The Extreme Championship Wrestling brand in its original form has been dead since 2001, yet it's still celebrated by wrestling fans as a revolutionary company that had a huge impact on the business. It only existed for seven years, yet it will never truly die because wrestling fans and people in wrestling will never forget it. Paul Heyman was the driving force behind ECW. He was a wrestling manager before the launch of ECW, but once the brand started he became the main booker. It seemed like it was the right role for him because he has such a great mind in terms of telling stories while always getting the most out of talents. There are many things that Heyman has said about being behind the creative direction of a wrestling show, but one of the things that always made sense was that he wanted to accentuate the positives of a performer and hide the negatives. In other words, if a guy isn't great at doing promos then he'd rather keep them from doing promos. If somebody has the look of a powerful guy then he wants that person to look dominant. It makes sense. Why complicate things when you don't have to? ECW wasn't just about the blood and violence. When people think that they're wrong. They also had regular performers that were great technical wrestlers, guys that could do the aerial stuff and above average talkers who were average in the ring too. When thinking about current WWE guys in an ECW setting, it's not just the guy that could get in a bloody brawl. It could be anybody. Heyman's current role is only an on screen performer. He does interact with the performers backstage and maybe helps with promos or certain things, but he's not a part of the creative process as far as we know. He may never join the creative team again, which is fine if that's what he wants. However, if that ever happened it would be interesting to see what superstars might get more of a spotlight with Heyman running things. Here's a look at the current WWE wrestlers that might have benefitted from ECW run by Paul Heyman.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
