Paul Heyman opens up about emotional WWE WrestleMania 42 moment with Brock Lesnar, suggests Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes 3 in Saudi Arabia & more

The Wiseman reveals what Brock Lesnar said to him at WrestleMania.

‘The Wiseman’ Paul Heyman recently made an appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet and spoke about the emotional moment he shared with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 42.

Lesnar briefly retired at Mania after his loss to Oba Femi, before returning last month to set up a rematch with Femi at Clash in Italy, where Lesnar secured the win. The two are likely on course for a rubber match, potentially at SummerSlam.

“I thanked him for everything, he thanked me for everything. I told him that I love him. He told me that he loves me. Then I asked him if he finds it funny that the two of us are standing in the middle of the ring, in the middle of the stadium, in the middle of WrestleMania, being broadcast all over ESPN, telling each other that we love each other.

I said, ‘This is kind of a surreal moment.’ He goes, ‘F*ck them! Don’t worry about that, this is just for us.’ Okay, my beast. Happy to happen, happy to participate in the moment. It was just a very personal moment that we were not hesitant to share with the rest of the world. It was a very emotional moment.”

Paul Heyman suggests Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes 3 in Saudi Arabia

During the discussion, Heyman also discussed his current duties in WWE beyond his on-screen role, revealing that he is currently focused on planning WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia.

“You asked me before, what I do behind the scenes in WWE? I do not go into the weekly television meetings. I don’t get into that level of micro anymore. I stay very macro. I attend the long-term meetings, the long-term creative meetings. I take the ride up to Stanford. I sit in on those meetings and love those days. My latest obsession has been, ‘Let’s book out SaudiMania. Let’s get that done.’”

Heyman also elaborated on his interest in bringing WrestleMania 43 to Saudi Arabia, pointing to the Champion vs Champion matches traditionally featured at Crown Jewel PLE for the namesake title.

“Oh, I’m looking at the year after Saudi. If it was up to me — and it’s not — Let’s start there. We’ll change it every week if we have to. We’ll change it every time we meet but let’s get something that we’re building towards. Let’s write the last page now, and then let’s build towards it.

I would love to know what we’re doing the year after Saudi at WrestleMania. I’d love to have a concept for that. Who is Roman Reigns’ opponent then? Who’s CM Punk’s opponent then? Who’s Logan Paul’s opponent then? Who’s Bron Breakker’s opponent then? Who’s Seth Rollins’ opponent? Jade Cargill, Becky Lynch, Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley. What are we building towards?“

He suggested that if Roman Reigns remains the World Heavyweight Champion and Cody Rhodes is still the Undisputed WWE Champion, a third showdown between the two could take place in Saudi Arabia.

“Because if we know that and we have a concept for that, then it makes SaudiMania really easy. It’s not about, oh, you know what I would do this Monday? Okay. But how does that affect next Monday? How does that affect what I want to do in January? How does that affect the Royal Rumble? How does that affect SaudiMania? How does that affect what I want to do the year after? Here’s an example: Okay, right now we have lined up for Crown Jewel, the trilogy.

The champion on Raw is Roman Reigns. The champion on SmackDown is Cody Rhodes. It’s 1-1. If they both retain the titles all the way to Crown Jewel, we get the trilogy at Crown Jewel. What an enormous main event. What a prestigious main event. What a historic main event for Crown Jewel. You want to sell Crown Jewel, you want that to be one of the biggest PLEs of the year, you want that to be a hot ticket both in terms of selling tickets and on the secondary market? Put the trilogy match there.”

Rhodes is currently set to defend the Undisputed WWE title in a triple threat match against Gunther and Sami Zayn at the 2026 edition of Night of Champions, which is set for June 27 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Heyman also spoke on Roman Reigns’ heel turn and the ‘Tribal Chief’ moniker, revealing the then-CEO Vince McMahon was not a fan of it and wanted to keep the ‘The Big Dog’ moniker.

“Well, you know, it’s just the little things that go into it. The first time I came up with Tribal Chief, [Vince said] ‘Really? You want to call him the Tribal Chief?’”

When asked what McMahon wanted to call Reigns, Heyman replied, “Oh, The Big Dog, Roman Reigns, with his advocate, Paul Heyman. I said, ‘Well, I can’t be his advocate as Brock Lesnar’s advocate. We have to have something different to Roman Reigns, and Roman Reigns has to be different.

“You’ve got to pull the trigger on this. This has to be as much of a seismic shift as The Deadman becoming The American. This is a whole new character. This is a whole new persona, and he could not have played this persona earlier, because he was too young to do it.

He needed to weather the storms to become the Tribal Chief. We grew up with him, almost like he was a child star, in that we saw him from his young days, fresh out of college, and he grew into this Tribal Chief.” Heyman added.

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