10 Greatest Things About ECW’s Final Year

"I am so f**king tired of the goddamn f**king network. You know, when we first went on TNN, I thought it was the greatest f**king thing to happen to ECW, until I learned we had to deal with a f**king assh*le like you."

Those were the words uttered by Paul Heyman live on PPV prior to the main event of Living Dangerously 2000.

The assh*le in question was Cyrus the Virus, of course, but Cyrus was merely a vessel designed by Heyman to represent TNN. As such, the vitriol directed the way of Cyrus and his Network faction was very much very real vitriol intended for TNN higher-ups.

By the final year of ECW, Paul Heyman - or Paul E. Dangerously, if you will - had long stopped giving a sh*t about appeasing TNN. Frustrated with the network's treatment of ECW and its wish to scale back the extreme nature so synonymous with Extreme Championship Wrestling, Heyman took pleasure in goading TNN at every turn.

Paul Heyman with a microphone in-hand is always a recipe for success. But a microphone-wielding Paul Heyman with a genuinely personal gripe and zero cares about offending anyone? That was a recipe for absolute gold, as Paul E. cut some of the most impassioned, impactful promos of his illustrious career.