Paul Heyman recently appeared on Inside the Ropes where the executive director of Monday Night Raw recalls the moment that he became the advocate for the current Universal champion, Brock Lesnar. Heyman states that he was originally supposed to be partnered with Chris Benoit following WrestleMania, but after producing a matchup for Lesnar, Vince McMahon decided to pair the two up.

(Transcribed by WrestleZone)

I was scheduled to come back on the air in 2002 at WrestleMania with Chris Benoit. And that was set. And I went to Vince two weeks before WrestleMania and I said, ‘Hey, I’d like you to let me produce Brock Lesnar’s matches.’ [Vince says] ‘Go ahead. Let’s see what you can do with him.’ And I went to Brock and I said, ‘Okay pick an opponent.’ The first two opponents that he picked for that week were Funaki and Spike Dudley.

And I went back to Vince and said, ‘What do you think?’ And he goes, ‘Goddamn, this guy is money.’ And we did it the next week and we did it on the go-home week. So the night before WrestleMania, we’re sitting in the production meeting, going over the show and we get to the Benoit match and Vince mentions nothing about me and Benoit.

When the meeting’s over I look at him and I said, ‘Hey this thing with Benoit, it’s off?’ And he looks at me, he goes, ‘I think I’m gonna put you with Brock Lesnar. What do you think about that?’ I said to Vince, ‘You know, he’s the next big thing.’ And Vince looks at me and he goes, ‘God dammit, Paul. That nickname would suck!

Check out the full clip below, where Heyman also berates a fan for calling Benoit his “boy.”