Paul Heyman: The Bloodline is wrestling's greatest storyline

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Originally published at Paul Heyman: The Bloodline is wrestling's greatest storyline

What’s the best professional wrestling storyline of all time? If you ask the “Wise Man,” he’d say we’re currently living through it.

Paul Heyman recently made the case for The Bloodline being wrestling’s greatest storyline of all time, mentioning how the group’s longevity, drawing power and significance play into why it has been such a successful run.

Heyman outlined his argument during an interview with Shakiel Mahjouri of CBS Sports.

“The money-drawing years of The Horsemen weren’t this long, the money-drawing years of the NWO wasn’t the long, the money-drawing years of Austin vs. McMahon wasn’t this long,” Heyman said, comparing The Bloodline to past eras in wrestling. “Hogan vs. Savage, Hogan vs. Piper, which put Wrestlemania 1 on the map. So, just in terms of overall storytelling and constant web and flow of affecting other people’s environment on the roster and how they tell their stories, I suggest it’s the most significant. It’s the biggest money-drawing, it has the most longevity, it has held the most interest, and overall it has done so by being the most intriguing and compelling because at every turn you see the characters not just turn towards what the story calls for, but the long-term effects of the development of these characters and the evolution of these characters is never lost on us. So if something happens that changes Roman Reigns in 2022, we don’t disavow knowledge of it in 2024. It plays into what’s happening in 2024. Because of that, and because we keep it consistent, I would have to rank it #1. All false humility aside.”

The false humility comment is, of course, a nod to his both backstage and on-screen involvement in the story. Heyman made a return to his role as a figure in the story just last week, unveiling CM Punk as the fifth member of Roman Reigns’ Survivor Series WarGames team.

Heyman doesn’t shy away from the fact that he is deeply involved in WWE’s creative process. He mentioned earlier in the interview that it’s “no secret” he currently offers a fair amount of insight for WWE’s current product.

“There are so few veterans that are available, at their disposal, right there during the show, for instant feedback for that last moment before they go through the curtains of observation of what could make the segment better,” he said.”I’ve survived in this industry long enough that now I’m the old guy. So, I’m the old guy that they come to.”

The full interview with Heyman can be read here.

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I can’t say I disagree, from Aug 2020 to present date, this story is the best long term storyline I’ve ever seen.

Of course like any long term storyline there have been misses, but overall I think I agree.

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What do you even compare it to, in terms of time and importance to the company? The nWo?

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Austin vs McMahon? It’s hard because Vince didn’t typically do long term story telling.

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On a global scale, this isn’t as big as a lot of things. Lots of people bought Austin 316 shirts and NWO shirts – you don’t see randoms on the street wearing OTC shirts. The average person has no idea what the hell a bloodline is.

That being said, it’s the biggest story in years. But you can’t compare it to the NWO where literally there were people who’ve never watched wrestling who know what that shirt is and the Austin McMahon stuff.

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Greatest is subjective. You’re right that the Bloodline storyline hasn’t had the same level of cultural impact as the NWO or Austin vs McMahon. Although in 2024 I don’t know if anything can have that kind of mass impact anymore.

But looking back those storylines had legs for 2-to-3 years.

Whereas the Bloodline story has kept up a very high quality and level of interest into its fourth year running. It is an incredible achievement by everyone involved.

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I do agree with you, but its also hard to appreciate something as much in the moment. I feel most of us here are in our 30’s or 40’s, and I think in 20 years when you ask fans who are now 10-20 years old, they may speak of this time period the way we speak about Austin-McMahon, NWO etc.

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100% agreed. One storyline turned around an entire company. In fact, you could say that turned around two companies with each going different ways. Look at the main event stars it made along the way. Sami, Jey Uso, Solo and I can see Jacob and Reed joining that list. Every Bloodline segment saw a ratings spike in quarter hours. The YouTube views. The merch sales. The sold out arenas. Survivor Series Vancouver is essentially going to sold out breaking another gate record along along the way with just one match. No part timers. Cody isn’t even booked on the show. And the fact that the story still has life to easily take it another year. Beautiful. Best ever. No doubt.

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For the record, you are now stating that the bloodline is a bigger story and more culturally significant than the NWO annd Austin versus McMahon?

One of those storylines single-handedly turned a Monday night war to 83 weeks of domination and the other saved a company and brought it back. What did this do? Take WW that was already on top and make them even better? Like yes, it made the company hotter, but they were already the number one company and not really in a serious war.

I think you seriously underestimate how many non-wrestling fans were aware of the WO and the Austin angles. I had lots of friends who had never watched wrestling who bought those shirts and who at least knew some of the characters and stuff. It was mainstream. People knew who the rock was.

Nobody knows who the bloodline is unless you’re wrestling Fan. Yes it’s big within the wrestling universe and the biggest in years, but it’s not like one of those where it transcended wrestling.

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I am a huge wrestling fan and I couldnt care less about the bloodline story because roman reigns in my opinion is as boring as it can get. NWO made me switch from WWE to WCW and Austin vs. McMahon made me switch back. In my opinion those stories were better by a mile.

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Austin/McMahon from 1998-01 probably rates better, though there was a significant time in there where Austin was gone and that angle wasn’t carrying the show.

Would need a definition of “the nWo storyline”… because from May 1996 to the non-fast count at Starrcade 1997, it was generally better. but there was still a lot of bad stuff during that period. And the years after it were almost all garbage.

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Can I ask you, have you actually been watching? I find a lot of the people who are most vocal about the bloodline are people who don’t actually watch and are judging Roman based on his Vince booked face run between 2014-2020 (pre Covid).

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Yes, I think we would strictly be talking about the beginning of each of those storylines.

Again, the beginning of those were just so much bigger in the grand scheme things. It forced people to switch watching one company to another, almost put companies out of business and brought so much Mainstream attention and non-wrestling fans into the product. Right now it’s like the bloodline is big to wrestling fans, but nobody else.

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In fairness Alex, look at WWE/AEW pre bloodline and post. When the angle started in 2020, AEW was on WWE’s ass. Yes they didn’t surpass WWE in the ratings, but most fans on here were under the impression that it was only a matter of time that AEW was going to become #1. As soon as that angle got going, things completely turned around for WWE. Now you can also argue Vince’s ousting and the Cody signing were major reasons as well, but you can’t dismiss the strength of the angle.

With that said, I do agree that Austin-McMahon has more cultural significance. Though from a quality of content perspective, that angle had a lot
of dumb shit that people forget in hindsight.

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Agreed. And to be fair, we don’t know how The Bloodline storyline will end either. Much like the first 18 months of the nWo, you can’t change how good it’s been thus far, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be some bad stuff down the line.

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If you take the business aspect out of it would anyone agree that it’s wrestling’s greatest storyline? It’s not fair for me to say as I only follow through POST and I see the occasional segment.

I feel like if you dissected the three storylines here, between Austin/McMahon, Bloodline and nWo, the Bloodline is probably the most coherent just grading the storytelling itself. nWo is ultimately hard for me to even look back fondly on because it was bad for longer than it was any good. Also for me it’s hard to top Bret Hart’s 1996-1997 descent into misery as wrestling’s best story.

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If you throw out the business aspect, but still limit yourself to storylines that carried a company, I’m going with Austin/McMahon or Hart Foundation ‘97.

Honorable mention to Hogan/Savage from WM4 to WM5. But the era before the Monday Night War belongs in a different category. Business model was too different, much easier to make a storyline last a year or longer when there was exponentially less TV and the focus was on house shows.

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Yeah not buying it. Bloodline is the greatest storyline ever in pro wrestling. What happened to WCW post NWO? What happened to WWE post Attitude Era? The companies saw a significant downturn in fan interest. The bloodline is going on 4 years and it’s still going strong and going up. It could end tomorrow and 2025 will still be bigger than 2024. Austin vs McMahon was car crash TV. This is intricate storytelling. Cinema. The Sami face turn at Rumble '23. Jey pinning Roman in London. Cody finishing his story. And even if you forget all that. This fucking storyline got Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso to the main event of WrestleMania. By far and away the greatest storyline. Not even close.

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