Paul Heyman

Some Lesser Known Facts About Paul Heyman

• At 11, Paul Heyman had a business of selling celebrity and sports memorabilia by mail order.

• As a teenager, he had a photo lab to take photos of the pro-wrestlers, and he also used to publish his newsletter, The Wrestling Times Magazine. He wrote articles for other publications such as Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI).

• At 14, he contacted Capitol Wrestling Corporation, the parent company of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), and he got a job as a photojournalist at Madison Square Garden (MSG) in New York City.

• As a youngster, he met legendary heel managers and wrestlers of WWF (World Wrestling Federation) – Lou Albano, Freddie Blassie and The Grand Wizard. Many claim that this meeting played a vital role in his later managerial career.

  

• During his university days, he worked as a radio jockey at the State University of New York at Purchase (SUNY Purchase) and WARY-FM New York radio station at the SUNY Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York.

• He worked as a photographer at the Broadway theatre and former nightclub, Studio 54, when he was 19. He later became a producer and promoter of the nightclub.

  

• On the insistence of professional wrestler, Scott Charles Bigelow (with ring name Bam Bam Bigelow), he started his managerial career on 2 January 1987 on an independent circuit (indie circuit or a smaller promotion) in North-eastern wrestling.

• In February 1987, he teamed up with professional wrestlers, Kevin Sullivan and John Jay Sutton (with ring name, Oliver Humperdink) at Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF).

• At CWF, he took up his ring name as Paul E. Dangerously, since he resembled the character Michael Keaton played in the crime thriller, Johnny Dangerously (1984).

• After CWF, he joined the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) and was the manager for Thomas Richardson (ring name, Tommy Rich) and Michael McCord (ring name, Austin Idol).

• The famous gimmick (in-ring persona) of Paul E. Dangerously was as a young professional New Yorker holding a mobile phone, which he sometimes used as a foreign object (or a weapon) in the ring.

  

• He worked at both, the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) and the American Wrestling Association (AWA) before moving to the Continental Wrestling Federation in Alabama and then to Windy City Wrestling in Chicago as a head booker (wrestling content organizer).

• During this time, he gained popularity as a television writer and producer.

• In 1988, he joined Jim Crockett Promotions and was an announcer with James William Ross (with ring name, Jim Ross) at the World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

• In between his terms with WCW, Paul Heyman joined as a writer at the International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW), initially known as International Championship Wrestling (ICW), he was dismissed on his first day of work.

• WCW wanted to restructure their ‘heels’ (the wrestlers who portray the antagonist or villainous roles) and Heyman became the spokesperson and ringside manager of Dangerous Alliance with Richard Erwin Rood (with ring name, Ravishing Rick Rude) at the central role of the stable. With Paul, the alliance won many titles, dominating over other factions in 1992.

  

• He was fired from WCW after a fallout from William F. Watts (Bill Watts) in 1993. He filed a lawsuit citing wrongful termination and ethnic discrimination and later settled it out of court.

• Paul Heyman and Jim Crockett Junior wanted to start a new promotion but it did not materialise due to their difference of opinion regarding the wrestling brand.

• After a clash between booker Eddie Gilbert and owner Tom Gordon, Paul Heyman took charge as the booker of the NWA.

• Shane Douglas (champion wrestler of ECW), Tom Gordon, and Paul Heyman conspired for the fall of NWA in 1994 and renamed the promotion, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).

• By 1995, Heyman became the sole owner of ECW.

• By 2001, ECW faced financial troubles and World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., bought ECW and the rights to the ECW video library in 2003.

• He acted in the Hollywood film, RollerBall (2002), as an English Sports announcer.

  

• From 2001 to 2006, he was a commentator at the WWE Raw, a writer for WWE Smackdown, a mentor and manager to Brock Lesnar, and a head booker and writer in Ohio Valley Wrestling.

• Paul Heyman, with Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff, announced the ECW One Night Stand, a pay-per-view event produced by WWE, in 2005.

  

• After multiple disagreements between Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon, he stopped working with Vince on 17 December 2006.

• He returned to WWE in 2012 on the insistence of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman Guys, containing Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, and Curtis Axel, had a good running on the various events.
  

• His opening line, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name is Paul Heyman’, is very popular among wrestling followers and is also the title of the documentary of his life and career directed by Kevin Dunn – Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name is Paul Heyman (2014).

  

• He was the sole manager of Brock Lesnar from 2014 to 2020 until Lesnar became a free agent. Paul decided to leave Lesnar after he lost the WWE Champion title to Drew McIntyre.

  

• Paul Heyman has been the manager of Roman Reigns since 2020.

• He has been the manager and writer of The Bloodline team (Solo Sikoa, The Rock, Tama Tonga, and Tanga Loa) since 2021.

  

• He co-founded the award-winning advertisement company, The Looking 4 Larry Agency, in New York.

• He has been suffering from insomnia for years.