Vince McMahon Originally Hated 'The Next Big Thing' Moniker For Brock Lesnar

Before he was "The Next Big Thing," Brock Lesnar was just Paul Heyman's pet project. According to a new interview with "Tetragrammaton" and legendary music producer Rick Rubin, Heyman says that Lesnar almost didn't have his famous moniker.

"I think he's 'The Next Big Thing' and I think we are screwing this up," Heyman says he told Vince McMahon. McMahon heard Heyman's criticisms, and put him in charge of producing Lesnar. Heyman booked Lesnar against Funaki and Spike Dudley, saying he knew they'd make him "look like what he needed to look like." This went so well that McMahon told Heyman that plans for him to manage Chris Benoit were scrapped in favor of him managing Lesnar.  "And I just said, 'Bingo, ok, money!'" Heyman exclaimed, though despite McMahon's belief in the new talent, Heyman says that he hated the "Next Big Thing" moniker.

 "'That's terrible,'" Heyman said in a McMahon impression. "'Why would you call him that?'" McMahon said people were "gonna vomit all over" the new name. Luckily for Heyman and Lesnar, there were "Next Big Thing" signs in the crowd the next week. "It had caught on," Heyman explained, "and people in production meetings were saying 'next big thing, next big thing, Brock Lesnar's the next big thing.' JR's written on his notes 'Brock Lesnar's the next big thing,' and Vince started to realize 'maybe this is catchier than I thought it was.'" McMahon gave Heyman one more opportunity to get the name over, and the rest is history.