10 Wrestlers You Didn’t Know Have Bad Reputations
3. Paul Heyman
Paul Heyman revolutionised professional wrestling through ECW. The landscape looks significantly different and considerably worse without his seismic influence over it.
Beyond the fiction of the medium, Heyman was cast as a babyface within the wrestling fandom. Heyman was the writer in touch with the post-casual fanbase of the early 2000s, the man who appealed to their discerning tastes through the SmackDown Six era - but was ostracised for beating Vince McMahon at the ratings game. Heyman was also depicted as the man who tried but valiantly failed to restore the spirit of ECW in 2006. In 2024, having masterminded the rise of the heel Roman Reigns character, Heyman is received as something between industry saviour and creative demigod.
Yes, people are aware that Heyman was an inveterate carny who screwed a lot of people over, but in a weird way, that actually enhances his mystique as someone who best played the dirty, fascinating game over which we’re all hopelessly obsessed.
Paul Heyman exploited Sunny’s real-life addiction issues for a ratings stunt and screwed over Chris Candido financially, as he hid many others. The circumstances surrounding Candido’s 2005 passing make for especially tragic reading with that information in mind.