7. Finesses His Way Into A Press Pass At Madison Square Garden
Even as a teenager, Paul Heyman was already, well, Paul Heyman. After establishing a successful mail order movie poster business (Really.) with his bar mitzvah money, he set his eyes on becoming a pro wrestling photographer. However, he was still in high school and had no magazine or other publication behind him. How does he get from there to his goal, which was shooting ringside at Madison Square Garden? Simple. He lied. The key was that Paul had discovered via an item in one of New York's many free "alternative" weekly newspapers that Vince McMahon Sr. and his inner circle ate an Ben Benson's Steak House in Manhattan after the MSG shows. Figuring that few people were aware of this fact and that McMahon probably thought even less knew about it, Heyman called the wrestling office and bluffed his way through receptionists until he got to Vince Sr. himself. Heyman (claiming to represent the fictional "Wrestling Times") pretended that he was just following up since they met at Benson's and Vince Sr. already approved the press pass. It worked, and he was told to report to the Holland Hotel to get his credentials. For years, Heyman became a fixture at ringside with the more experienced photographers like Bill Apter. When recounting the story on Busted Open Radio, Heyman noted that he's "always found that honesty is dramatically overrated.
