History Trivia / PaulHeyman

* OldShame: Never, ever bring up his tenure at WCW to him.

** After being fired from WCW for the final time in 1993 Payl Heyman had been tapped by a New York radio station to host a drive time talk show and go head-to-head with Creator/HowardStern. The station felt Heyman's edgy style would get ratings and possibly eat into Stern's then-unprecedented listener base. Before Heyman could sign the deal, his old friend Eddie Gilbert called him up and goaded him into doing creative for NWA's the Philadelphia-based promotion: Eastern Championship Wrestling. You already know the rest of the story.

* PromotedFanboy: Heyman began in pro wrestling ''very'' young. How young? He began as a pro wrestling photographer when he was 13, published his own wrestling newsletter, wrote for third-party wrestling publications such as ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'', and at the age of 14, he obtained a backstage pass from WWF for Madison Square Garden, and met Wrestling/DustyRhodes at a Jim Crockett Promotions taping, when he entered a production meeting. [[https://i.redditmedia.com/wKcT4Xl1-5ZWrUXlKms67Q2291j10QK09F3vli1mnu4.jpg?w=957&s=d7eed8a1927fbda377a9151036186505 There's even a photo of him]] with Wrestling/FreddieBlassie, Wrestling/CaptainLouAlbano, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Roth Ernie Roth]].

* EnforcedMethodActing: When [[Wrestling/BrockLesnar Brock]] beat the streak at Wrestling/WrestleMania the only people who knew about the plan were Brock, [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker Taker,]] the ref, Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Steph, and Wrestling/TripleH. Paulrus sliding into the ring and screaming, "Oh my God!" until everyone else was let in on the plan were genuine.
* ExecutiveVeto: CM Punk credits Paul Heyman for being allowed to keep his ring name and UsefulNotes/{{straight edge}} gimmick. Other "writers" have revealed one of the plans for Punk was to turn him into a male cheerleader, essentially a baby {{face}} version of [[TheCheerleader The Spirit Squad]]. In fact, according to Heyman himself, he rebuffed numerous repeated memos from the top brass telling him to wind down Punk's storylines and fire him outright, instead saying they should fire Punk themselves if they cared so much. It took nine years, and it was only after Punk walked out on the company -- by then, CM Punk was one of their three biggest draws.
* HeAlsoDid: Rap music. Apparently Heyman was in demand in a few markets because of a demo tape he'd made.

* PromotedFanboy: [[https://i.redditmedia.com/wKcT4Xl1-5ZWrUXlKms67Q2291j10QK09F3vli1mnu4.jpg?w=957&s=d7eed8a1927fbda377a9151036186505 "He looks like a pencil-necked geek!"]]
** Don't worry, [[https://p1boggan.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/undertakerwcw.gif by age 25 he looked like Paul Heyman.]]
** He employed some of these, too.

* ShoutOut: Heyman's early ring name "Paul E. Dangerously" was a reference to the Creator/MichaelKeaton movie ''Film/JohnnyDangerously'', as Heyman bore a passing resemblance to Keaton when he was younger.

** Paul said he turned down the offer to go in full-time with Jim Crockett Productions because he was being highly considered by a radio affiliate (Hot 97) to be their morning guy, opposite Howard Stern. Horrifying to think that he might have thrown his life away being a shock jock.
** {{Wrestling/TNA}} President Dixie Carter is a mark who got played by WWE nobodies (Big John) and freeloaders (Russo, Hogan, Bischoff), yet dismissed people who knew how to book a show (Dutch Mantell, Terry Taylor, even the gerascophobic Jeff Jarrett). There's also a story that's always floated around, that Heyman was offered the booker position, but was turned down because he wanted creative control and a large share in the company.
** A Paul Heyman autobiography was in the works... until the Wrestling/BrockLesnar autobiography, which Heyman contributed to, was released to both critical and commercial disappointment.

* EnforcedMethodActing: When [[Wrestling/BrockLesnar Brock]] beat the streak at Wrestling/WrestleMania the only people who knew about the plan were Brock, [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker Taker,]] the ref, Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Steph and Haitch. Paulrus sliding into the ring and screaming, "Oh my God!" until everyone else was let in on the plan were genuine.

* EnforcedMethodActing: When [[Wrestling/BrockLesnar Brock]] beat the streak at WrestleMania the only people who knew about the plan were Brock, [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker Taker,]] the ref, Wrestling/VinceMcmahon, Steph and Haitch. Paulrus sliding into the ring and screaming, "Oh my God!" until everyone else was let in on the plan were genuine.

** {{Wrestling/TNA}} President Dixie Carter is a mark who got played by WWE nobodies (Big John) and freeloaders (Russo, Pritchard, Hogan, Bischoff), yet dismissed people who knew how to book a show (Dutch Mantell, Terry Taylor, even the gerascophobic Jeff Jarrett). There's also a story that's always floated around, that Heyman was offered the booker position, but was turned down because he wanted creative control and a large share in the company.

** Paul said he turned down the offer to go in full-time with Jim Crockett Productions because he was being highly considered a radio affiliate (Hot 97) station to be their morning guy, opposite Howard Stern. Horrifying to think that he might have thrown his life away being a shock jock.

** Around 2010 Wrestling/{{TNA}} wanted to bring in Paul Heyman to run their creative. [[ExecutiveMeddling Money and creative differences]] saw that it never happened.
** A Paul Heyman autobiography was in the works until the Wrestling/BrockLesnar autobiography, which Heyman contributed to, was released to both critical and commercial disappointment.

* PromotedFanboy: And he employed them, too.

** A Paul Heyman autobiography was in the works until the Wrestling/BrockLesnar autobiography, which Heyman contributed to, was released to both critical and commercial disappointment.

* ShoutOut: Heyman's early ring name "Paul E. Dangerously" was a reference to the MichaelKeaton movie ''Film/JohnnyDangerously'', as Heyman bore a passing resemblance to Keaton when he was younger.

* LyingCreator: He placed OVW students in the seats and told them to go wild to make Stephanie [=McMahon=] think fans preferred the product under ''his'' leadership than hers! If that's the lengths he'll go to with his '''boss''', do you really have to guess how he'd treat you, the lowly fan?

* RunningTheAsylum: While he mainly embodied this in ECW, bringing back the high flying, foreign objects and lucha libre type maneuvers that had not been in focus for a long time. He also put this into practice as GM of Smackdown, which had a reputation for being "the wrestling show" of WWE for a long time (Raw being the soap opera), even after Paul eventually left, up until the brands merged back together.

* ExecutiveVeto: CM Punk credits Paul Heyman for being allowed to keep his ring name and {{straight edge}} gimmick. Other "writers" have revealed one of the plans for Punk was to turn him into a male cheerleader, essentially a baby {{face}} version of [[TheCheerleader The Spirit Squad]]. In fact, according to Heyman himself, he rebuffed numerous repeated memos from the top brass telling him to wind down Punk's storylines and fire him outright, instead saying they should fire Punk themselves if they cared so much. It took nine years, and it was only after Punk walked out on the company -- by then, CM Punk was one of their three biggest draws.

* ExecutiveVeto: CM Punk credits Paul Heyman for being allowed to keep his ring name and {{straight edge}} gimmick. Other "writers" have revealed one of the plans for Punk was to turn him into a male cheerleader, essentially a baby {{face}} version of [[TheCheerleader The Spirit Squad]]. In fact, according to Heyman himself, he rebuffed numerous repeated memos from the top brass telling him to wind down Punk's storylines and fire him outright, instead saying they should fire Punk themselves if they cared so much. It took nine years.

* ExecutiveVeto: CM Punk credits Paul Heyman for being allowed to keep his ring name and {{straight edge}} gimmick. Other "writers" have revealed one of the plans for Punk was to turn him into a male cheerleader, essentially a baby {{face}} version of [[TheCheerleader The Spirit Squad]].

** A Paul Heyman autobiography was in the works until the BrockLesnar autobiography, which Heyman contributed to, was released to both critical and commercial disappointment.

* ExecutiveVeto: CM Punk credits Paul Heyman for being allowed to keep his ring name and {{straight edge}} gimmick. Other "writers" have revealed one of the plans for Punk was to turn him into a male cheerleader, essentially a baby {{face}} version of [[TheCheerleeder The Spirit Squad]].

* ExecutiveVeto: CM Punk credits Paul Heyman for being allowed to keep his ring name and {{straight edge}} gimmick. Other "writers" have revealed one of the plans for Punk was to turn him into a male cheerleader, essentially a baby {{face}} version of The Spirit Squad.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Around 2010 Wrestling/{{TNA}} wanted to bring in Paul Heyman to run their creative. [[ExecutiveMeddling Money and creative differences]] saw that it never happened.

* LyingCreator: He placed OVW students in the seats and told them to go wild to make Stephanie [=McMahon=] think fans were more into the product under him than they really were. Now if that's how he lies to his boss, do you really have to guess how he would do you, the lowly fan?

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A Paul Heyman autobiography was in the works until the BrockLesnar autobiography, which Heyman contributed to, was released to both critical and commercial disappointment.

* PromotedFanboy: And he employed them, too.