Paul Heyman reveals how Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar stunners came together for WWE SummerSlam

Yahoo

15 hours ago

Seth Rollins' infamous knee injury was a storyline all along, Paul Heyman confirmed Wednesday to Uncrowned.
During an in-studio appearance on "The Ariel Helwani Show,' the WWE Hall of Famer and current on-screen manager of Rollins lifted the lid on the much-discussed angle, which led to one of the major twists at this past weekend's WWE SummerSlam event.
The WWE audience had originally been led to believe Rollins suffered a legitimate knee injury during his match with LA Knight back at Saturday Night's Main Event on July 12 — a development that led to Knight picking up a seemingly unexpected victory.
However, Heyman said Wednesday that Rollins was never hurt at all. He noted that the entire thing had been set up for storyline purposes — part of what he referred to as a 'power grab' executed by Rollins in order to get his hands on the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
'We had a situation where every time Seth Rollins was getting himself in a position where he could go for the championship, CM Punk kept interfering,' said Heyman, providing the in-character justification for the angle. 'At that point, he needs a Plan B to get the title.
'So Plan B was to get the Money in the Bank briefcase and get out of the way. Out of sight, out of mind. That way, Punk never sees it coming. And it just so happened that CM Punk ended up in the title match at SummerSlam, which was a happy coincidence on our part.'
Heyman also discussed the shock return of Brock Lesnar, who returned to WWE programming this past Sunday — following a two-year absence — to launch an attack on John Cena at the end of SummerSlam.
When asked how long the comeback had been in the works for, Heyman said he found out about it two weeks before the event — though conceded that he only heard about the return after the terms had been agreed between Lesnar and the WWE. 'I was tagged in to it after the deal was done,' he said.
Asked about some of the criticism around Lesnar's return — particularly from those who point out that Lesnar is named in the ongoing sex trafficking lawsuit filed against Vince McMahon by former WWE employee Janel Grant — Heyman defended the WWE's decision to bring back its former Universal Champion.
'If you were in MetLife Stadium on Sunday, you would understand how much that return meant to our audience," Heyman said. "They were shocked to see Brock Lesnar come out and see him F-5 John Cena. No one was saying, 'Oh God, they brought back Brock.' People were going nuts to see him. That's our paying audience and they're happy to see him.
'Very few people ever make it to the top in life without either making mistakes or having skeletons in their closet. Obviously, the decision was made that it's time to bring back Brock Lesnar. If there are critics of it, they should get over it. He's here and he's going to be here, and they ain't going to be able to cancel him.'
Heyman argued that Lesnar, a former heavyweight UFC champion, became even more important following the WWE's merger — in September 2023 — with the UFC as part of the TKO group.
'Who do you have who has walked that path in both WWE and UFC at such a high level? There's only two people that's ever been a champion in UFC and in WWE and meant something, and that's Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey," Heyman said. "Now I love Ronda to death, but Brock did it longer than Ronda over multiple decades, and look at what he's meant to WWE too.'
As someone with input into creative decisions within WWE, Heyman also defended the controversial John Cena heel turn, which came to an end at this past weekend's SummerSlam. The storyline had attracted some criticism for being unconvincing and for the disappearance of The Rock, who had previously been a pivotal figure in the storyline.
'I thought [Cena] delivered," Heyman said. "I thought he took it as far as he could possibly take it. He even took it places I didn't think he was going to. And he put his heart and soul and his passion into it.'
As for the absence of The Rock, Heyman replied that, 'I don't know what happened with Dwayne. That's something you should have him come and answer for himself.'