Paul Heyman opens up on declining TNA offer after leaving WWE

It would be hard to imagine for many WWE fans to see Paul Heyman in another promotion but the WWE veteran almost joined TNA in 2010 after leaving WWE. However, he rejected the offer. Recently, the icon has opened up about the offer made by TNA and why he eventually refused to join the promotion despite not being involved in WWE at the time.
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WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman left WWE in 2010 but TNA had eyes on booking him for their promotion.Recently, speaking with Inside The Ropes, the veteran explained the real reason why he eventually declined TNA’s lucrative offer.
“I was long gone from WWE when I started talking to TNA. They had been trying to reach me from the time I left WWE,” Heyman said. However, he had no interest “in being back in the industry.” but after so many phone calls, and DMs on Twitter, he finally agreed to have a chat.
“My concept with TNA was the Dana White concept with UFC: give me the ball and let me run with it. If I fail, I fail, and if I don’t, I don’t. But you’re going to have to let me take a stab at this—not like New Jack stabs white people, but let me take a try at this. WWE had all these legends, all these Hall of Famers; they had an established product, they had a certain way,” Heyman explained adding that he was going to “take TNA in a completely different direction,” but sadly, “that direction meant getting rid of all the legends and making it a young guys’ promotion.”

He further revealed that he had wide plans for TNA, one of that plans was to was to bring in Daniel Bryan. At the time, WWE had fired Bryan, and Heyman saw the potential to build the brand around younger talents. Bryan was reportedly open to the idea as well. “They didn’t want to get rid of the old guys. They just didn’t. They said, ‘Sorry, we don’t want to do it,’” Heyman said. At the time they had Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Sting, Mick Foley, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, the Dudley Boys, Rob Van Dam, and Jeff Hardy.
“They just didn’t want to do it. They couldn’t grasp the concept that these legends would all leave them one by one at some point. They just figured, ‘No, but we have them, and why would we want to get rid of them?’ The public’s not buying your product, so let’s sell them a different product. They just wouldn’t do it, and I wasn’t willing to compromise what I believed was going to work,” Heyman added.
Paul Heyman admitted he didn’t want to return to the wrestling industry only to experience failure again. After his disappointment with WWE’s version of ECW, he felt that the legacy of the brand had been damaged. He believed he had compromised his own reputation by being part of that show, and the experience left him feeling like it was a nightmare he didn’t want to repeat. As of now, Heyman is absent from WWE but is expected to return soon as his client Roman Reigns has already made his return.
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