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I was flicking through Youtube as i often do and came across the Michael Lansberg show Off The Record which is a show that i often end up watching on Youtube because i do like finding out about real life things from the wrestling industry and the one i came across today was with Paul Heyman in 2002. Now i know a lot of people claim him to be the man who could be the saviour of wrestling and there are those who do not rate him at all because the company he ran whilst having a HUGE cult following also went bust but i found Paul Heyman on Off The Record to be the most insightful and intelligent interview i had seen from anyone in the wrestling business that had appeared on that show.
When i look back at everything Paul Heyman did whilst at WWE either on screen as a character or off screen as a booker/writer he was simply amazing and anyone who has ever watched this interview on Off The Record can clearly see just how good this man is for the wrestling business. As an on screen character he drew heat like very few other's could but backstage as lead writer and booker for SmackDown he took the show to a level it had never been at before with Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Edge, Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero became "The SmackDown Six" and Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker were probably the two biggest star's in WWE with Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock not around.
In this interview Paul Heyman also pretty much came up with the "Hollywood" Rock gimmick and spoke about how great of a heel he could be if he came back to WWE with a gimmick where he was to busy in Hollywood to wrestle full time and that is exactly how he did come back and arguably as the hottest thing in wrestling in 2003 despite it only being a very short run. Paul Heyman spoke about how pushing the envelope back in 2002 was not needed at that time and seemed to understand what wrestling needs at certain times whereas no one else seems to understand the same things.
He spoke intelligently about how it was hard for Chris Jericho to get a real shot at being a top guy in 2002 because Stone Cold Steve Austin was there as well as The New World Order coming in whilst also speaking intelligently in response to Triple H saying he wouldn't ever bring Stone Cold Steve Austin back in the company after his walkout in which he said that if the people want you back and it is best for business then you do it and leave your ego out of it which is what Vince McMahon does. At times he was very careful in what he said about the writing/booking team but at that time he was working under Stephanie McMahon which was a hard situation due to him clearly being a much more talented writer/booker than she could ever be and which ended up being the reason he lost that job as he stood up to Stephanie and told her basically that her writing sucked.
Looking at how well SmackDown was booked in the period that Paul Heyman was the creative force behind it and also how he still has great ideas for the wrestling business that he has told to the media before through interviews or his column i would love to see him come back regardless of whether it was WWE or TNA. If you read his interview with The Sun in February 2008 as well you can see how that towards the end of his run with WWE his ideas were not the one's that Vince McMahon wanted to hear and Paul Heyman wasn't even allowed to run his ideas on ECW anymore, which he also didn't really even want to be resurected either because of how it would be run, and they had a HUGE argument in front of all of the creative team because of how December to Dismember was going to be booked as Vince McMahon decided to take over the whole PPV and we all know how that turned out.
This is just part of how Paul Heyman wanted The Elimination Chamber match at December to Dismember to play out,
My opinion was to start the chamber off with the Big Show saying: "I'm a seven foot tall, 500lb giant, I'm gonna mow through every one of you." And the first to take him on would be Punk. Playing to the fact that UFC is so hot and in the public consciousness, Punk chokes out Big Show in the first round of the Elimination Chamber, four-and-a-half minutes in, and now the champion is out. You know for a fact, before any two contenders lock up, I'm getting a new champion at the end of this match. Then, the first guy to come out after Big Show v Punk, would be Van Dam. You let Van Dam and Punk fight it out, and then you start feeding in the heels. Vince hated this. He especially hated the fact that Big Show liked it".
Now that would have made a much better main event that how it turned out to be and having either the crowd favorite ECW original and former champion in Rob Van Dam or the new favorite and future star CM Punk coming out as ECW champion would have been a great way to go but Vince McMahon really only wanted Paul Heyman around to make ECW seem authentic and once it was established didn't want him around. I wasn't a fan of ECW to start with but going into that PPV it had grown on me because Paul Heyman knew what was needed and despite having the smallest roster and few stars to work with made it a very watchable programme.
I had heard that Paul Heyman was more interested in MMA now than wrestling but since his consortium failed in their bid to buy StrikeForce he hasn't really been linked or even really that interested in MMA outside of watching show's and talking about MMA in interviews so if he was offered concrete money to sign and be in charge as he was originally offered by TNA then i think he would take it as long as it was on his terms. I can understand his reasoning if he didn't want to return to WWE but in TNA i believe he could do great things for a company in desperate need of consistantly sound booking which he could surely provide.
When i look back at everything Paul Heyman did whilst at WWE either on screen as a character or off screen as a booker/writer he was simply amazing and anyone who has ever watched this interview on Off The Record can clearly see just how good this man is for the wrestling business. As an on screen character he drew heat like very few other's could but backstage as lead writer and booker for SmackDown he took the show to a level it had never been at before with Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Edge, Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero became "The SmackDown Six" and Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker were probably the two biggest star's in WWE with Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock not around.
In this interview Paul Heyman also pretty much came up with the "Hollywood" Rock gimmick and spoke about how great of a heel he could be if he came back to WWE with a gimmick where he was to busy in Hollywood to wrestle full time and that is exactly how he did come back and arguably as the hottest thing in wrestling in 2003 despite it only being a very short run. Paul Heyman spoke about how pushing the envelope back in 2002 was not needed at that time and seemed to understand what wrestling needs at certain times whereas no one else seems to understand the same things.
He spoke intelligently about how it was hard for Chris Jericho to get a real shot at being a top guy in 2002 because Stone Cold Steve Austin was there as well as The New World Order coming in whilst also speaking intelligently in response to Triple H saying he wouldn't ever bring Stone Cold Steve Austin back in the company after his walkout in which he said that if the people want you back and it is best for business then you do it and leave your ego out of it which is what Vince McMahon does. At times he was very careful in what he said about the writing/booking team but at that time he was working under Stephanie McMahon which was a hard situation due to him clearly being a much more talented writer/booker than she could ever be and which ended up being the reason he lost that job as he stood up to Stephanie and told her basically that her writing sucked.
Looking at how well SmackDown was booked in the period that Paul Heyman was the creative force behind it and also how he still has great ideas for the wrestling business that he has told to the media before through interviews or his column i would love to see him come back regardless of whether it was WWE or TNA. If you read his interview with The Sun in February 2008 as well you can see how that towards the end of his run with WWE his ideas were not the one's that Vince McMahon wanted to hear and Paul Heyman wasn't even allowed to run his ideas on ECW anymore, which he also didn't really even want to be resurected either because of how it would be run, and they had a HUGE argument in front of all of the creative team because of how December to Dismember was going to be booked as Vince McMahon decided to take over the whole PPV and we all know how that turned out.
This is just part of how Paul Heyman wanted The Elimination Chamber match at December to Dismember to play out,
My opinion was to start the chamber off with the Big Show saying: "I'm a seven foot tall, 500lb giant, I'm gonna mow through every one of you." And the first to take him on would be Punk. Playing to the fact that UFC is so hot and in the public consciousness, Punk chokes out Big Show in the first round of the Elimination Chamber, four-and-a-half minutes in, and now the champion is out. You know for a fact, before any two contenders lock up, I'm getting a new champion at the end of this match. Then, the first guy to come out after Big Show v Punk, would be Van Dam. You let Van Dam and Punk fight it out, and then you start feeding in the heels. Vince hated this. He especially hated the fact that Big Show liked it".
Now that would have made a much better main event that how it turned out to be and having either the crowd favorite ECW original and former champion in Rob Van Dam or the new favorite and future star CM Punk coming out as ECW champion would have been a great way to go but Vince McMahon really only wanted Paul Heyman around to make ECW seem authentic and once it was established didn't want him around. I wasn't a fan of ECW to start with but going into that PPV it had grown on me because Paul Heyman knew what was needed and despite having the smallest roster and few stars to work with made it a very watchable programme.
I had heard that Paul Heyman was more interested in MMA now than wrestling but since his consortium failed in their bid to buy StrikeForce he hasn't really been linked or even really that interested in MMA outside of watching show's and talking about MMA in interviews so if he was offered concrete money to sign and be in charge as he was originally offered by TNA then i think he would take it as long as it was on his terms. I can understand his reasoning if he didn't want to return to WWE but in TNA i believe he could do great things for a company in desperate need of consistantly sound booking which he could surely provide.
