Paul Heyman News

It would be an understatement to say that Paul Heyman is a fan of Edge.

The former owner of ECW is a major, major fan of Edge.

Just take a look at some of what Heyman had to say about the WWE's best heel in a recent column for Great Britan's The Sun:

"A phenomenal worker with rock star looks, Copeland knows how to present the "Edge" character so no one has the inclination to cheer him.

His charisma alone could carry an entire show - and, bluntly, he's had Smackdown on his shoulders for longer than most people realize - but Copeland's portrayal of the scheming, manipulative, opportunistic Edge is played in such a way that you simply want to see him get beat or perhaps more importantly, beat up."

We agree with Paul Heyman: Edge is the best heel in the business.

Regarding his promo on last week's WWE RAW, Heyman said the following about Edge:

"Edge's range was amazing, too. From the frothing-at-the-mouth-anticipation of JR screaming "Edge wins! Edge wins! Edge wins!" to the envisioned-orgasm as he described "the love of my life" - dramatic pause, then emphasis - "Vickie Guerrero," Edge's promo was, as they say, one for the ages.

He had such heel heat by the time he punked out everyone from Ross to Undertaker to the Raw program itself, people were salivating at the mere thought that someone, somehow, someday would just smash this bastard.

Batista came out and delivered a ferocious beating to Edge, and the live audience came unglued."

Paul Heyman writes a column for The UK Sun. In his latest effort, the former ECW owner lists the top five talents he feels are the most underrated and underutilized in professional wrestling. They are:

5. Tito Ortiz: "Tito is finishing up his UFC contract this weekend. What does he do next? Wear out his name in MMA, or capitalize on his love for pro wrestling and exploit his larger than life personality by joining WWE or TNA? And remember, where Tito goes, so goes Jenna Jameson, the best self-promoter in show business today. "

4. Beth Phoenix: "It doesn't matter that she's already been WWE women’s champion, the audience hasn't even had a taste of what this phenomenal athlete is capable of."

3. James Mitchell: "The best backstage promo artist in the business, bar none. A brilliant spokesman who can articulate the merits of the opponent without selling his own act short."

2. The entire TNA Wrestling roster: "No long term concepts + bad television writing + zero marketing strategy = hard working talents whose efforts are wasted on a show that has not grown the audience whatsoever despite the tens of millions of dollars sunken into it."

1. Randy Orton: "When does Orton get to make you hate him so badly, you're willing to pay to see him get beat, or at least beaten up?"

Do you agree with these selections?

Paul Heyman was far from pleased with the way TNA Wrestling has marketed Samoa Joe since he won the TNA Title earlier this month.

"The live crowd, for the most part, loved the (Joe vs. Kurt Angle pay-per-view) match," Heyman wrote in his UK Sun blog. "Customer satisfaction with the TNA product probably reached an all time high with this match. And yet, NOTHING CHANGED!

"Why? Because TNA had no marketing campaign behind their new champion. 'Crossing the Line' was done by ECW in 1994. David Sahadi is a genius whose videos deserve massive praise, but the theme is the same as what he did for WWE a half decade ago. What public relations firm was hired to make Samoa Joe 'the IT guy' in today's pop culture? What marketing firm was retained to get the TNA name out there?"

Do you agree with Heyman's assessment?

Paul Heyman has a rather high opinion of his booking ability, according to a recent interview in The Miami Herald.

"I absolutely believe I can out-book anyone in the industry today, but it's a one-brand business right now," Heyman said. "That brand runs differently than the type of writing and mechanisms that I use. I have no bitterness about the wrestling industry. I've lived out every dream and had the time of my life. But it wasn't fun anymore. My time was up."

Heyman also commented on WWE continuing to use the ECW name.

"You can cry all day long that the show is not ECW and shouldn't be called ECW," he said. "But it's (WWE's) product. They bought it and have every right to do what they want with it. There's nothing you can do about it, so why get upset over it? I'm not emotionally attached to the letters because there's nothing to be attached to anymore."

What do you think? Is Paul Heyman the best wrestling booker alive?

There's an insightful interview with Paul Heyman in England's The Sun. Here are excerpts from it:

What happened with you and Vince McMahon?
I think what it boils down to is Vince McMahon and I have totally separate and distinct visions for what a wrestling or sports entertainment product should be.

There’s nothing wrong with having those different visions, the problem was that Vince started to take the difference of opinion personally.

And once that personality conflict comes into play, when you’re trying to steer the direction of a product, it becomes a bad work environment. So Vince didn’t like working with me anymore and I didn’t like working with Vince anymore.

How was it for you to see ECW - your baby, the thing you created - almost destroyed in front of your eyes?
It was a very rough road because, make no mistake about it, Vince McMahon has every right to do anything that he wants with ECW.

He bought the right to exploit the intellectual property of the brand. It’s his, he owns it, and nobody can question whether or not he is entitled to do whatever he damn well pleases with it. Rob Van Dam has articulated on this brilliantly in some recent interviews and it kind of brought back the memories of that time in 2006.

I tried to resign, and in front of other people because I wanted witnesses, several times in last two months of my tenure in WWE/ECW.

Read the full interview with Heyman now.

Paul Heyman could be making his way back to WWE television soon. Their has been some talk of bringing him back as a heel manager for a heel superstar that needs a little extra help to push him to the main event level. Discussion of bringing him back began with the recent plague of injuries in WWE.

Vince McMahon is said to be lukewarm about the idea, as this is a big change from his attitude this past December when he said Heyman would never be brought back. Heyman still remains under contract with WWE.

• During his appearance at the "World of Wheels" in St. Paul, Minnesota this past weekend, Rey Mysterio was walking around just fine after his knee surgery just weeks ago.

He appeared to be in just as good of shape as when he left TV. He says he will be returning to TV on Smackdown in San Diego on February 20, however it doesn’t look like he will be cleared to actually wrestle until after WrestleMania. Right now, he is not written in for any in-ring action at Wrestlemania 23.

• Paul Heyman is still on WWE payroll, however there is no indication that he is actually doing anything right now. There are no plans to bring him back to the WWE booking team in any form. At this point, he is just being paid to sit at home.

The British newspaper, The Sun, recently wrote an article outlining possible options for Paul Heyman in the future. Here are a few paraphrased excerpts from it:

Will he stay with the WWE in another position, join TNA, start his own federation or simply retire?

Staying with the WWE: To the best our of knowledge, the situation with Paul is this - he has definitely been fired from his job in ECW, but is still under contract to the WWE.

The AWA, who were claiming Paul was coming to do a show for them, say they got a letter from WWE solicitors reading: "Regardless of Mr Heyman's personal agendas and for him to personally shop his availability, let it be reminded that Mr. Heyman is still under contractual agreement with the World Wrestling Entertainment Inc regardless of his past relationships with the AWA."

However, we're told that contract can be broken by either side at any time and given what's happened in the last week it probably will be.

It does throw up another intriguing option, though: Vince McMahon trying to keep Heyman in order to stop him going to a competitor. McMahon could send him back to train the stars of the future in Ohio Valley, as Paul did before, or have him work behind the scenes.

In theory, they could even let all the anger over ECW die down and bring Heyman back as a manager or commentator on Raw or Smackdown.

Probability - 3/5

Moving to TNA Wrestling: This is the fan's dream scenario. What could be better than Paul Heyman let loose in an environment where he is able to book the way he, rather than Vince McMahon, wants?

Even more ideally, a ship-jumping Paul has enough friends and respect in the WWE locker room to take other big names over with him.

Rob Van Dam's contract is up soon and he's said to be very unhappy at seeing his dream of a revived ECW die in front of his eyes, as well as being annoyed at the 'unfair' treatment he's received from Vince McMahon over his drugs arrest and refusal to work a show in Iraq.

One rumor making the rounds even says that his wife Sonya was among those chanting "TNA" at Van Dam after he was pinned in the Elimination Chamber at the PPV.

If Paul and RVD left then the likes of Sabu and Tommy Dreamer would probably go with them - and Heyman may even be able to tempt a Chris Benoit or Rey Mysterio type when their WWE tenure ends.

But sadly the main thing blocking this fantasy move is those in charge of TNA Wrestling.

Vince Russo has only just been hired as chief booker and is close to co-owner Jeff Jarrett - neither will want Heyman messing up their cosy relationship. And the other TNA writers may also find themselves threatened by an incoming Heyman and try to stop it happening.

To throw one more problem into the fire: top star Kurt Angle dislikes working for Paul, stemming from the way he felt he was misused in ECW.

Probability - 2/5

While Paul Heyman was technically the head writer for ECW, he anwered to Vince McMahon like everyone else.

This was clear the night before Heyman was fired, at December to Dismember.

McMahon made several changes late in the game, including removing entirely Sabu entirely from the Extreme Elimination chamber, as well as forcing out CM Punk and RVD so early. The reasoning behind the moves? To force fans to cheer on eventual winner, Lashley.

This is not part of a story line: Vince McMahon was furious at Sunday's ECW December to Dismember pay-per-view.

As a result, he has fired Paul Heyman from the creative team - and all of WWE.

According to sources, Vince believes that Heyman doesn’t get what the new vision of ECW should be and that he is "caught in the past."

As problems began at the PPV, Heyman was vocal about his displease. Reportedly there were definite issues between Vince and Paul that escalated yesterday at the tapings where a meeting was held during the afternoon between Heyman, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque and McMahon.

After the meeting, Heyman grabbed his stuff and left. We'll have more on this story as it develops.