Paul Heyman came pretty damn close to walking away from professional wrestling before ECW ever became his playground. In fact, he says he was just days away from signing a deal that would have put him on New York morning radio directly against Howard Stern.
Speaking to Graham Bensinger, Heyman recalled getting fired from WCW following his issues with Bill Watts, who had been brought in to reshape the company. According to Heyman, Watts wanted to cut talent contracts, and Heyman had absolutely no interest in accepting less money.
“I got fired from WCW, and I didn’t want to ever get fired again. I was the CEO of the Dangerous Alliance, which was the group of villains that was opposing the big heroes in WCW.
And they brought in an executive to reshape the company named Bill Watts, and he wanted to cut everybody’s contracts, and I wasn’t going to take the pay cut.
And I rebelled against it, and I ended up on the outs. And I was really pissed off, and I was 28 years old, and I said, ‘Oh, I’m done with the wrestling business. I’m out.’”
And Heyman insists that wasn’t just something he said while angry. He genuinely planned on leaving wrestling and already had the next chapter of his career lined up through the William Morris Agency. That chapter would have put Paul E. Dangerously into one hell of a fight — going head-to-head with Howard Stern on New York morning radio.
“So I was days away from signing the contract negotiated by William Morris to go on New York radio in the mornings, head-to-head with Howard Stern.”
According to Heyman, his completely unfiltered Paul E. Dangerously personality was exactly what radio executives were looking for at the time. Stern was dominating the market, and other stations wanted someone controversial enough to compete with him.
But before Heyman could actually sign the contract, Jim Crockett Jr. came calling. Crockett was planning another wrestling promotion and wanted Heyman to become its booker, even offering him a piece of the business. Heyman initially said no. Crockett then hit him exactly where it hurt by questioning whether all of Heyman’s complaints about outdated wrestling bookers actually meant anything if he wasn’t willing to grab the pencil himself.
“And he said, ‘So all the bitching that you’ve done about the other bookers, how far behind the times they are, how the business has lost the plot, it’s too embedded in its own thinking, that’s just you bitching like everybody else? You mean you don’t really want to change it? You don’t really want to show everybody how progressive, how forward-thinking you are?’ He called my bluff.”
That challenge worked. Heyman abandoned the radio plan and agreed to work with Crockett, a decision that apparently did not make his representatives particularly happy.
“Man, was William Morris pissed off. I backed out of the deal before we signed the contract.”
Around the same time, Heyman’s booking mentor Eddie Gilbert had taken over creative for a startup Philadelphia promotion called Eastern Championship Wrestling. That little company would eventually become ECW, with Heyman becoming the creative force behind one of wrestling’s most influential promotions instead of spending his mornings trying to out-outrage Howard Stern on New York radio.
It’s a pretty wild sliding-doors moment considering how much Heyman’s decision ultimately changed his career. Had he signed that radio contract a few days earlier, the man who became synonymous with ECW might have ended up fighting an entirely different kind of ratings war.
How different do you think Paul Heyman’s career — and ECW itself — would have been if he had actually left wrestling to compete with Howard Stern on New York radio? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
