Paul Heyman & Stephanie McMahon Detail How Vince McMahon Pitted Them Against Each Other In WWE

Vince McMahon was telling Heyman and Stephanie to assert themselves over the other.

The newest episode of What’s Your Story? with Stephanie McMahon was rolled out, and it featured a sit-down chat with Paul Heyman.

The conversation shifted over to Heyman and McMahon opening up about how they were pitted against each other in WWE when Heyman became more involved behind the scenes, and Stephanie was leading the creative team. Despite their back-and-forths, Stephanie was interested in how Heyman was able to get the ECW crew to work as hard as they did and remain as loyal as they were despite the payment issues.

Heyman: “But we were pitted against each other.”

McMahon: “Who!? You and me?”

Heyman: “Oh, of course.”

McMahon: “Oh, of course we were.”

Heyman: “Of course we were. We were absolutely pitted against each other.”

McMahon: “Why didn’t I see it?”

Heyman: “First of all, I had just spent seven and a half years of my life being God of my own universe… Whatever I decided was it. But that was it. I was the end-all, be-all. I was, from 1993 to 2001, the Vincent Kennedy McMahon of my own company. I was the only word that truly mattered. Every decision ran through me, and if I delegated it, that decision had to be approved by me, changed by me, contoured by me. But ultimately, it ran through me.”

McMahon: “Even pay.”

Heyman: “Everything… I had the reputation of having the hardest-working crew in the business. Even more than the multi-millionaires that were working here, and Steph would always ask me, ‘How did you get people to work so hard for you, and be so loyal to you, when they weren’t getting paid?’ That always fascinated Steph.”

McMahon: “Not only that they weren’t getting paid, and this I mean with total respect — the way I’m gonna say it — but, you were hustling, right? You were trying to pay them. So you were saying, ‘You’re gonna get paid,’ and then they didn’t get paid but, ‘You’re gonna get paid again next week’ and then you were shuffling…”

Heyman and Stephanie circled back to the conversation. They shared that it was former WWE Chairman and Stephanie’s father, Vince McMahon, who pitted them against one another.

Heyman said when he became more involved behind the scenes, Vince told him that Stephanie was heading up the writing team and wanted Heyman to be the disruptor. He said he wanted Heyman to ‘take her out of her game’ and that there is no nepotism involved in the situation.

On the other end of the spectrum, Vince was telling Stephanie that she needed to manage Heyman, and he was out of control. Stephanie and Heyman eventually figured out what Vince had been doing.

McMahon: “So, I wanted to be with you so badly and then it would get shut down, and then I’m like, but why doesn’t it work? I don’t get it.”

Heyman: “So, when I came aboard, I was told, ‘My daughter runs the writing team. Take her out of her game. I want you to be the disruptor in the room. I want you to be the contrarian opinion. Do not make that easy. There’s no nepotism here. She earns that right to manage you, or she doesn’t get to do it.’ At the same time, so I’m walking in to be the disruptor, I’m walking in to be the bowl in the china shop, I’m walking in to just say, here’s the f*cking answers, she’s told, ‘God goddamnit Stephanie! You gotta manage that Heyman guy! He’s out of control. He thinks this is his company, and it’s not!”

McMahon: “This is true.”

Heyman: “‘Rein him in. If you wanna be respected — if Stephanie Marie McMahon — if you want people to respect you as an executive, and as a professional, and as a manager of people, you can’t let Heyman take you out of your game. You have to show that you can manage someone like him.’”

McMahon: “This is true. This is all true.”

Heyman: “Completely pitted against each other.”

McMahon: “I know, but it’s fascinating in hindsight, right? And we figured it out anyway.”

Heyman: “One day, in one of those count sessions… I just sat there and went –”

McMahon: “‘So you’re f*cking with me at 3 o’clock in the morning?’ I guess I was a little upset so I lash out at you.”

Heyman: “Oh, blasted me. ‘What the f*ck is wrong with you? Who told you to make my life so f*cking difficult!?’ ‘Your father!’ ‘Oh.’ ‘He told me to rein you in.’ ‘Oh really?’ It was an interesting lesson for both of us.”

In 2024, Paul Heyman headlined the WWE Hall of Fame class, and in 2026, Stephanie McMahon will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. The news was broken to her via a surprise announcement from The Undertaker at the Wrestlepalooza Premium Live Event.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit What’s Your Story? with Stephanie McMahon with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.