10 Wrestling Decision-Makers (And Their Biggest Mistakes)

8. Paul Heyman

Biggest mistake: Financial irresponsibility As a booker, Paul Heyman is considered one of the best. He demonstrated this remarkable capability to showcase a wrestler€™s skills while concealing their weaknesses. This is the strategy he used to building the €˜SmackDown Six€™ into top stars, and was instrumental in him building strong feuds and likeable characters in ECW. However, Paul Heyman€™s biggest flaw is that he should never be trusted with money. While not a creative decision, as a booker Heyman€™s lying about money was a small problem that eventually snowballed into one of the big catastrophes that led to ECW closing its doors. According to legal documents, many ECW talent were owed between $US 40,000 and 50,000, with Rob van Dam being owed a whopping $150,000 from Paul Heyman. Even worse was the situation that ECW co-owner Tommy Dreamer found himself in. A lot of ECW€™s assets belonged to him, including the ring truck that was in his parents€™ name. Yet Paul Heyman€™s deceitfulness wasn€™t able to be controlled, and he has since been considered to be the biggest liar in professional wrestling by some fans. Considering that many ECW stars had to keep wrestling long after their bodies had worn down just to just to pay their debts, it makes sense for Heyman to have that title. Had someone else managed ECW€™s finances, then maybe so many ex-ECW wrestlers wouldn€™t be wrestling for so many years after the company had folded, just to pay their bills.