Paul Heyman is an American entertainment producer, best known for his career in professional wrestling as a promoter, manager, commentator and journalist. He is also an occasional actor in film. He is currently under contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
EARLY LIFE:
Heyman was born in Scarsdale, New York. By the time he turned 11 years old, Heyman was already running a mail order business selling celebrity and sports memorabilia from his home.
While still a teenager, Heyman fast-talked his way backstage at a World Wide Wrestling Federation event at Madison Square Garden as a photojournalist. He was paid by the company for several of his photographs.
Heyman attended Westchester Community College, where he worked at a radio station, and later became a promoter for the New York City nightclub Studio 54 in the mid 1980s. It was during his time as the promoter for Studio 54 that he promoted his first professional wrestling card which happened to feature on it the professional debut of Bam Bam Bigelow. Heyman's family is Jewish.
EARLY CAREER IN PRO-WRESTLING:
Heyman began as a photographer and writer for third-party wrestling publications such as Pro Wrestling Illustrated.
Paul Heyman made his managerial debut in professional wrestling on January 2nd, 1987, initially appearing on the Northeast independent wrestling circuit before moving into a more high-profile stint with Championship Wrestling from Florida in February of 1987. There he joined forces with the likes of Kevin Sullivan and Oliver Humperdink and first became known as Paul E. Dangerously because of his resemblance to Michael Keaton in the movie Johnny Dangerously. From there, he would travel to Memphis, Tennessee and the Continental Wrestling Association to manage Tommy Rich and Austin Idol during a heated rivalry with Jerry "The King" Lawler, a war which was later carried over to the American Wrestling Association (AWA), with the Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose) taking over for Idol and the face-turned Tommy Rich.
The Paul E. Dangerously gimmick was basically an extension of Heyman's own personality: a brash New Yorker with a yuppie attitude, often seen holding a mobile phone, which he used occasionally as a "foreign object" (it was quite large, due to the technology of the 1980s).
CONTINENTAL WRESTLING FEDERATION:
Following his departure from the AWA, Heyman went to the Alabama-based Continental Wrestling Federation. Paul E. Dangerously became allied with Eddie Gilbert's Hot Stuff, Inc. stable. Behind the scenes, Gilbert was the head booker of the promotion and Heyman would soon become his assistant. Heyman was also the head booker for Windy City Wrestling in Chicago, and started developing a reputation as being an innovative television writer and producer.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING:
In 1988, Heyman jumped ship to World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where Dangerously again managed the Original Midnight Express in a feud with the New Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) and their manager, Jim Cornette, as well as managing "Mean" Mark Callous (who later would become The Undertaker in the WWE). Before long he settled into the role of an announcer alongside Jim Ross to call the matches on WTBS' WCW programming. During his role as commentator, he feuded on-screen with Ross, Missy Hyatt and Hyatt's boyfriend, actor Jason Hervey.
After he was suspended for a brief period in 1991 for allegedly leaking information about a potential championship unification match between Lex Luger and Jerry "The King" Lawler in the Memphis territory, he returned as the manager of the Dangerous Alliance, with Madusa as his managerial assistant, managing Bobby Eaton, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, WCW World Television Champion Steve Austin and Larry Zbyszko. Heyman led Rude to the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and the team of Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton to the WCW World Tag Team Championship. The Dangerous Alliance dominated WCW through the majority of 1992, facing their biggest foes in Sting, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and the Steiner Brothers (Scott Steiner and Rick Steiner). After his last appearance came at the Clash of the Champions in November of 1992, he was fired via a fax by company executive Bill Watts in January 1993, based on a claim that Heyman faked expense reports between April and July of 1992.
EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING / EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING (1993-2001):
After departing WCW, Heyman attempted to start up a new major promotion alongside Jim Crockett, Jr., but Crockett wanted to build a traditional wrestling brand while Heyman declared that tradition wrestling was antiquated and that a new take on the genre was needed at the time.
At this same time, Eddie Gilbert was booking for a small Philadelphia-based promotion called NWA: Eastern Championship Wrestling, which he did under the ownership of a local pawn shop owner named Tod Gordon. Heyman came in to help Gilbert teach the younger talents how to perform on the microphone but Gilbert's erratic behavior became too much for Gordon, who had a major falling out with Gilbert prior to the ECW UltraClash event that took place on September 18th, 1993. From that show on, Heyman was now in charge of the creative direction of the promotion.
At the same time, as Paul E. Dangerously, he managed a few wrestlers in ECW, including Sabu who Paul E. managed to the top, winning the ECW World Heavyweight Championship and the ECW Television Championship and 911, but Heyman's increasing workload led to him making fewer and farther between appearances on-camera.
One year later, the company was the flagship promotion of the struggling National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). A tournament was scheduled to be held in August of 1994 for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, at an ECW-hosted event mostly featuring ECW talent. The proposed outcome of the tournament was the current ECW Heavyweight Champion "The Franchise" Shane Douglas becoming champion, but Heyman conspired with Douglas and Tod Gordon without the knowledge of NWA President Dennis Coraluzzo to have Douglas (and by extension, ECW itself) publicly denounce the NWA and it's "tradition" after winning the championship tournament. In his now very famous post-match speech, Douglas aggressively assaulted the title's lineage, throwing the belt itself down and proclaiming the NWA a "dead organization" and declaring his ECW Heavyweight title now the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. The plan for this shoot screw-job was known only to those three men; the result was a surprising moment that caused ECW to make headlines all around the wrestling industry for their actions in what a good portion of people declared was "disrespecting the legends who held the title" in the past.
That same week, Heyman and Gordon rechristened the promotion, eliminating the regional branding "Eastern" and declaring the promotion now being called, Extreme Championship Wrestling. They broke the company away from it's deal with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and ECW became it's own independent entity. Heyman encouraged his wrestlers and talents to express their true feelings about the WWF, the NWA and WCW and allowing them to help develop their own characters. Many wrestlers willingly took on an additional role with company operations, such as handling and boxing merchandise orders and answering phone calls. The company great an intensely loyal fan base with which Heyman encouraged interaction between his stars and the fans. Eventually, Heyman became the sole owner of ECW. Heyman served as the booker, and the executive producer of both live events and television. After Tod Gordon left the company, he unfortunately had to also deal with things such as financial matters, which would lead to ever-increasing debts owed to the wrestlers by the time the company was filing for bankruptcy in 2001.
Under Heyman's guidance, ECW helped introduce traditional Japanese and Mexican wrestling styles, which were previously rare on American television and presented them alongside the North American style of professional wrestling.
In 2001, ECW had to close it's doors down and Paul and a handful of wrestlers have said that the death of ECW was for two major reasons: One was that Paul Heyman didn't enjoy sharing power and thus put too much workload and stress on himself; he was getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night, if any. The second reason was ECW couldn't get another network television deal after being kicked off of The Nashville Network in favor of the WWF. Heyman also frequently cited Eric Bischoff as a primary architect of the company's downfall, expressing his long-held belief that Bischoff's hiring of ECW wrestlers away to WCW was intentionally meant to weaken ECW, which couldn't afford WCW-level salaries.
Many critics say Heyman's hands-on approach to the entire company led to his inability to save the company when TNN dumped ECW in favor of the market leader WWF. Heyman supporters point out that the total debt for the company was $7 million, with pay-per-view provider InDemand owing over a million in PPV revenue.
WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION/ENTERTAINMENT:
BROADCASTER AND COMMENTATOR (2001):
After ECW folded, Heyman quickly began a new job working for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), replacing Jerry "The King" Lawler (who had quit WWF in protest when then-wife Stacy Carter was released by the company), as color commentator for RAW in March 2001. During that time, he resumed his storyline rivalry with Jim Ross. In July, while retaining his commentator role, Heyman recreated ECW as a stable, which then immediately merged with Shane McMahon's WCW to form The Alliance during the Invasion storyline. After the Alliance's formation, Michael Cole replaced Heyman on commentary for the July 16th and July 23rd episodes of RAW before Heyman took his position back on the July 30th episode, saying that Cole had not done a good job conveying the Alliance's message to fans. Heyman was fired following the Survivor Series.
MANAGING BROCK LESNAR (2002):
Heyman returned in March 2002 as the manager of "The Next Big Thing" Brock Lesnar. Heyman led Lesnar to the WWE Undisputed Championship when Brock beat The Rock at SummerSlam in 2002. Then at Survivor Series, Heyman turned on Lesnar to help Big Show take the title from him. Heyman became the first man in professional wrestling history to manage three successive World Champions when it was revealed that he was Kurt Angle's agent just days after Angle defeated Big Show for the belt.
Heyman suffered a real-life injury in January, when taking an F-5 from Lesnar at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California. A major falling out between Heyman and McMahon occurred when McMahon ended the Lesnar - Heyman feud on television just weeks before WrestleMania , when Heyman was scheduled to manage Angle in the main event against Lesnar. Heyman left for a while, and was on WWE payroll for several months as a consultant regarding the television shows as he also received therapy on his neck from the F-5 he took earlier in the year.
SMACKDOWN! GENERAL MANAGER (2003-2004):
After McMahon "defeated" daughter Stephanie McMahon in October at the No Mercy 2003 pay-per-view event, she was forced to resign from her position as the General Manager of the SmackDown! brand. Heyman returned to television to assume Stephanie McMahon's on-camera role as the GM and, unlike the fan favorite character Stephanie portrayed, Heyman's character was portrayed similarily to Eric Bischoff's on RAW - an arrogant dictator of a boss that stacked the odds against his popular wrestlers and favored the unpopular ones. During this time, he re-aligned himself with Brock Lesnar and proceeded to infuriate The Undertaker, John Cena and especially Chris Benoit by making sure he had no WWE Championship opportunities as long as he was acting General Manager for the brand. Eventually, on SmackDown! right before WrestleMania XX, Heyman asked the entire locker room to back him and Lesnar up against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, but they stood and walked away from him, including one of Heyman's main supporters, The Big Show.
On March 22nd, 2004, Heyman made a special appearance on RAW to take part in the annual WWE Draft Lottery. During the show he was drafted to work for Bischoff on the RAW brand, but instead decided to "quit" rather than work for his nemesis Bischoff, the man he blamed for helping kill ECW by raiding its talents. Heyman was replaced in the General Manager Role by one of his former managerial clients, Kurt Angle.
During Heyman's tenure on SmackDown!, he served as the head writer of the show for some time and has been credited as being the creative force behind the successful so-called "SmackDown! Six" (Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero). He placed them in a triple threat tag team feud which resulted in both side Also during the time period,
RETURN TO MANAGING (2004-2005):
During 2004, Heyman's on-camera role was again working as a manager, this time for The Dudley Boys (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley). Heyman's role in this regard disappeared just as Spike Dudley became "the boss" of his "big brothers", and Heidenreich. In these managerial roles, he mainly led his stars in feuds with The Undertaker. Heyman's last appearance on SmackDown! saw him sealed inside of a coffin by Undertaker during a handicap match between Heyman and Heidenreich against The Undertaker on January 6th, 2005.
ECW ONE NIGHT STAND (2005):
Paul Heyman was heavily involved in the booking and promotion of the June 12th, 2005 ECW reunion pay-per-view produced by WWE called One Night Stand. Heyman would return to RAW on May 23rd, and confronted former WCW President Eric Bischoff, lauding ECW and criticizing WCW. Among other things, Heyman told him the following: "ECW was a lifestyle, it was anti-establishment, it was counter-culture, and it was up in your face!" Heyman finished it by setting Bischoff's ECW funeral wreath (made out of barbed wire) on fire. At ECW One Night Stand 2005, a visibly emotional Paul Heyman came to the ring, got on his knees and bowed before the fans, who chanted "Thank you, Paul!". He then cut a worked shoot promo that insulted JBL, Bischoff and Edge who were there as the Anti-ECW Crusade.
OHIO VALLEY WRESTLING (2005-2006):
On July 10th, 2005, it was reported that Heyman had taken over the position of head booker and writer in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), a former developmental territory for WWE, now independently on it's own now. Heyman replaced the outgoing Jim Cornette, who had been fired by WWE at the time due to an incident he had with Santino Marella where Marella laughed during a segment involving The Boogeyman and Cornette saw this as disrespect and slapped Santino across the face and it cost him his job. Heyman took over from Cornette and Heyman's vision for the OVW product wasn't meeting up with fans expectations of things. Heyman would leave to go back to WWE to help out with the revival of ECW later on in the year, making his time in OVW very short but if anything of note happened during his short tenure in OVW it was the first time he met and got to work with CM Punk, whom he would grow to become a close friend of Heyman's and the two men would work together years down the road when Heyman would become the manager of Punk's during Punk's 434 day title reign as WWE Champion.
RETURN OF ECW AS WWE's THIRD BRAND (2006):
On May 25th, 2006 it was announced that ECW was relaunching, as a third WWE brand. Heyman was in charge of the new brand on-camera but had minimal creative off-camera as well. This would turn Heyman face for the first time in his career. On the May 26th episode of RAW, during a face-to-face with Mick Foley, Heyman announced that he was being granted a draft pick from both the RAW and SmackDown! rosters by Vince McMahon. His RAW draft pick was former ECW wrestler (and the Money in the Bank contract holder) Rob Van Dam himself and that his SmackDown! draft pick was Kurt Angle. Angle then came down to the ring and attacked Foley, hitting him with an Angle Slam. Heyman predicted that Van Dam would defeat John Cena at ECW One Night Stand 2006 for the WWE championship and then declare himself the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. On the June 2nd episode of SmackDown, Heyman was a guest commentator during Angle's final match on the brand.
At ECW One Night Stand 2006, Rob Van Dam defeated John Cena (c) to win the WWE Championship. After Cena knocked an ECW referee unconscious, Edge (in a disguise) appeared and speared Cena through a table, before taking out SmackDown referee Nick Patrick, allowing Van Dam to hit the Five Star Frog Splash on Cena. With no referee available Heyman ran down the aisle to count the pinfall and cement his face turn. The following night on RAW, Heyman confirmed that because the championship match was contested under "ECW rules" (which means, essentially, there are no rules) that the decision stands and RVD is the "Undisputed" WWE Champion. As the WWE Champion, Van Dam was the number one man in the reformed ECW, so on the debut of ECW on Sci-Fi the next night, Heyman announced as an "ECW Representative" presented him with the re-instated ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Heyman had previously implied that Van Dam would "re-christen" the WWE Championship into the ECW Championship. Van Dam, however, elected to keep both title belts and was recognized as both the WWE and ECW Champion.
On the July 4th, 2006 episode of ECW on Sci-Fi, Big Show challenged Van Dam to a match for the ECW Championship. Near the end of the match, Big Show took out the referee prior to Van Dam hitting a Five-Star Frog Splash on Show. Heyman then came out to count the pin (just like at One Night Stand) but stopped at the count of 2, reverting to a heel. After realizing what happened, Van Dam began to chase Heyman. The distraction allowed Big Show to recover, and knock Van Dam to the mat.
At the RAW/ECW television taping in South Carolina in December 2006, it was announced that Vince McMahon had sent Heyman home, citing "slumping television ratings and a disgruntled talent roster" as causes for Heyman's dismissal. Heyman was escorted from the Coliseum and sent home. He was also immediately pulled from ECW's creative team after the altercation. McMahon attempted to put the blame on Heyman for the poorly received ECW pay-per-view, and after a meeting with Vince and Stephanie McMahon, Heyman legitimately left WWE but remained under contract. Heyman was against the decision of Bobby Lashley being booked to win the ECW World Championship and instead wanted to have CM Punk win it, a decision McMahon disliked.
This was one of multiple behind-the-scenes creative disagreements between Heyman and McMahon that led to the split, and that Heyman had been overruled on a number of decisions regarding the product over ECW's only pay-per-view under WWE, December to Dismember 2006. McMahon and Heyman clashed in front of several members of the writing team on McMahon's corporate jet the day after the pay-per-view. The argument with McMahon was over a disagreement over the Extreme Elimination Chamber match at December to Dismember. Heyman thought The Big Show should be eliminated in the Elimination Chamber match by CM Punk via submission, to push the rising star. The Big Show agreed with the idea, wanting to help push Punk's career, but McMahon disagreed, and Punk was ultimately eliminated first. After allegedly turning down an offer from Stephanie McMahon to return to his post writing television for WWE developmental television shows, Heyman officially parted ways quietly with WWE on December 17th, 2006.
RETURN TO WWE:
PAUL HEYMAN GUYS (2012-2014):
After a 5 year absence following the controversial departure after the December to Dismember 2006 pay-per-view event, Heyman returned to WWE on the May 7th, 2012 episode of WWE RAW as Brock Lesnar's legal advisor, announcing that Lesnar, who returned a month prior, had quit the company. Behind the scenes, Heyman had no interest at first in returning to WWE, as he still felt he had bad blood with a lot of the staff, but reconsidered after Lesnar personally requested his presence after a lackluster promo with John Laurinitis. The following week on RAW, Heyman confronted Triple H, handing him a lawsuit from Lesnar for breach of contract. Triple H responded by shoving Heyman into the ropes, leading Heyman to announce he would file a lawsuit against Triple H for assault and battery. On the June 18th episode of RAW, Heyman declined Triple H's offer for a match against Lesnar at SummerSlam on Lesnar's behalf. Later that month, Heyman stated that Brock Lesnar would answer Triple H's challenge himself at the 1000th episode of RAW. Lesnar would go on to defeat Triple H at SummerSlam 2012.
On the September 3rd episode of RAW, after CM Punk attacked John Cena, Heyman was seen driving the car that Punk had entered. This began an alliance between CM Punk and Heyman. Heyman began accompanying Punk to the ring for his matches and promos. Because of the events of the previous weeks, on February 11th episode of RAW, Heyman addressed the audience by intending to resign from the company. CM Punk, however, convinced Heyman to not only stay with the company, but also be in Punk's corner at the upcoming Elimination Chamber pay-per-view for his WWE Championship match. Around this time, Heyman quietly cut off his signature pony tail.
Later, CM Punk earned the right to fight The Undertaker at WrestleMania 29 after winning a Fatal Four Way Match at Old School RAW. In addition, Heyman's other client Brock Lesnar was booked for a No Holds Barred Match against Triple H at WrestleMania, with Triple H's career on the line. At WrestleMania, both of Heyman's clients lost their matches. On the April 15th episode of RAW, Heyman announced Lesnar had challenged Triple H to a steel cage match at Extreme Rules. The following week, Triple H accepted the match and delivered a pedigree to Heyman. As a response, Lesnar and Heyman invaded the headquarters of WWE and trashed Triple H's office. at Extreme Rules, Lesnar defeated Triple H with the help of Heyman.
Heyman announced Michael McGillicutty as the newest Paul Heyman guy on the May 20th RAW and gave him the new name of Curtis Axel. On May 27th episode of RAW, Heyman appeared on the Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho, where Jericho challenged CM Punk to a match at Payback which Heyman accepted on Punk's behalf. The next week, Heyman and Jericho signed the contract to make it official. The same week on SmackDown, Jericho faced off against Curtis Axel. As Jericho was closing in on the victory, Heyman stood on the announcers table and yelled "It's clobbering time". Punk's music began to play, distracting Jericho long enough for Axel to pick up the victory.
At Payback, Heyman coached Axel during his match with Wade Barrett and The Miz for the WWE Intercontinental Championship with Axel winning it and winning his first title in WWE. Heyman accompanied Punk to the ring later in the show for his match with Chris Jericho. After Payback, a WWE.com exclusive video aired with Punk telling Heyman that he is his friend and not his client. On the June 17th episode of RAW, Punk challenged Alberto Del Rio, mentioning that he did not want Heyman managing him anymore. Following Punk's match, he was attacked by Lesnar. The next week on RAW, Punk demanded answers from Heyman, who swore he did not ask Lesnar to attack him. Punk forgave Heyman and then faced Darren Young, and following his win, was attacked by Titus O'Neil until Curtis Axel saved him, to Punk's chagrin/. Heyman announced that he would team with Axel against The Prime Time Players the next week, again to Punk's disapproval.
At Money in the Bank, Heyman betrayed CM Punk, costing him his chance at the Money in the Bank briefcase by hitting him 3 times with a ladder, knocking Punk off the ladder when he was ascending. On the August 5th episode of RAW, Punk retaliated by choking Heyman while Heyman was in Curtis Axel's corner during a match. This prompted Lesnar to enter the ring and attack Punk. Heyman later challenged Punk to a 1-on-1 match for the next week's RAW, which Punk accepted. However, this was revealed to be a trap when Lesnar appeared prior to the match. The plan was foiled, however, when Heyman dared CM Punk to come into the ring and accept the challenge as CM Punk, who had anticipated the trap and hid under the ring, emerged and attacked Lesnar. However, Punk failed to get his hands on Heyman as Curtis Axel came to Heyman's aid. This led to a match between Lesnar and Punk at SummerSlam, which Lesnar won due to interference by Heyman.
Heyman and Axel delivered a brutal assault to Punk on RAW the following week, with Heyman breaking a kendo stick over Punk's back while Punk was handcuffed. Heyman was then booked to team with Axel against CM Punk in an elimination handicap match at Night of Champions/ Heyman tried various times to get out of the match, which caused General Manager Brad Maddox to make the match into a No DQ elimination handicap match. At Night of Champions, Punk eliminated Axel (who had been forced to defend his Intercontinental Championship against Kofi Kingston earlier in the night), leaving Heyman and Punk alone. After receiving a beating from Punk and being placed in handcuffs, just as Heyman did to Punk weeks before, Punk was about to attack Heyman with a kendo stick when Ryback interfered and cost Punk the match by putting Punk through a table.
At Battleground
AWARDS & ACCOMPLISHEMENTS:
- Inside The Ropes Magazine:
- Manager of the Year (2020)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated:
- Faction of the Year (2022) - with The Bloodline
- Manager of the Year (1992)
- WWE:
- WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2024)
- WWE Year-End Award (1 time):
- Best on the Mic (2018)
- WWE Slammy Award (1 time):
- Mic Drop of the Year (2024) - Telling Cody Rhodes that his father, Dusty Rhodes, told him that Roman Reigns was the son he always wanted on RAW (February 6th, 2023)
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
- Feud of the Year (2023) - as part of The Bloodline vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
- Best Color Commentator (1991)
- Best Booker (1994-1997; 2002)
- Best on Interviews (2013-2014)
- Best Non-Wrestler (2001, 2002. 2004,. 2012-2014, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022)
- Best Non-Wrestler of the Decade (2010s)
- Best on Interview of the Decade (2010s)
- Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic (2012) - Angle with CM Punk, exploiting Jerry Lawler's real life heart attack, playing footage of his near death..
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2005)
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