5 WWE Superstars who could be the next Paul Heyman Guy

Brock Lesnar is expected to leave WWE once his contract with the company runs out in 2018, with a return to UFC potentially on the cards.

The Universal champion signed a three-year deal with WWE in March 2015, meaning his final appearance was set for WrestleMania 34, but UFC president Dana White claimed recently that his contract runs until August 2018.

Either way, whether “The Beast Incarnate” departs after WrestleMania, SummerSlam or anytime in between, it’s safe to say he won’t be around in WWE for much longer, which raises questions about the future of Paul Heyman.

The former ECW owner is one of the best managers – or advocates, as he would say – we’ve ever seen in the wrestling business and WWE will surely want him to stick around even after Lesnar has departed.

With that in mind, we take a look at five current WWE Superstars who are contenders to be Paul Heyman Guys when the reigning, defending, undisputed Universal champion bids farewell to the squared circle.

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#5 The Revival

Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson are former NXT Tag Team champions

Very few Superstars have been as unfortunate with injuries as The Revival in 2017. Dash Wilder suffered a broken jaw just a few weeks after his main-roster debut in April, ruling the tag team out for two months, and then they were sidelined for a further four months when Scott Dawson needed surgery on his torn bicep.

Thankfully, five months on their last televised appearance together, the “No Flips, Just Fists” duo were finally back on our screens when they made their long-awaited return on the 18 December episode of Raw to defeat Heath Slater & Rhyno.

As we outlined when we looked at five fantasy factions that WWE should seriously consider, Paul Heyman is someone who should only be aligned with the very best of the best and, in The Revival, he’d be representing one of the best tag teams on the planet.

WWE fans might not see what the fuss is all about yet with the duo, but it won’t take long before the former NXT Tag Team champions show exactly why they’re the best team we’ve seen come through the developmental ranks since the Wyatt Family.

#4 Shinsuke Nakamura

Shinsuke Nakamura hasn't had a good year on the main roster

There’s no getting away from it: Shinsuke Nakamura’s booking on the main roster has been dreadful. From his matches with Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin to his WWE title feud with Jinder Mahal, his main-roster run since April hasn’t lived up to expectations.

His matches haven’t been terrible – saying that, they were better in NXT – but the storylines surrounding his feuds and the opponents he’s faced have been so underwhelming compared to what we saw from him before he was called up to SmackDown Live.

The fact that he speaks limited English obviously hasn’t helped him from a promo perspective and it’s reached a point where he’ll now say one or two words at the end of an interview instead of talking for a prolonged length of time.

While other names on this list wouldn’t necessarily need Paul Heyman as their permanent mouthpiece, Nakamura would. Heyman, one of the greatest of all time on the mic, could talk the talk outside the ring while “The King of Strong Style” walks the walk inside of it.

#3 Cesaro

Cesaro has been a Paul Heyman Guy before

When Cesaro was revealed to be a Paul Heyman Guy the night after WrestleMania XXX, it was a huge moment in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner’s career and it looked to be a sign of bigger and better things to come.

However, as Heyman has since admitted in media interviews, being paired with “The Swiss Cyborg” so shortly after Brock Lesnar had ended The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania was never going to work out.

While Cesaro would stand in the ring waiting for his opponents, Heyman would laud his in-ring ability and talk him up as WWE’s new “King of Swing” – but only after he had spoken about his number one client, Lesnar, first.

In those circumstances, the Cesaro-Heyman alliance was doomed to fail from the very start, but if WWE ever wants to push the three-time Raw Tag Team champion as a singles wrestler again in the future, it might not be such a bad move to try out the partnership again.

#2 Braun Strowman

Braun Strowman is WWE's 'Next Big Thing'

Braun Strowman has been WWE’s biggest breakout star of the last 12 months, picking up ‘statement victories’ over Roman Reigns and Big Show while being one of just two survivors left on Team Raw at Survivor Series.

“The Monster Among Men” has shown since his main-roster debut in August 2015, and especially in 2017, that he is the future of WWE and will feature in major storylines and main events for months and years to come.

Does he need an advocate? No. Would it still be great to see? Absolutely. Brock Lesnar has never needed an advocate, but part of the reason fans see him as such a huge box-office attraction is due to Paul Heyman’s pre-match promotions.

Strowman is the next huge star on the rise in WWE – not too dissimilar to Lesnar in 2002 – and his reputation would only be enhanced if he had Heyman promoting his pay-per-view matches in a way that only he can.

#1 Kevin Owens

Kevin Owens and Paul Heyman - the perfect combination?

Finally, with honourable mentions going to Finn Balor and Samoa Joe, who Paul Heyman has talked up so convincingly in the past that you’d have been forgiven for thinking he’s already their advocate, number one in our list has to go to Kevin Owens.

The SmackDown Live Superstar is one of the best talkers in all of WWE right now and if there’s one person who doesn’t need somebody to do all of his talking for him, it’s the former Universal champion.

That being said, remember when CM Punk was a dastardly heel in 2012-13 and he aligned with Paul Heyman? Punk was the best promo guy WWE had at the time, yet his pairing with Heyman was an inspired move and the two of them delivered great promos week after week during their time together.

Owens doesn’t exactly need a manager/advocate but, like with Punk, wouldn’t it be great to see an extra layer of smugness added to the heel KO character? He’s already one of WWE’s best bad guys and aligning with Heyman would take him to the next level.