Paul Heyman has offered a fascinating insight into his relationship with Vince McMahon, revealing that he does not believe the former WWE Chairman ever considered himself a good person.

During an appearance on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Heyman reflected on McMahon's personality, his relentless approach to business, their difficult working relationship and how WWE's creative environment has changed under Paul "Triple H" Levesque.

When asked how he views McMahon today, Heyman described him as a complicated individual whose achievements cannot be ignored.

“As a supremely complicated human being of great accomplishment,” Heyman said.

However, when Bensinger asked whether he considered McMahon a good man, Heyman gave a particularly revealing response.

“No, I don’t think Vince ever considered himself a good man. I don’t think he cared about it. I don’t think that was part of his self-judgment. I don’t think he felt he was placed on this planet to be a good man.”

“Do I think he’s a man of great accomplishment? Yes,” Heyman continued.

Heyman, who worked closely with McMahon across several periods of his WWE career, explained that one of the biggest challenges was attempting to match his extraordinary work ethic.

According to Heyman, McMahon's dedication to WWE came at the expense of almost everything else, with the former Chairman expecting those around him to demonstrate a similar commitment.

“He expects you to keep up with his work ethic and that’s impossible,” Heyman said. “24/7, 365. He didn’t take holidays. He did what everybody in his business will talk about. He missed weddings. He missed funerals. He missed ball games.”

“Never have I met anyone that works as hard as Vince McMahon,” he added. “It’s the exploitation of your gifts and your knowledge and your ability and your talent that drives him and makes him as successful as he had become. And at the same time, he’s riding that vehicle until the wheels fall off. You’re the vehicle and it’s your wheels that are falling off.”

Interestingly, when asked what he considered the best aspect of working alongside McMahon, Heyman gave exactly the same answer.

“Everything I just said.”

The conversation also explored McMahon's upbringing and how his childhood experiences may have influenced the businessman he eventually became.

Heyman recalled previously suggesting that it would take Sigmund Freud himself to fully understand McMahon's mind, a statement he continues to stand by.

He pointed towards McMahon's difficult early years, including growing up believing his surname was Lupton until the age of 12, experiencing allegedly abusive stepfathers, struggling with dyslexia and eventually fighting to establish himself within his father's wrestling business.

“So he created his own universe in which no one could ever hurt him,” Heyman explained.

He described McMahon's rise to success as “a ruthless pursuit of becoming teflon, of becoming invincible and invulnerable.”

Despite recognising McMahon's accomplishments, Heyman was equally open about some of their most difficult professional moments.

One particularly painful period came in 2006, when WWE attempted to revive Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third television brand.

Heyman, who had originally built ECW into a cult favourite during the 1990s, was initially told he would have creative control over the relaunched promotion.

However, he claims that promise quickly disappeared as McMahon began taking control of the direction of the product.

“When he relaunched ECW, told me he was putting me in charge of it and 30 seconds later started stripping me of any authority that I had in controlling or contouring or tailoring or creating the product,” Heyman recalled.

“He got off changing ECW on me, and it became just such a personal battle that was one, terrible for the product, terrible for the company, even worse for the audience,” he continued. “That was the most miserable six months.”

The disagreements ultimately contributed to Heyman's departure from WWE in December 2006. He would eventually return to the company in 2012, beginning another successful chapter of his career.

Asked whether he could ever see himself reconnecting with McMahon, Heyman suggested that neither man is particularly concerned about rebuilding their relationship.

“Right now we’re on different paths in life. So do I think we reconnect? I don’t know. I don’t think about it and I can very much guarantee you neither does he.”

McMahon resigned from his position at TKO in January 2024 following a lawsuit filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant, which included allegations of sexual assault and trafficking. McMahon has denied the allegations.

Heyman also discussed the significant differences between working under McMahon and WWE's current Chief Content Officer, Paul Levesque.

While McMahon was known for maintaining final control over virtually every creative decision, Heyman believes Levesque has established a much more collaborative atmosphere.

“Vince was a dictator,” Heyman said. “It was his money and therefore it’s his show.”

He explained that presenting creative ideas to McMahon often involved trying to persuade him to abandon his own vision in favour of somebody else's.

Heyman described that process as “the constant chase for Vince to buy into your ideas over his own.”

However, he believes the approach has changed considerably under Levesque, who is more willing to develop ideas alongside other members of the creative team.

“That’s not the way it works today,” Heyman said. “Paul Levesque is not a dictator. He’s a collaborator. See, Vince loves a blank piece of paper. Paul Levesque doesn’t like the blank piece of paper. He accepts the fact that the paper has writing on it already. He’s the best editor I’ve ever worked with in my entire life. Ever.”

Heyman's comments offer a rare perspective on two very different eras of WWE leadership, coming from somebody who has experienced both approaches firsthand.

Although he clearly recognises McMahon's influence on the wrestling industry, his remarks also highlight the personal and professional difficulties that came with working under one of wrestling's most powerful figures.