[WWW] Don Callis column - Heyman in fine form

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Heyman in fine form

By DON 'Cyrus' CALLIS -- For SLAM! Wrestling

Paul Heyman is back on WWE television as the general manager of
Smackdown, and thus far has been the star of the show by delivering
some varied and excellent interview segments with everyone from Brock
Lesnar to Vince McMahon. In fact, Paul's performance this past week
with Vince was fantastic, and it was a testament to Paul's microphone
skills (and Vince's acting ability) that Paul was able to go mano a
mano with Vince on the mike and come out on top.

Heyman has been around the wrestling business since he was a young
lad. He used to sneak into Madison Square Garden as a kid and
eventually became a well known wrestling photographer at the shows. My
old tag partner Rick Martel remembered Paul backstage at those shows,
and Paul remembered Rick as being one of the first wrestlers to be
kind to him when he was at the shows. Paul has a phenomenal memory for
detail and wrestling history.

LITERALLY EVERY TERRITORY 

Paul has acted in the role of traditional wrestling manager over the
course of his career, in literally every territory where they had
managers. In the AWA he was very much on the cutting edge with his
"psycho yuppie" gimmick, and he became a heat seeking mouthpiece in
WCW until he was fired by management. (How would you like to be the
one who was crazy enough to let Paul Heyman go?) But, I guess
hindsight is 20/20 and the firing allowed Paul to move on to the
independent circuit where he hooked up with a local promotion owned by
Tod Gordon called ECW (Eastern Championship Wrestling).

Paul came in when Eddie Gilbert was the booker and presumably learned
a lot from one of the best booking minds at the time anywhere. Over
the course of the ensuing months, events took place that saw Paul
become the head booker for the upstart company, eventually (and
famously) changing the name to Extreme Championship Wrestling while
implementing a new more violent, cutting edge style not seen in
American wrestling before. Paul would go on to become part and then
full owner of the company.

Paul made ECW what it was, which was a revolutionary product that
changed North American wrestling. He also made or saved a lot of
wrestling careers. Many wrestlers who had been let go by WWF were made
into stars by Paul's simple philosophy of letting the talent do what
it did best and by playing to their strengths. Shane Douglas, Raven
and I were all examples of guys who flourished under Paul after
struggling to get TV time elsewhere.

Sadly for all of the ECW wrestlers, and perhaps most so for Paul, ECW
went out of business in 2001. Paul landed with WWE as a writer and
then as an on-camera performer and has excelled in both roles. Seeing
Paul cutting fantastic promos every week reminds fans who had not seen
him in this role for several years how very good he can be. In ECW,
Paul never put himself in a position as an on-camera performer,
despite the fact that he both owned the company and likely would have
been better than anyone else in a managerial role.

There has always been a question as to whether or not a male manager,
or non-wrestler, can draw money. Anyone in Winnipeg who witnessed
Bobby Heenan sell out the Arena knows different, and anyone who has
heard Paul Heyman on the microphone lately knows different as well.

K-5 NEWS 

Tony Condello's TCW (Tony's Championship Wrestling) has a big show at
the Little Mountain Sportsplex on Friday, Nov. 14. Tickets available
by calling 229-9173 ... NHB star Ivan Sozynski has another Mixed
Martial Arts fight on Saturday, Nov. 29 at the Duckworth Centre. Ivan
has been training hard and looks fantastic ... If you are interested
in becoming a pro wrestler, manager, valet, announcer, referee or
writer, you can do so by attending the NHB Training Centre. Email us
at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for details ... NWA World Champion Jeff
Jarrett wrestled both Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Rick Steiner this past
week on TNA Wrestling and walked away, title intact ... Sonjay Dutt
has been an impressive newcomer.