6 Wrestlers That Visibly Hated Working For ECW

Paul Heyman, at ECW December To Dismember, sold his dismay at Bobby Lashley’s ECW World Heavyweight title win. In a hack and ancient development ripped straight from 1998 - and 1999, and 2000, and 2001… - Heyman tried to prevent Lashley from winning the belt because that’s what heel authority figures did. Heyman covered his face with his hand in the infamous closing shot of a diabolical pay-per-view. Technically, he was performing under the guise of his fictional character - but since Heyman quit in protest of ECW’s direction almost immediately afterwards, it required very little in the way of acting. 

The kicker here is that Paul Heyman was the guy who worked people. He prided himself on his ability to manipulate everybody around him to his advantage. 

In 2006, Paul Heyman got worked. He was humiliated. He fell for what was becoming one of the oldest tricks in the book. He had few options, but he went along with the ECW reboot anyway. He could have walked. He didn’t; he might have thought that Vince McMahon had it in him to actually hand over a WWE-owned wrestling brand to somebody else who wasn’t part of his family. This happened with NXT and Triple H, but it was never, ever happening with ECW and Paul Heyman. Everybody knew that, except the man, Heyman, who once knew everything that Vince didn’t about the direction of travel in the mid-1990s. A decade on, and Heyman was no different to the hardcore fans who, for example, thought Daniel Bryan might get pushed ahead of Roman Reigns because he generated louder reactions in the building. 

This acute sting of embarrassment was written on his face, and it was obvious even underneath his hand.