Paul Heyman first began turning heads back in the early-1990's as Paul E. Dangerously, a manager and occasional commentator for WCW. He was loud, he was brash, and he was bold... traits that would follow him for the rest of his career. It's that kind of personality that often makes him a difficult person to get along with, and his WCW days were no different. After being fired by WCW, he would sue them on claims of antisemitism, with then-WCW Executive Vice President "Cowboy" Bill Watts being the target of those claims. After more racist remarks from Watts came to light, WCW would lose the lawsuit, and Heyman walked away with a nice chunk of change. From there, Heyman would become the man in charge of ECW, taking it away from the National Wrestling Alliance (who had WCW as one of its affiliates until the late-1980's) and turning it into the promotion that everyone would know and love in the 90's. However, it wasn't until the Monday Night War was in full swing that Heyman's real hatred for WCW would come to light. While ECW had a working relationship with the WWF (WWF would send guys who needed "seasoning" to work in ECW, almost like a developmental territory), WCW took a different approach. Eric Bischoff replaced Bill Watts, and his goal was to eliminate the WWF from the wrestling landscape. Bischoff had Ted Turner's chequebook, and he was given the green light to sign anybody at any price. Bischoff would go after several ECW names, and guys like Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Chris Jericho would all sign with WCW. A couple years later, WCW would again go after ECW talents, signing the likes of Raven, The Sandman, Stevie Richards and Mike Awesome. These acquisitions didn't quite help propel WCW to victory in the Monday Night War, but all of the talent losses were, more or less, one of the final nails in ECW's coffin. Their roster was severely depleted, and they couldn't keep their television spot, which was the final nail. WCW had greatly contributed to the demise of ECW, which was Heyman's pride and joy, and he never forgave them for it. He would bash WCW and Bischoff with every chance he got.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
