Paul Heyman Reveals He Performed May Raw Segment With Catheter and PICC Line While Battling Serious Infection

Paul Heyman has opened up about one of the more remarkable behind-the-scenes stories of the past year, disclosing that his memorable confrontation with Jey Uso on the May 5 episode of WWE Raw was performed while he was in the middle of a serious medical crisis — complete with a catheter and a PICC line.

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Heyman explained that the post-WrestleMania period regularly takes a physical toll on him, but that this time around things escalated well beyond a typical sinus infection. After WrestleMania 41, he developed kidney stones, and the passage of those stones cut his urinary tract, leaving it vulnerable to infection. That infection spread to his prostate and continued to worsen, eventually landing him in White Plains Hospital.

“They’re looking at me saying, ‘You have a very serious infection,'” Heyman recounted. “They’re bringing in people from infectious diseases, because I’m allergic to penicillin, number one, and number two, any antibiotics that they’re giving me, none of them are working. Infection is getting worse. My temperature is rising, and the effects of the infection are taking hold, but I won’t miss work.”

Rather than stay put, Heyman checked himself out Monday morning, chartered a private jet to Raw, filmed the segment — which has since become a widely circulated meme due to his impassioned delivery — then flew back to White Plains and checked himself back into the hospital. He repeated that routine for several weeks, all without telling anyone at WWE. Throughout that stretch, he was performing with both a catheter and a PICC line in place.

The segment itself saw Heyman deliver a blistering promo to Jey Uso, defending himself against accusations of betraying Roman Reigns while also laying out a World Heavyweight Championship challenge on behalf of Seth Rollins. Heyman noted that the raw emotion audiences saw on screen was entirely genuine — the physical and emotional weight of everything he was carrying made the performance feel as real as it looked.

“Next to trying to book the rebirth of ECW in 2006, perhaps the most miserable experience of my life,” he said. “But there was work to be done, and I wasn’t going to miss work, especially because we had just launched The Vision, and to miss television then would be abdicating my responsibility to that story.”

It’s a striking account of dedication from one of wrestling’s most celebrated talkers — and context that reframes a moment many fans had already considered one of the highlights of Raw’s early 2025 run.