punk up and Dusty [Rhodes] said, ‘Why this kid?’ I said, ‘He will main event WrestleMania, he will disrupt the status quo. Dusty said, ‘I see that too.’ So Dusty saw it. Just like Dusty saw it in Roman Reigns.”

Check out the full interview with Paul Heyman below.

Heyman left WWE in 2006 due to creative differences. Similarly, Punk’s seven-year retirement was spurred by his dissatisfaction with the company. One of his major disillusionments with WWE occurred one year before his exit. Punk should have been on track to headline WrestleMania 29, but dropped the WWE championship to part-time superstar The Rock earlier that year. Heyman was in his corner that evening. By retiring, Punk accepted that he’d never headline a WrestleMania card. More than a decade later, and nearly three decades into his career, that paradigm shifted.

“There are always plans made, there are always plans changed… That wasn’t what this was,” Heyman said of the moment WrestleMania 41’s Saturday main event was made official. “This was, ‘You are the main event of WrestleMania.’ To tell him that, after all he’d been through and all he’d put himself through, not making it to the main event and the psychoanalysis for both of us over the fact that he’d never reached that goal. 

“This was reality TV at its best. This was something real happening right in front of you. This was the official notification. ‘Hey, you’re in the main event of WrestleMania.’ I’m proud and privileged and blessed to have shared that moment with him.”