I understand most of you believe Paul Heyman is a genius because that's what you've read about him every week for the past 20 years by his friends in their newsletters. However, while I greatly admire his exceptional talking and acting abilities as an on-screen character, I'd like to ask the question: Is Paul Heyman a bit of a fraud, particularly when it comes to creative?
ECW's strengths were due to his ability to motivate cheap talent to perform insane, hardcore stunts on a regular basis without any guarantee of being paid the following week. Bluntly, he kind of took advantage of some angry, broke young adults who needed money, and worked them. Many required painkillers off the black market to function. Promises went unfulfilled. ECW required Vince to secretly finance them despite Paul utilising the financial advantages of broke young adults, illegal drugs, and crazy low pay to make the show possible.
Think about it - isn't this the hallmark of a fraud?
Move forward 15 years and the guy begins delivering an incredible Brock Lesnar promo, which he continues doing for 5 years. And now he's in charge of Raw.
Meltzer/Keller etc have been praising him as genius for 20 years, while McMahon is a lunatic with Alzheimer's scrambling to change everything at the last minute. Keller has admitted he's been on the phone to Paul every week.
And yet, every week there's a new story portraying Paul as a genius. Apparently, anything bad that happened on Raw was due to McMahon getting in the way. Oh, and Paul is a genius.
But has Raw ever been worse?
To what extent is Paul's reputation a result of him actively working the wrestling media? Considering the scam-like nature of ECW, and Raw's worst average ratings ever, is it time for fans to push back against the wrestling media's portrayal of Paul Heyman as a genius?
ECW's strengths were due to his ability to motivate cheap talent to perform insane, hardcore stunts on a regular basis without any guarantee of being paid the following week. Bluntly, he kind of took advantage of some angry, broke young adults who needed money, and worked them. Many required painkillers off the black market to function. Promises went unfulfilled. ECW required Vince to secretly finance them despite Paul utilising the financial advantages of broke young adults, illegal drugs, and crazy low pay to make the show possible.
Think about it - isn't this the hallmark of a fraud?
Move forward 15 years and the guy begins delivering an incredible Brock Lesnar promo, which he continues doing for 5 years. And now he's in charge of Raw.
Meltzer/Keller etc have been praising him as genius for 20 years, while McMahon is a lunatic with Alzheimer's scrambling to change everything at the last minute. Keller has admitted he's been on the phone to Paul every week.
And yet, every week there's a new story portraying Paul as a genius. Apparently, anything bad that happened on Raw was due to McMahon getting in the way. Oh, and Paul is a genius.
But has Raw ever been worse?
To what extent is Paul's reputation a result of him actively working the wrestling media? Considering the scam-like nature of ECW, and Raw's worst average ratings ever, is it time for fans to push back against the wrestling media's portrayal of Paul Heyman as a genius?
