Paul Heyman (born September
11, 1965) is an American
entertainment producer, best-known for his career in professional wrestling as a promoter, manager, and commentator. He is also an occasional
actor in film.
Heyman is famous as the creative force behind
Extreme Championship
Wrestling's rise to prominence in the 1990s. He has also worked
in
World Championship
Wrestling, the
American Wrestling
Association and
World
Wrestling Entertainment, including WWE's
ECW brand where he was recognized as the
ECW
Representative.
Heyman was named in a list of Top 100 Marketers by
Advertising Age magazine.
Professional wrestling
Early career
Paul Heyman began as a
photographer and
writer for third-party wrestling publications such as
Pro Wrestling
Illustrated.
Heyman made his managerial debut on January 2, 1987, initially
appearing on the Northeast
independent circuit before moving to a
more high-profile stint with
Florida Championship
Wrestling in February, 1987. There he joined forces with
Kevin Sullivan and
Oliver Humperdink and first became
known as "Paul E. Dangerously" because of his resemblance to
Michael Keaton in the movie
Johnny Dangerously.
From
there, he traveled to Memphis
and the Continental Wrestling
Association to manage Tommy Rich and
Austin Idol in a heated feud with
Jerry Lawler, a war which later carried
over to the American
Wrestling Association (AWA), with the Original Midnight
Express (Dennis Condrey and
Randy Rose) taking over for Idol and the
face-turned
Rich.
The Paul E.
Dangerously gimmick was basically
an extension of Heyman's own personality: a brash New Yorker
with a yuppie attitude, often
seen holding a mobile phone, which was
occasionally used as a "foreign object" (it
was quite large, due to the technology of the late
1980s).
Continental Wrestling Federation
After
departing the AWA, Heyman went to the Alabama
-based
Continental Wrestling
Federation. Paul E. Dangerously became allied with
Eddie Gilbert's Hot Stuff
Inc.
stable.
Behind the scenes, Gilbert was the head
booker of the
promotion and
Heyman became his assistant. Heyman was also the head
booker for Windy City
Wrestling in Chicago, and started developing a reputation as being
an innovative television writer and producer.
World Championship Wrestling
In 1988, Heyman jumped to
Jim
Crockett Promotions, where Dangerously again managed the
Original Midnight Express in a feud with the new Midnight Express
(
Bobby Eaton and
Stan Lane) and their manager,
Jim Cornette, as well as managing
"Mean" Mark Callous. who later became
The Undertaker in WWE. Before long he
settled into the role of an announcer, joining
Jim Ross to call the matches on
WTBS' World Championship Wrestling and
other programming. During his role as an announcer, he feuded with
Ross,
Missy Hyatt, and Hyatt's
boyfriend, actor
Jason Hervey.
After stepping off-camera for a brief period in 1991, he returned
as the
manager of
the
Dangerous Alliance, with
Madusa as his assistant, managing Bobby
Eaton,
Ravishing Rick Rude,
Arn Anderson,
WCW TV Champion Steve Austin and
Larry Zbyszko. Heyman led Rude to the
United States title and the
Anderson-Eaton
tag team to the
Tag Team titles. The
Dangerous Alliance dominated WCW through most of 1992, meeting
their biggest foes in
Sting,
Ricky Steamboat,
Nikita Koloff,
Barry
Windham,
Dustin Rhodes and the
Steiner Brothers (
Scott and
Rick
Steiner). He left WCW in late 1992.
Eastern Championship Wrestling / Extreme Championship Wrestling
1993-2001

Heyman in a ECW show in 1998.
After
departing WCW, Heyman attempted to start a new promotion in
Texas
with Jim Crockett,
Jr., but Crockett wanted to build a traditional wrestling brand
while Heyman declared traditional wrestling was antiquated and a
new take on the genre was needed.
At this time, Eddie Gilbert was booker for a Philadelphia-based
promotion,
NWA Eastern Championship
Wrestling, which he did under the ownership of a local
pawn shop owner named
Tod
Gordon. Heyman came in to help Gilbert teach the younger
wrestlers how to perform on interviews, but Gilbert's erratic
behavior became too much for Gordon, who had a major falling out
with Gilbert right before the "Ultra Clash" event on September 18,
1993. From that point forward, Heyman was in charge of the creative
direction of the company.
As Paul E. Dangerously, he managed a few wrestlers, including
Sabu and
911, but Heyman's increased workload led to
him making fewer and fewer appearances on-camera.
A year later, the company was the
flagship
promotion of the struggling
National Wrestling Alliance
(NWA). A tournament was scheduled to be held in August 1994 for the
NWA World Heavyweight
Championship, at an ECW-hosted event mostly featuring ECW
wrestlers. The proposed outcome was the current ECW champion
Shane Douglas becoming champion, but
Heyman conspired with Douglas and Gordon without the knowledge of
NWA president Dennis Coraluzzo to have Douglas (and by extension,
ECW itself) publicly denounce the NWA and its "tradition" after
winning the tournament. In his post-match speech, Douglas
aggressively assaulted the title's lineage, throwing the belt
itself down, proclaiming the NWA a "dead organization" and
declaring his ECW title a
world-level
championship. The plan for this
shoot screwjob was known only to those three men; the
surprise of the incident made headlines throughout the wrestling
industry.
_Heyman_Addressing_Crowd.jpg/250px-Paul_(E)_Heyman_Addressing_Crowd.jpg)
Heyman addressing the crowd at an ECW
television taping in 1999
That same week, Heyman and Gordon rechristened the promotion,
eliminating the regional branding "Eastern" and declaring the
promotion
Extreme
Championship Wrestling. They broke the company away from the
National Wrestling Alliance and ECW became its own entity, with
Heyman encouraging wrestlers to express their true feelings about
the WWF, the NWA, and WCW and allowing them to help develop their
own characters. Many wrestlers willingly took on additional roles
in company operations, such as handling merchandise and answering
phones. The company grew an intensely loyal
fan
base with which Heyman encouraged interaction. Eventually,
Heyman became sole owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling and
helped it to grow and become the third-ranking promotion in
America. Heyman served as booker, promoter, and the executive
producer of both live events and television. After Gordon left, he
also had to deal with financial matters, which led to
ever-increasing debts owed to the wrestlers.
Under Heyman's guidance, Extreme Championship Wrestling became a
catalyst that altered the standard of pro wrestling in North
America. The company pointedly eschewed the predictable and
cartoon-like nature of the mainstream
products, and fostered an alternative
counterculture attitude; Heyman specifically
analogized it to the
grunge movement in
music. With this, it also depicted more
graphic and realistic violence in its
product, as well as more crude behaviors such as
profanity,
substance
abuse,
domestic violence and
sexuality. Additionally, ECW
introduced traditional
Japanese and
Mexican wrestling styles, which were
previously rare on American television, and presented them
alongside the North American wrestling. Journalists and those who
worked with Heyman credit him alone with these innovations, and
their effect reached to the mainstream even after the company had
ended.
ECW achieved national prominence, but folded in 2001. Paul and a
handful of other wrestlers have said that the death of ECW was for
two reasons: One was that Paul did not like sharing power and thus
put too much workload and stress on himself; he was getting 2–3
hours of sleep a night, if any. The second reason was ECW could not
get another network deal after being kicked off
The Nashville Network in favor of WWF.
Heyman has also frequently cited
Eric
Bischoff as a primary architect of the company's downfall,
expressing his long-held belief that Bischoff's hiring of ECW
wrestlers away to WCW was intentionally meant to weaken ECW, which
couldn't afford WCW-level salaries.
Many critics say Heyman's hands-on approach to the entire company
led to his inability to save the company when TNN dumped ECW in
favor of the market leader WWF. Heyman supporters point out that
the total debt for the company was $7 million US, with InDemand pay
per view owing over a million in PPV revenue.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
After ECW folded, Heyman became a broadcaster for the WWF (using
his own name), replacing
Jerry Lawler
(who had quit the WWF in protest when then-wife
Stacy Carter was released by the company) as
color commentator for
Raw in March
2001. During that time, he resumed his storyline rivalry with Jim
Ross. In July, while retaining his commentator role, Heyman
recreated ECW as a stable, which then immediately merged with Shane
McMahon's WCW to form
the Alliance during
the Invasion
angle. He was
"fired" following the
2001
Survivor Series.
He returned in March as the manager of
Brock Lesnar. Heyman led Lesnar to the
WWE Undisputed Championship when Lesnar
beat
The Rock at
SummerSlam. Then at the
Survivor Series, Heyman turned on
Lesnar and helped
Big Show take the title
from him. Heyman became the first man in professional wrestling
history to manage three successive World Champions when it was
revealed that he was Kurt Angle's agent just days after Angle beat
Big Show for the title.
Heyman suffered a real life injury in January, when taking the F-5
from Lesnar at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California. A major
falling out between Heyman and McMahon occurred when McMahon ended
the Lesnar - Heyman feud on television just weeks before
WrestleMania, when Heyman was scheduled to manage Angle in the main
event against Lesnar. Heyman left for a while, and was on WWE
payroll for several months as a consultant regarding the television
shows as he also received therapy on his neck. After McMahon
"defeated" daughter Stephanie in October at the No Mercy pay per
view, the Heyman character was brought back to assume the on-camera
role of
General
Manager (GM) of the Thursday night show
SmackDown!. During this
time, he re-aligned himself with Lesnar and proceeded to infuriate
Undertaker, John Cena, and especially Chris Benoit by making sure
he had no WWE Championship opportunities as long as he was GM.
Eventually, on
SmackDown! right before
WrestleMania XX, Heyman asked the entire
locker room to back him and Lesnar up against Stone Cold Steve
Austin, but they just stood there and walked away from him,
including one of Heyman's main supporters, The Big Show. He served
as GM until March 22, 2004, when he was
drafted to
Eric
Bischoff's
Raw and promptly
"quit" rather than work for arch-nemesis
Bischoff, the man who he blamed for killing ECW by raiding its
talent.
During Heyman's tenure on
SmackDown!, he served as the
head writer
and is credited with being the creative force behind the successful
so-called "SmackDown! Six": (
Kurt Angle,
Chris Benoit,
Edge,
Rey
Mysterio,
Eddie Guerrero and
Chavo Guerrero). He placed them
in a "triple threat tag team feud" (Angle and Benoit, Edge and
Mysterio,
Los Guerreros) over the
WWE Tag Team Championship.
This resulted in a string of high-caliber matches over several
months, one of which was awarded
2002
Match of the Year by the
Wrestling Observer;
Heyman was awarded
Best
Booker. All of the "Smackdown! Six" went on to become world
champions, with Edge, Benoit, Mysterio, & Angle becoming
World Heavyweight
Champions, Eddie Guerrero, Angle & Edge becoming
WWE Champions, & Chavo Guererro later
becoming
ECW World Champion on the
later revived ECW.
During 2004, Heyman's on-camera role was again as a manager, this
time to the
Dudley Boyz (not including
Spike Dudley; Heyman's role in that
regard disappeared just as Spike became "the boss" of his "big
brothers"), and
Heidenreich. In
these managerial roles, he mainly led his stars in feuds with
The Undertaker. Heyman's last
appearance on
SmackDown! saw him sealed in a coffin by
Undertaker during a handicap match which featured Heyman and
Heidenreich against The Undertaker on January 6, 2005.
Paul Heyman was heavily involved in the booking and promotion of
the June 12, 2005 ECW reunion PPV,
One Night Stand. Heyman returned
to
Raw on May 23 and confronted former WCW President Eric
Bischoff, lauding ECW and criticizing WCW. Among other things,
Heyman told him the following: "ECW was a lifestyle, it was
anti-establishment, it was
counter-culture, and it was up in
your face!" Heyman finished it up by setting Bischoff's ECW
funeral wreath (made
out of
barbed wire) on fire. At One
Night Stand, a visibly emotional Heyman came to the ring, got on
his knees and bowed to the fans, who chanted "
Thank you
Paul!" He then cut a
shoot promo insulting
Bischoff, Edge and
JBL. On the show,
Heyman was portrayed as a
face who successfully
prevented the heels, Bischoff and his crusaders, from putting ECW
out of business once and for all.
On July 10, 2005, it was reported that Paul Heyman took over the
positions of head booker and writer in
OVW, a developmental territory
maintained by WWE.
Return of ECW
On May 25, 2006 it was announced that ECW would relaunch, as a
third WWE "brand". Heyman was in charge of the new brand on-camera
but had minimal creative input off-camera as well. Four days later
on
Raw, during a face-off with
Mick
Foley, Heyman announced that he was granted a draft pick from
both
Raw and
SmackDown! by
Vince McMahon. His
Raw draft pick was
former ECW wrestler (and
Money in the Bank contract
holder)
Rob Van Dam, and his
SmackDown! draft pick was
Kurt
Angle. Angle then came down to the ring and attacked Foley,
hitting him with an
Angle Slam.
Heyman predicted that Van Dam would defeat
WWE Champion John
Cena at
ECW One Night
Stand 2006 and then declare himself the new
ECW World Heavyweight Champion. On the June
2, 2006 edition of
SmackDown!, Heyman served as a guest
commentator for Kurt Angle's final match on
SmackDown!
with
World
Heavyweight Champion Rey
Mysterio.
At One Night Stand, Van Dam defeated John Cena to win his first
World Championship, the WWE Championship. After Cena knocked an ECW
referee unconscious,
Edge (in a
disguise) appeared and speared Cena through a table, before taking
out
SmackDown! referee
Nick
Patrick, allowing Van Dam to hit the Five-Star Frog Splash on
Cena. With no referee available Heyman ran down the aisle to count
the pinfall. The next night on
Raw Heyman confirmed that
because the championship match was contested under "ECW rules"
(which means, essentially, there are no rules) that the decision
stands and RVD is the "Undisputed" WWE Champion. As the WWE
Champion, Van Dam was the number one man in the reformed ECW, so on
the debut of
ECW on Sci Fi
the next night Heyman, announced as an "ECW Representative",
presented him with the re-instated
ECW
World Heavyweight Championship. Heyman had previously implied
that RVD would "re-christen" the WWE Championship into the ECW
Championship. Van Dam, however, elected to keep both title belts
and was recognized as both the WWE and ECW Champion.
On the July 4, 2006 edition of
ECW, Big Show challenged
Van Dam to a match for the ECW Championship. Near the end of the
match, Big Show took out the referee prior to RVD hitting a
Five-Star Frog Splash on Show. Heyman then came out to count the
pin (just like at One Night Stand) but stopped at the count of 2.
After realizing what happened, Van Dam began chasing Heyman. The
distraction allowed Big Show to recover, and knock Van Dam to the
mat. At this time Heyman began barking orders at Big Show. He then
instructed Big Show to chokeslam Van Dam on a steel chair that had
been used earlier in the match. Big Show pinned Van Dam and Heyman
made the 3 count, "
screwing" Van Dam out of
the ECW Championship.
Being that Philadelphia
was "the home of ECW", and the audience at the
Wachovia
Center
was the first "true ECW-style" fanbase for an
ECW on Sci-Fi show, the fans were so incensed by the title
change that many of them threw garbage and debris into the
ring. This incident has been referred to by the WWE as the
"South Philly Screwjob" (evoking comparisons to the
Montreal screwjob).
WWE.com then
kayfabe announced that Heyman
was suspending Van Dam for 30 days (mirroring the
legit WWE executive decision,
due to his and
Sabu's recent arrests on
drug possession charges.) Heyman
began referring to himself as the "Messiah" and "Father Of ECW",
justifying his actions stating "anything [can] happen in ECW" and
RVD got what he deserved. He also began being accompanied to ECW
events by a pair of "private security guards" in riot gear (in
actuality the
Basham Brothers),
ostensibly to protect him from ECW wrestlers and fans who are angry
about his recent actions. Heyman's character has also been shown as
having a bias toward the "new faces of ECW" (wrestlers who never
wrestled for the original incarnation) instead of the "ECW
Originals". The only "new face of ECW" he had not shown bias
towards was
CM Punk, likely due to Punk's
status as a then-
babyface.
Due to a
behind the scenes dispute
over ECW's first (and only) solo pay-per-view under WWE (
December to Dismember) which
aired December 3, 2006, WWE Chairman
Vince
McMahon and Heyman clashed in front of several members of the
writing team on McMahon's corporate jet the day after the pay per
view, and Heyman ended up traveling home from the RAW/ECW taping in
South Carolina. After turning down Stephanie McMahon-LeVesque's
behind the scenes offer to return to his post writing tv for WWE
Developmental television shows, Heyman quietly parted ways with
WWE. It was over a year after his dismissal before Heyman commented
on the departure, revealing that the resurrection of ECW was
mishandled in his opinion and how his booking ideas for December to
Dismember were completely different from Vince McMahon's.
After wrestling
Having left WWE, Heyman attempted to invest in
mixed martial arts when he joined a
consortium which looked to buy
Strikeforce; although the bid failed, Heyman
praised Strikeforce owner Scott Coker in subsequent
interviews.
Since
leaving wrestling, Paul Heyman has entered into a collaborative
relationship with The Sun, a
UK
-based newspaper and website.
On February 4, 2008, he gave
The Sun an exclusive
interview (his first since leaving WWE) about his problems with
WWE's handling of the ECW brand, and the events leading up to his
quitting.
Heyman has also begun a multimedia project with the paper called
The Heyman Hustle, which he describes
as "the high definition video blog of a rambling mind."
It
features video of Heyman interacting with celebrities from various
fields of entertainment on the streets of New York City
, as well as regular writings of Heyman's take on
the world of professional wrestling, including his thoughts on the
McMahon wrestling family,
the Chris Benoit
murder-suicide, Ric Flair's
retirement, and Joey Styles being replaced by Mike Adamle as the ECW play-by-play
commentator. Notable guests of the 1st season of the Hustle
include
Holly Madison,
Ice-T and
Coco,
James Lipton,
Aubrey
O'Day, and
Jesse Ventura.
Paul Heyman currently resides in Scarsdale, New York, with his wife
and children.
Acting
Heyman portrayed a sports announcer in 2002's
Rollerball. His performance
received critical acclaim, even though the movie did not. "Director
John McTiernan's Rollerball is an atrocious remake," reported
Variety, "whose only saving grace is the hysterical performance by
wrestling producer and performer Paul Heyman, who pretty much plays
himself to perfection." Heyman was later tapped by "I am Legend"
executive producer Michael Tadross to play Gino in the film
adaptation of long-running
Off-Broadway
show
Tony n' Tina's
Wedding.
Wrestlers managed
Stables and tag teams:
Awards and accomplishments
References
- SLAM! Sports - Wrestling - Paul Heyman
- Dangerously did work some ECW shows during the year but
most of the year saw him trying to get a new promotion off the
ground in Texas with Jim Crockett, Jr. The effort would not fly
and, by October, Gordon wanted Dangerously brought into
ECW.
- http://www.wrestlingepicenter.com/shows/ShaneDouglas/
- WWE: TV Shows > ECW > WWE launches ECW as third
brand
- WWE: TV Shows > ECW > News > Heyman out
- Heyman Parts Ways With WWE
- Paul Heyman:Why I Left WWE TheSun.co.uk
External links