On the Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name is Paul Heyman DVD, Paul Heyman carefully explains the unique nature of how he worked with WWE in the mid-90s, but he himself was never on the WWE payroll. The idea that Too Cold Scorpio moving rosters from ECW to the then- (where Scorpio became Flash Funk) was as simple as Vince McMahon paying HHG Corp (ECW's shell ownership group) and not Heyman himself $1000 (the cost of Tommy Boy Records' company sponsorship tied to Too Cold Scorpio) is highly entertaining. Stating that the money went into production and development fees for ECW (and not into Heyman's pocket) is not they same as Heyman himself getting paid is one of pro wrestling's biggest "chicken and egg" arguments ever. So, yes, Heyman wasn't paid directly by WWE, and not on their payroll. But, monies earned by ECW from WWE went into developing a promotion in which Heyman was invested as an on-screen character and off-camera promoter, meaning that production improvements could lead to an increase in monies earned by Heyman. While yes, Paul E. wasn't literally, on the WWF payroll in fact, he was certainly figuratively there.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
