Eric Bischoff Vs Paul Heyman Vs AEW - The New Wrestling War

In November 2006, Eric Bischoff was deployed a heel referee for a D-Generation X/Rated-RKO Cyber Sunday pay-per-view clash before being bantered off by the babyfaces one night later on Raw. It was the last time he had any storyline authority in WWE, having largely enjoyed his life as a character and nothing more following an exhausting end to his WCW tenure several years earlier. Reaching the end of his real-life tether at the time, Paul Heyman probably looked over at 'Easy E' with extreme envy. He was a month away from his relationship with Vince McMahon suffering a complete breakdown, but he'd probably only been two from the same thing happening to his mental health.

The former ECW chief's view was already obscured enough by the miles and miles of chain link before he'd put his hands to his face in a state of exasperated depression at December To Dismember. In kayfabe, the response was loosely linked to the heel Big Show's impending defeats to Bobby Lashley in a cripplingly criticised climax to one of most catastrophic cards in company history. In reality, Heyman had suffered a far more substantial loss.

Mounting squabbles with McMahon had resulted in Heyman literally losing control of a pay-per-view that he was perhaps destined not to have the pencil for. For all its potential, the show as a WWECW show like every other WWECW show, overseen by Vince McMahon like everything else "Then. Now. Forever" in that organisation until The Chairman ceases to be.

He'd have been wise to heed Dusty Rhodes' pained words to son Dustin many years earlier. 'The Dream' told 'The Natural' not to trust Arn Anderson because he was a lifer in Ric Flair's shadow and there, "the view never changes". Future Heyman associate CM Punk infamously cribbed it when he took to Twitter just hours before he took off from WWE. Frustrated and pulled further back than ever from his prosperous promised land, Punk saw the unchanging view and split just like Brock Lesnar had split because he was a "Paul Heyman Guy" too.

But there he was - frozen out and escaping old misery. And now, there he is - welcomed back and chasing new glory.

Has the paradigm shifted?

CONT'D...