Mr. Kennedy shared insights into Paul Heyman’s significant impact on his career during an interview with Rewind Recap Relive.
Heyman played a crucial role in helping Kennedy select his WWE ring name after Vince McMahon requested a change. They collaborated for an hour before deciding on “Kennedy,” solidifying Heyman’s influence in his early career.
Kennedy also discussed his transition to TNA Wrestling, where Eric Bischoff offered a more flexible creative approach compared to WWE’s rigid scripting.
Unlike WWE’s verbatim scripts, TNA provided Kennedy with bullet points and broad outlines for his promos. During this period, Kennedy frequently sought Heyman’s guidance.
Heyman often rewrote or refined Kennedy’s material, effectively serving as an unofficial writer for TNA and helping Kennedy navigate his storylines and promos.
Here’s what the former Money In The Bank winner said:
“I am a Paul Heyman guy for sure, through and through, after that. Yeah, that’s insane. Definitely believed in me, and then, you know, like he continued to sort of help me out. He helped me come up with the Kennedy name because Vince told me he wanted me to change my name. So we kind of brainstormed for about an hour and came up with Kennedy.
And then when I left WWE, I remember going to TNA, and Eric Bischoff was like, ‘Look, I know that you were sort of frustrated with the way you were managed at WWE.’ And he’s like, ‘Everything is scripted at the time, you know, like verbatim. If you missed a word, Vince was standing there going, ‘Why’d you miss this?’
And so Eric was like, ‘Look, we’re going to write something for you. It’s just bullet points. It’s just a broad overview of where we need you to go.’ And so I would oftentimes call Paul Heyman and say, ‘Hey, here’s what they have for me. Can you help me make sense of this?’
And he would fire me off an email and rewrite what they had written for me. So he, in a sense, was writing for TNA at one time.”
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