Paul Heyman's Biggest ECW Fumbles

Paul Heyman's Biggest ECW Fumbles

April 30, 2025

By Ryan Porzl

For over 40 years, one of wrestling's more colorful and famous individuals is Paul Heyman. Heyman has done a bit of everything in wrestling from managing to commentating to promoting to booking. He spent the last 40 year on and off as a manager under his own name and as Paul E. Dangerously where he managed some of the biggest names in the business. Modern day fans mostly know Heyman for his associations with acts like Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns. However, Heyman will likely be remembered by many for his time in ECW. Originally coming in as a manager, Heyman eventually became the promotion's booker and eventual owner. Heyman's time running ECW was largely praised making his share of stars and legends to his ability to come up with great storylines to his ability to get the best out of his talents. However, while Heyman had his successes with ECW, he was far from perfect. Even someone as praised as Heyman has made his share of bad mistakes from lackluster decisions to flat out bone headed and stupid ones. Here now, we'll look at the biggest fumbles Heyman made in ECW.

Note: I don't own any pictures. Credit to WWE or whomever owns them.

10. The Booking of The ECW World Championship In 2000/2001- Though the ECW World Championship lasted nine years under the original ECW, it still was held by many all time greats. From established legends like Jimmy Snuka, Don Muraco, Tito Santana, Terry Funk, and Bam Bam Bigelow to men who became legends in ECW like Shane Douglas, Taz, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, The Sandman, Rhino, and Sabu to name some. For the most part, the ECW World Championship was booked well and not usually like a hot potato for the most part. However, 2000/2001 would see Heyman be a little unstable with the championship. While granted the ECW Championship didn't change over 20 times like the WCW World Championship in the same period, it still could be considered all over the place. Mike Awesome entered 2000 as the World Champion and held the title before leaving for WCW (more on that later). Tazz defeated Awesome on April 13th for the championship but only held the belt for 9 days before losing it to Tommy Dreamer on April 22nd who then proceeded to lose the belt to Justin Credible only minutes later. Credible would have a stable run as he held the title for over 5 months. Then Jerry Lynn won it on October 1st and held the title for only a month. Steve Corino then won it on November 5th and held it for two months during which Sandman stole the belt during the second half of Corino's reign. Sandman then regained it on January 7, 2001 but lost it to Rhino only minutes later. Rhino would hold the championship for nearly 3 months before ECW declared bankruptcy. Over all, they're were 8 title reigns during a 15 month period. Of those reigns, only two went 100 days, three went less than 3 months, 1 went less than 10 days, and 2 went only a few minutes. It's almost like Heyman knew ECW was done and handing the belt to as many people as he could except the one guy he should've (more on that in a bit).

9. The FTW World Championship- A lot of modern day fans are familiar with the FTW World Championship mostly for it's time in AEW when the belt's creator Taz brought it in and would be held by a variety of names including Taz's legit son Hook to charges like Brian Cage and Ricky Starks to AEW pillar Jack Perry to legends like Chris Jericho. However, The FTW (Fuck The World) World Championship did not debut in AEW but rather over 20 years earlier in ECW and it was another miss on Heyman's part. The FTW World Championship was unveiled on May 14, 1998 at ECW's It Ain't Seinfeld show when Taz introduced it after his inability to get an ECW World Championship shot against Shane Douglas. With Douglas having injury issues, it seems like Heyman could've eventually build the title up by having Taz defend it to show himself as "the real world champion" and lead to a big unification match. Instead, Taz defended it against Bam Bam Bigelow at Heat Wave 1998 and that was pretty much it for the next few months. Things grew worse when Heyman finally decided to pull the trigger on Taz's world title win but wanted the FTW title off him. Instead of maybe losing it in a hard fought match, he basically beat up Sabu and then let his hated rival pin him to win the belt making the title look even more worthless. After that, you then had a potential angle of Sabu then trying to defend the belt to show he did more with Taz's belt than Taz ever did but again, Sabu only made a handful of defenses before losing it back to Taz (now the ECW Champion) at the Living Dangerously 1999 PPV in a unification match to end it. Overall, the FTW World Championship could've had some interesting stories but it felt like a waste of time and Heyman didn't take full advantage of it.

8. Rick Rude's ECW Run- What can be said about "Ravishing" Rick Rude that hasn't already been said? Rude enjoyed an eleven year career beginning in 1983 where he enjoyed success in the territories before hitting it big in the WWF and NWA/WCW where he established himself as one of the greatest heels in the business until a back injury in May 1994 ended his career. After three years away, Rude made his return to wrestling for ECW in January 1997. Probably not a shock as Heyman knew Rude from their time in WCW as part of the Dangerous Alliance from 1991-1992. Rude's debut was interesting as he came in as a babyface despite spending most of his career as a heel and he came in under a mask. Rude first came in to confront ECW World Television Champion Shane Douglas with the claim his 1997 New Year's Resolution was to "fuck with the Franchise" while also having interest in Douglas' valet Francine. Despite being masked, fans immediately recognized his voice so there was no mystery as to who he was. Rude would stalk Douglas for several months with the angle peaking at Barely Legal in April when Rude and ex-Triple Threat member Brian Lee beat up Douglas following his successful title defense against Pitbull #2. After that, it looked like a potential showdown would happen but there was a problem. As mentioned, Rude suffered a back injury in 94 and while he was itching to get back in the ring, he had been collecting on his disability from Lloyd's of London which legally prevented him from doing so until he or someone bought out the claim. Obviously, ECW didn't have the money so that was out. As a result, Rude would bounce around after that with Heyman not having anything for him. He tried him as a color commentator during the spring and early summer but it became clear after a few weeks Rude couldn't make the transition. By July, Heyman turned Rude heel and put him with Douglas as his advisor in exchange for one night with Francine. Rude would guide Douglas for several months and hand pick opponents for Douglas after he regained the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. However, in October, Rude turned face again by betraying Douglas and convincing Triple Threat member Bam Bam Bigelow to take a title shot which Bigelow did and won the championship. Rude would then manage Bigelow for a month before abruptly leaving both ECW and WWF to return to WCW in November 1997. Overall, Rude in ECW was interesting but Heyman didn't seem to have a long term plan for him though to be fair, his hands were tied in some cases.

7. Booking The Pay-Per-Views- By the late 1990s, Heyman began making moves to try to get ECW to take that next step and grow. During the promotions final years, Heyman got them a national TV deal with TNN (more on that in a bit), an action figure line, and two video games. However, the first step was Pay-Per-View. After a delay (more on that in a bit), ECW debuted on PPV with Barely Legal in April 1997. Overall, ECW would do 21 PPVs from Barely Legal to Guilty As Charged 2001. However, for some reason, Heyman never nailed doing PPVs. Despite doing 21 of them, most would say ECW and Heyman only really nailed two of them in Barely Legal and Heat Wave 1998 while the others were very hit or miss. ECW PPVs usually weren't up to the caliber of WWF or WCW ones and the bookings can be a mess from baiting and switching to turning singles matches into impromptu tag matches to ridiculous overbooking with multiple run-ins. For all the grief people give Vince Russo, Heyman could be as guilty of doing bad Crash TV style booking. Sometimes, it either felt like Heyman would throw shit on the wall or that he didn't have faith in his roster.

6. Justin Credible's Monster Push- Many wrestlers came through ECW's doors during their nine year run but perhaps no one caught the eye of Paul Heyman more than a man who was not just the coolest, not just the best, but was Justin Credible. Credible (real name Peter Polaco) turned pro in 1992 and would get his start on the indie circuit before being brought in to do prelim work for the WWF and WCW from 1993-1994 usually under the name PJ Walker. By late 1994, he signed with the WWF and was repackaged as "The Portuguese Man O' War" Aldo Montoya but the gimmick did little for him outside of having colorful attire and a mask that everyone compared to a jockstrap. By 1997, Credible's WWF run would end and after a cup of coffee in the Memphis based USWA, would sign with ECW. After a few appearances he would be repackaged as Justin Credible in September 1997 with the character being an arrogant, disrespectful punk who used anyone and anything as a stepping stone to the top. Credible worked for ECW until their closure in April 2001 where he was a pet project of Heyman who seemed to see limitless potential in him. For three and a half years, Heyman did everything short of selling his soul to get Credible over as a main eventer from a five month ECW World Championship run and two runs with the World Tag Team Championship with Lance Storm as The Impact Players. Heyman also put him with just about anyone he could from the Great Sasuke, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, Jerry Lynn, and Mikey Whipwreck to Credible being credited with running Shane Douglas, Sid, Lance Storm, and (briefly) The Sandman out of ECW. Unfortunately, it didn't really work. Credible was a good talent and certainly hard working but the fans didn't take him as that main event player or top heel that Heyman visioned him to be. In retrospect, it can be argued Heyman dropped the ball giving Credible a five month World Title run in 2000 when the company was in weak shape and had more over names like Rob Van Dam (more on that later).

5. The Sandman Crucifixion Angle- Obviously anyone who knows ECW knows this had to make the list. In 1996, one of the biggest feuds in ECW was Raven and The Sandman. Originally battling over the ECW World Championship, the feud would get personal when Raven manipulated Sandman's wife Lori and son Tyler to join him and attempted to ruin Sandman's family. The feud also became famous for another reason and a wrong one. On October 26, 1996, ECW presented their High Incident show at the ECW Arena. The show was loaded with Tommy Dreamer and Brian Lee concluding their feud in a memorable scaffold match to Steve Williams and Terry Gordy reuniting their Miracle Violence Connection team one last time against The Eliminators to the first wrestling appearance of Kurt Angle who was coming off winning a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics and someone ECW was courting. However, most of this took a back seat to an angle involving Raven and Sandman. The angle would see Sandman attacked by Raven and his stable Raven's Nest with the end result seeing them "crucifying" Sandman on a cross while putting a crown of barbed wire on his head. Obviously, doing this kind of stuff is like playing with fire. Heyman had to have known that and he got burned. The segment received a lot of backlash to the point where ECW reportedly never aired the segment on TV and only pictures exist. It also got to the point where Heyman sent Raven out to break character and apologize. Speaking of Kurt Angle, he was quite infuriated by the whole thing and not only stormed out of the show but refused with work with ECW. Angle wouldn't return to pro wrestling till he was signed to a WWF deal in 1998. Obviously, ECW was known for breaking the rules and pushing the envelope but some things shouldn't be tried and Heyman found that out the hard way here.

4. The Mass Transit Incident- The Sandman crucifixion angle wasn't the only headache ECW had in 1996. Hell, it wasn't even the only headache they had in the fall season. This one is of course universally known to ECW fans and many longtime fans. For those unaware, ECW ran a house show on November 23, 1996 in Revere, Massachusetts. A featured match was to see ECW World Tag Team Champions The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa Saed) face off against D-Von Dudley and Axl Rotten. However, due to a family emergency, Rotten wasn't able to make the show. Enter Erich Kulas. Kulas was a 17 year old aspiring wrestler who worked local shows under the name Mass Transit, a bus driver character likely inspired by Jackie Gleason's iconic character Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners. Kulas was originally supposed to participate on the show in a comedy match against two mini wrestlers. However, Kulas then volunteered to replace Rotten in the match. Kulas reportedly lied to Heyman claiming he was 19 and trained under legendary wrestler and trainer Killer Kowalski. Without having any solid evidence, Heyman took the word of Kulas and booked him in the match. Another issue was Kulas reportedly told Jack to cut him as he wanted to blade but didn't know how. The match itself was a short squash but became memorable when Jack took a surgical scalpel and accidentally cut too deep into Kulas' forehead. The match ended shortly after with Kula's bleeding out of his forehead like a fountain. While the event was a house show and ECW didn't film it, ECW business partners RF Video did tape a bootleg as part of their "Fam Cam" series. Following the event, the incident would get ugly as Kulas would sue New Jack for assault and the footage would eventually leak which painted not only Jack but ECW in a bad light. On top of that, Request TV got a copy and proceeded to cancel the Barely Legal PPV set for December 1996. In the end, Kulas lies would be exposed and Jack would be acquitted. That along with having to beg and pled for another chance saw ECW get back on the PPV schedule by April 1997. All in all, Heyman dodged a bullet. While obviously, Kulas is at fault for lying and insisting on blading, Heyman could've done a better job and shouldn't have put himself in a position where he put someone he was unfamiliar with in a setting like that as it could've been worse for ECW.

3. ECW's Deal With TNN- ECW was a lot of things but one thing they weren't was financially stable. It's no secret that ECW had no where near the funds or war chest that companies like the WWF and WCW had. In some cases, they would be hanging in there. By 1999, things were beginning to look bleak for the promotion. The move to PPV didn't make them more financially successful and reports were out there of the promotion bouncing checks. Because of these issues, many wrestlers began leaving and seeking employment elsewhere with some having a fallen out with Heyman. However, by July 1999, the promotion seemed to see a light at the end of the tunnel when they finally struck a national TV deal with TNN (now the Paramount Network). At the time, TNN was the Nashville Network, a station that aired country music and rural type television programs but by 1999 were looking to change their image. At the time, it was hoped that the TNN deal would be ECW's savior but it didn't take long for issues to begin. Obviously, fans have heard Paul Heyman and ECW alumni's side of the story for decades and to be fair, TNN reportedly didn't make things easier. Reportedly, TNN gave ECW a small budget but expected them to up their production to something similar to what WWF and WCW was doing while complaining about ECW's theme song being "demonic". However, Heyman and ECW weren't entirely innocent as Heyman taped a lackluster first TV Taping which proved poor enough that he decided to have the first episode be a "Best of" which TNN wasn't thrilled with. Heyman would also butt heads as TNN wanted ECW to tone down some of the violence and remove some of the grittiness that ECW was famous for but Heyman refused believing that made ECW different despite it not translating well to national TV. ECW also failed to meet expectations as TNN reportedly were hoping for a 2.0 rating but ECW only got as high as a 0.9. By early 2000, it was universally known the ECW/TNN relationship was rocky at best, a powder keg ready to burst at worst. During this time, reports came out Viacom was courting the WWF to bring RAW over to TNN with many believing ECW was being used to see if wrestling could work. Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, Heyman then proceeded to nuke whatever bridge he had with TNN and possibly ruin whatever chance they had at another network. The first incident came in early 2000 when Heyman booked Don Callis (then Cyrus the Virus), who at that point was mostly used as a PPV announcer, to become a top heel in the promotion claiming he was a representative of "The Network" (clearly referencing TNN). Callis would also unite with many of the top heels in the promotion and make unpopular decisions that "The Network" supposedly wanted with Heyman trying to paint TNN as the villains. From there, announcers Joey Styles and Joel Gertner began mocking TNN calling it "the Redneck Network" while Gertner began making accusations that TNN executives were having sex with farm animals. Finally, when the WWF deal came true, Heyman proceeded to try and go scorched Earth by filming a promo attacking the network, threatening legal action, and daring TNN to throw them off the air. Worse of all, Heyman put it on the TNN broadcast and stupidly thought the network would be cool with it. In the end, the segment did air but the catch was that TNN muted Heyman so TV audiences couldn't hear what Heyman was ranting about. If that wasn't embarrassing enough, TNN then had fun at Heyman's expense by scrolling a message at the bottom of the screen claiming they supported ECW, for viewers not to listen to Heyman's "temper tantrum", and even joked he got put through too many tables. It was embarrassing for Heyman. Sure enough, the WWF made their way to TNN in September 2000 and ECW was axed by October. Was TNN easy to deal with? By all accounts no. Is there reasons to criticize them? Sure. However, Heyman and ECW were hardly innocent victims as Heyman's attitude and later petulant child behavior certainly did ECW no favors and maybe hasten the promotion's demise.

2. The Tazz/Mike Awesome World Championship Debacle- In January 1999, Taz defeated "the Franchise" Shane Douglas for the ECW World Championship at the Guilty As Charged 1999 PPV. By all accounts, it felt like a passing of the torch as Taz looked like "the guy" going forward while Douglas, arguably ECW's biggest name, moved down to the midcard before leaving in May. Taz would reign as champion for eight months until like many he decided to leave for greener pastures. By September 1999, it was reported Taz would head to the WWF in early 2000 and Heyman had to find someone new to be his guy. He ultimately chose Mike Awesome, a Florida native who made appearances for ECW before but gained fame in Japan for the FMW (Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling) promotion as "the Gladiator". Awesome defeated Taz and archrival Masato Tanaka for the ECW World Championship at the Anarchy Rulz 1999 PPV. By November, Taz finished up and left for the WWF debuting in January at the Royal Rumble PPV while Heyman would go with Awesome as his guy. Then things got ugly when Awesome, like many, was frustrated with ECW's financial issues and decided to seek employment in WCW. From there, Heyman threatened legal action but Awesome would make his WCW debut on the April 10, 2000 Nitro (the same night Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo returned to reboot WCW). In an attempt to prevent a lawsuit, WCW agreed to let Heyman use Awesome one last time so he could drop the title. Taking advantage of his relationship with the WWF, Heyman brought Taz (now renamed Tazz due to copyright) back at an ECW on TNN TV taping on April 13, 2000 and had him squash Awesome in 1:13 to regain the ECW World Championship. No doubt, Heyman thought he scored a massive coup and major buzz for ECW by having a WWF wrestler beat a WCW wrestler for the ECW World Championship in an ECW ring. Unfortunately, the move completely backfired on Heyman and ECW. First problem was the match went less than 80 seconds so it wasn't anything special. Second, Heyman likely dropped the ball in perhaps creating a potential new star to win it. In fact, Awesome went on record claiming he would've preferred losing it to the up and coming Rhino who ECW was grooming for future stardom. Third, the WWF clearly didn't care to make Tazz look special or anything. In the nine days Tazz was world champion, he went 0-2, first losing a Hardcore Championship (by this point a joke title) match to comedy wrestler Crash Holly in a triple threat match involving Perry Saturn on the April 17th RAW. Then on the April 20th Smackdown, Tazz took on WWF Champion Triple H in a non-title champion vs. champion match which saw Tazz not only lose to Triple H thus allowing the WWF to show ECW isn't on their level but the match went less than six minutes with commentator Jerry Lawler burying ECW on commentary. Even worse, the match saw Tommy Dreamer, who was set to face and defeat Tazz for the World Title two days later at Cyberslam 2000, come in and try to aid Tazz only to not only accidentally nail him with a steel chair but then took Triple H's pedigree with the show ending with Triple H standing tall against both Tazz and Dreamer with the latter looking like an idiot. In the end, Tazz dropped the title to Dreamer two days later at Cyberslam (only for Dreamer to lose the title minutes later to Justin Credible). Again, Heyman probably thought he would get ECW attention but the whole situation was a mess that made ECW look laughable.

1. Never Giving Rob Van Dam the ECW World Championship- I think it's pretty obvious to ECW fans this would make first place. ECW had many great names and stars come through but perhaps no one was more popular than "the Whole Fn' Show" Rob Van Dam. A Michigan native trained by the Original Sheik, Van Dam turned pro in 1991 and after spending years in promotions like South Atlantic Pro Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and All Japan, Van Dam made his way to ECW in 1996. Originally coming in an arrogant heel, he eventually rose in popularity thanks to his exciting high flying, athletic style and laid back stoner persona. Van Dam would enjoy two runs with the World Tag Team Championship (both with Sabu) and one legendary run with the World Television Championship which he held for 700 days. However, for some reason, the World Championship always eluded him. By 1999, it was clear Van Dam was ECW's most popular star and many would argue he was so over and his matches considered the best on shows that many were saying the World TV Title had eclipsed the World Title as the major title. Yet, in spite of all that, Heyman never pulled the trigger. Not sure why but at a time when ECW was on the ropes, especially by 2000, it would've made sense to give the World Championship to your biggest star but instead, Van Dam remained in the TV Championship contention while Heyman pretty much gave the belt to anyone else with a pulse. It wouldn't be until early 2001 at the Guilty As Charged 2001 PPV that it seemed like Heyman would FINALLY pull the trigger when he had Van Dam confront new champion Rhino. By all accounts, it looked like the two would face each other on the Living Dangerously 2001 PPV in March with Van Dam winning the belt. Of course, neither the match nor the event ever happened as it was cancelled and the promotion shut down shortly after that. I'm not sure if Heyman ever went on record as to why he dragged his feet regarding Van Dam. While not as huge, this screw up is almost reminiscent of nearly 20 years before when AWA boss Verne Gagne had Hulk Hogan when Hogan was exploding in popularity but because of his stubbornness and old school philosophy, he never pulled the trigger when he had the chance and it proved costly. Obviously, Van Dam isn't as big as Hogan but you got to wonder could ECW have survived longer if Heyman pulled the trigger? We'll never know.