10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Paul Heyman
5. He Faked A Heart Attack To Mock Jerry Lawler
WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack during a live broadcast of Raw on September 10, 2012 in Montreal. Thankfully he survived the attack. Two months later he returned to Raw on November 12 and WWE immediately turned it into an angle. They had WWE Champion CM Punk, along with his manager Paul Heyman, mock Lawler's heart attack by having Heyman fake a heart attack of his own. When the angle happened, a number of people in the wrestling industry spoke about it with some saying it was a great angle while others were upset about it. The legendary Steve Austin didn't think it was necessary when he spoke to the Baltimore Sun: "I believe in pushing the envelope in an aggressive fashion. But when a guy damn near dies at ringside, let it go. You look at all the contributions Jerry Lawler has made in this business: from a work standpoint, a promo standpoint and then as a broadcaster. I think that's pushing the envelope in the wrong direction. There's better ways to go get real heat than that." Austin has a good point. Lawler has done so much in the wrestling business that it was really disrespectful to do a segment like that. It was done to get heat on CM Punk and Paul Heyman, but it's not like they were going to put Lawler in a match against them either. While we don't know who specifically came up with the storyline, obviously Lawler was okay with it because he was there to see it and Heyman at least tried to make it believable. It was still unnecessary in the sense that we don't want to see angles that take things too far. That's what this angle did.
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.