Somehow, even though he was asking his talent to go to lengths that were fittingly extreme, Paul Heyman managed to keep pretty much everyone onside with his vision for what ECW could be. It's been said by many that Heyman is a master manipulator, able to take a contentious issue and have someone singing from the same hymn sheet as him immediately following a conversation. This must have been the case back in the original ECW days, because money was often hard to come by. In fact, many hard-working wrestlers - who would put their bodies through absolute hell for the company - would sometimes have to go as much as a few months without any cash coming their way. It's either a testament to Heyman's people skills, or a damning verdict on just how much blind loyalty can affect people, but there was a lot of money owed towards the end of the promotion's life span. Using stories about how they were an ongoing conspiracy against ECW, because of how well the company was doing when it never really should have existed longer than a few years, Heyman was able to keep tired, hungry and broke wrestlers motivated, all for the sake of putting on a wild, exciting show.