Paul Heyman has revealed he turned down a WWE Hall of Fame induction four times before finally accepting to headline the class of 2024.
The creator of ECW and man widely regarded as one of, if not the best on-screen manager in wrestling history, took his rightful place in the wrestling immortality during WrestleMania 40 weekend.
So why did he turn down the honour four times before accepting? Heyman, the current leader of The Vision, explained to Stephanie McMahon on her podcast that there was four reasons why the time was now right.
“I just thought ‘I will never do it while active,’ and my kids always wanted me to accept it because they were afraid they were gonna have to accept it for me after I’d died,” he admitted, before explaining why he eventually agreed to it.
“Number one: it was WrestleMania 40; pretty momentous.
“Number two: I was the first person asked by Paul Levesque, with him being in the complete control of the Hall of Fame and, to me, that was a lifetime honor.
“Number three: he asked me to headline it; which was also his first Hall of Fame that he’s running, and I’m asked to headline? What an honor.
“And number four: we were coming out of a very chaotic time corporately.”
Heyman was joined by Thunderbolt Patterson, Bull Nakana and Lia Maivia in his class as well as the U.S. Express.
The New York-native, now 60, has had the golden touch in the industry for decades going all the way back to noticing a young Steve Austin’s talent in WCW and recognising the potential of Mark Callaway, later known as The Undertaker.
In WWE, he is most known for managing Brock Lesnar from rookie to top draw in the business, standing by the side of CM Punk during his record-breaking WWE title reign and serving Roman Reigns during his title reign that broke Punk’s record!
