18 WWE Easter Eggs, References And In-Jokes You Never Noticed

7. Paul Heyman Gets His Digs In

In the early days of ECW, which are well covered by the weekly TV shows available on WWE Network, Paul Heyman made something of a habit of poking fun at certain people, including personal rivals, by giving talent. It isn't that well known, but this includes one of ECW's most enduring legends: Mikey Whipwreck, originally a job guy turned lovable loser before becoming a ECW "triple crown" winner, was named after a rival local promoter Dennis Whipwrecht. Similarly, Dino Sendoff was named after a promoter named Dino Senna.

Some were more obvious than that, though. Joel Goodhart was the promoter of the TWA, the promotion that Tod Gordon funded before ECW. He became somewhat infamous for running star-studded indie supercards that he couldn't possibly make money on, eventually closing up shop after having sold tickets for a ridiculously loaded January 1992 show. ECW regular job guy Joel Hartgood was named after him.

One especially inspired case had to do with Bill Watts. He had been Heyman's boss during his last WCW stint, which ended in a lawsuit for wrongful termination among other things, as Heyman has accused Watts of making anti semitic comments to him. Watts had also made a number of racist and homophobic comments in a 1991 interview that came back to haunt him. To play off the racism, Heyman introduced a black announcer named Willie Watts during the period where Joey Styles was gone in Spring 1994.

There was also speculation that Stevie Richards was named after New Zealand promoter Steve Rickard, but that may not have been a dig, as he's very well regarded as far as I can tell.