Paul Heyman (born September 11 1965) is a Jewish-American professional wrestling manager, on-air talent, and former promoter formerly employed by World Wrestling Entertainment. He is best known for being the creative force behind Extreme Championship Wrestling's rise to prominence in the 1990s, and shortly thereafter he became a personality in World Wrestling Entertainment. He has also worked with WWE's ECW brand where he was recognized as the ECW Representative.

Paul Heyman made his managerial debut on March 18, 1985, initially appearing on the Northeast independent circuit before moving to a more high-profile stint with Florida Championship Wrestling in 1986. There he joined forces with Kevin Sullivan and Oliver Humperdink and first became known as Paul E. Dangerously (many still refer to him as "Paul E.") because of his resemblance to Michael Keaton in the movie Johnny Dangerously in both of their younger days. From there, he traveled to Memphis and the Continental Wrestling Association to manage Tommy Rich and Austin Idol in a heated feud with Jerry Lawler, a war which later carried over to the American Wrestling Association (AWA) -- with the Original Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose) taking over for Idol and the face-turned Rich). Heyman's gimmick was basically an extension of his personality: a brash New Yorker, often seen holding a mobile phone, which was occasionally used as a "foreign object" (it was quite large, due to the technology of the late 1980s). After departing the AWA, Heyman went to the Alabama-based Continental Wrestling Federation and first became allied with Eddie Gilbert in Gilbert's Hot Stuff Inc. stable.

In 1988, Heyman jumped to Jim Crockett Promotions, where he again managed the Original Midnight Express in a feud with the new Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) and their manager, Jim Cornette, as well as managing "Mean" Mark Callous. Before long he settled into the role of an announcer, joining Jim Ross to call the matches on WTBS' World Championship Wrestling and other programming. During his role as an announcer, he feuded with Ross, Missy Hyatt, and then-The Wonder Years star Jason Hervey (Hyatt's boyfriend at the time).

After stepping off-camera for a brief period in 1991, he returned as the manager of the Dangerous Alliance; with Madusa as his assistant, managing Bobby Eaton, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, WCW TV Champion Steve Austin and Larry Zbyszko. Heyman led Rude to the United States title and the Anderson-Eaton tag team to the Tag Team titles. The Dangerous Alliance dominated WCW through most of 1992, meeting their biggest foes in Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and the Steiner Brothers (Scott and Rick Steiner). He left WCW in late-1992.

After departing WCW, Heyman ended up being hired by Tod Gordon to do his WCW gimmick Paul E but ended up becoming booker for Eastern Championship Wrestling promotion, beginning with their Ultra Clash show in September 1993. Eventually Heyman became owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling and helped it take off and become a viable number three promotion in America. Paul Heyman also was said to have been living so close to the edge during his time in ECW that many wrestlers had to pull him back to reality so he wouldn't kill himself as said on The Rise and Fall of ECW. Paul and a hand full of other wrestlers have said that the death of ECW was for two reasons, one was that Paul did not like giving many other people in ECW too much things to do and he was getting 2-3 hours of sleep or if not, none and that catches up to you. The second reason was ECW couldn't get on another network in time, Paul Heyman has said that if ECW did get on another network in time then ECW would have survived. Paul Heyman has said that Eric Bischoff had tryed so hard to put ECW out of business that Paul had called him a coward for the reason that the billion dollar WCW company was trying so hard to put under a young upstart company like ECW. Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff are real life enemies who don't like each other as said by many wrestlers, Among those RVD, Sabu, Tazz, Tommy Dreamer and more wrestlers who have said that they hate each other to death and cannot stand each other.

After ECW folded, Heyman became a broadcaster for the WWF, replacing Jerry Lawler (who had quit the WWF in protest when then-wife Stacy Carter was released by the company) as color commentator for RAW in March 2001. During that time, he resumed his rivalry with Jim Ross. In July, while retaining his commentator role, Heyman recreated ECW as a stable, which then immediately merged with Shane McMahon's WCW to form the Alliance during the Invasion angle. He was fired following the 2001 Survivor Series, but returned in March as the manager of Brock Lesnar.

Heyman led Lesnar to the WWE Undisputed Championship when Lesnar beat The Rock at SummerSlam. Then at the Survivor Series, Heyman turned on Lesnar and helped Big Show take the title from him. Just before Lesnar's title match against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XIX, Lesnar challenged his former manager to a steel cage match. After his defeat, Heyman left for a while, returning to assume the on-camera role of General Manager of the Thursday night show SmackDown!, realigning himself with Lesnar until March 22 2004, when he was drafted to Eric Bischoff's RAW, and promptly quit rather than work for arch-nemesis Bischoff, the man who he blamed for killing ECW by raiding its talent.

During Heyman's tenure on SmackDown!, he served as the head writer, and is credited with being the creative force behind the successful so-called "Smackdown Six" (Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero). He placed them in a "triple threat tag team feud" (Angle & Benoit, Edge & Mysterio, Los Guerreros) over the WWE Tag Team Championship.

During 2004, Heyman's on-camera role was again as a manager, this time to the Dudley Boyz (not including Spike Dudley; Heyman's role in that regard disappeared just as Spike became "the boss" of his "big brothers"), and Heidenreich. In these managerial roles, he mainly led his stars in feuds with the Undertaker.

Heyman's last appearance on SmackDown! saw him sealed in a coffin by The Undertaker during a handicap match which featured Heyman and Heidenreich against The Undertaker on January 6 2005.

Paul Heyman was heavily involved in the booking and promotion of the June 12, 2005 ECW reunion PPV, One Night Stand. Heyman returned to RAW on May 23, 2005 and confronted former WCW President Eric Bischoff, lauding ECW and criticizing WCW. Among other things, Heyman told him the following: "ECW was a lifestyle, it was anti-establishment, it was counter-culture, and it was up in your face!" Heyman finished it up by setting Bischoff's ECW funeral wreath (made out of barbed wire) on fire.

At One Night Stand, a visibly emotional Heyman came to the ring, got on his knees and bowed to the fans, who chanted "Thank you Paul!" He then cut a shoot promo insulting Bischoff, Edge, JBL, and Triple H. On this show, Heyman was portrayed as a face who successfully prevented the heels, Bischoff and his crusaders, from putting ECW out of business once and for all.

On July 10 2005, it was reported that Paul Heyman took over the position of Head Booker and Writer in OVW, a developmental territory maintained by the WWE.

On May 25, it was announced that ECW would relaunch.

On the May 29 2006 edition of RAW, during a face-off with Mick Foley, Heyman announced that he was granted a draft pick from both RAW and SmackDown! by Vince McMahon. His RAW draft pick was former ECW wrestler (and Money in the Bank contract holder) Rob Van Dam, and his SmackDown! draft pick was Kurt Angle, Angle then came down to the ring and attacked Foley, hitting him with an Angle Slam. Also of note, Heyman predicted that Van Dam would defeat WWE Champion John Cena at ECW One Night Stand 2006 and then declare himself the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion. A similar incident occurred on August 27 1994, when Shane Douglas became NWA World Heavyweight Champion, only to vacate the title and then declare himself the ECW World Heavyweight Champion.

On the June 2 2006 edition of SmackDown!, Heyman served as a guest commentator for Kurt Angle's final match on SmackDown! with World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio. During the match Heyman announced that Mysterio would face ECW's Sabu at One Night Stand in a "dream match" for the title.

At One Night Stand 2006, Van Dam defeated John Cena to win his first World Championship, the WWE Championship. After John Cena knocked an ECW referee unconscious, Edge (in a disguise) appeared and speared Cena through a table, before taking out SmackDown! referee Nick Patrick, allowing Van Dam to hit a frog splash on Cena. With no referee available Paul Heyman ran down the aisle to count the pinfall. The next night on RAW Heyman confirmed that because the championship match was contested under "ECW rules" (which means, essentially, there are no rules) that the decision stands and RVD is the "Undisputed" WWE Champion.

As the WWE Champion Van Dam was the number one man in the reformed ECW, so on the debut of ECW on Sci Fi the next night Paul Heyman, announced as an "ECW Representative", presented him with the re-instated ECW World Heavyweight Championship.

Heyman had previously implied that RVD would "re-christen" the WWE Championship into the ECW Championship (Like Shane Douglas). However, Van Dam elected to keep both title belts (He kept the WWE Championship because "it spins"), and was recognized as both the WWE and ECW Champion.

On the July 4 2006 edition of ECW, Big Show challenged Rob Van Dam to a match for the ECW Championship. Near the end of the match, Big Show took out the referee prior to RVD hitting a Five-Star Frog Splash on Show. Heyman then came out to count the pin (just like at One Night Stand) but stopped at the count of 2. He then instructed Big Show to chokeslam Van Dam on a steel chair that had been used earlier in the match. Big Show pinned RVD and Heyman made the 3 count, "screwing" RVD out of the ECW Championship. Being that Philadelphia was "the home of ECW", and the audience at the Wachovia Center was the first "true ECW-style" fanbase for an ECW on Sci-Fi show, the fans were so incensed by the title change that many of them threw garbage and debris into the ring. This marked the second time Paul Heyman screwed someone over for a heavyweight title to join the Big Show, with the first being Survivor Series 2002 when Paul did the same thing to Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. This incident has been referred to by the WWE as the "South Philly Screwjob" (evoking comparisons to the Montreal screwjob).

WWE.com then (kayfabe) announced that Heyman was suspending Van Dam for 30 days (mirroring the legit WWE executive decision, due to his and Sabu's recent arrests on drug possession charges.) Heyman has since begun referring to himself as the "Messiah" and "Father Of ECW", stating that the reason for his actions were because "anything [can] happen in ECW" and RVD got what he deserved. He also began being accompanied to ECW events by a pair of "private security guards" in riot gear (in actuality the Basham Brothers), ostensibly to protect him from ECW wrestlers and fans who are angry about his recent actions. Heyman's character has also been shown as having a bias toward the "New faces of ECW" (wrestlers who never wrestled for the original incarnation) instead of the "ECW Originals". The only "New face of ECW" he had not shown bias towards was CM Punk, likely due to Punk's status as a babyface.

On the August 29 2006 edition ECW, Heyman defeated Sabu in an "Extreme Rules" match after interference by the Big Show and Hardcore Holly. On October 31 Heyman dressed as a gorilla and interfered with the main event to help Test and The Big Show defeat Rob Van Dam and Hardcore Holly.

Due to a dispute over ECW's first (and only) solo pay-per-view under WWE (December to Dismember 2006) which aired December 3 2006, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon removed Heyman from his position in ECW the following night, and sent him home from the RAW/ECW taping in South Carolina. In September 2007, Heyman quietly parted ways with WWE.

*Heyman (as Paul E. Dangerously) faced Jim Cornette in a tuxedo match at NWA WCW's the Great American Bash in 1989. *Heyman (as Paul E. Dangerously) with one arm tied behind his back vs. Madusa in WCW's Prime time. *Heyman and Brock Lesnar vs. the Hardy Boyz (Heyman pinned Jeff) (Judgment Day 2002) *Heyman and Brock Lesnar vs. Edge in a Handicap Match for the WWE Championship (Lesnar pinned Edge to retain the title) (Rebellion 2002) *Heyman vs. Brock Lesnar in a Steel Cage match (Lost) (March 4 2003 episode of SmackDown!) *Heyman vs. Eddie Guerrero (In this match, Eddie's hands were handcuffed and it ended in a no contest when Heyman ran out and Kurt Angle came and attacked Eddie) (March 2 2004 episode of Smackdown) *Heyman and Heidenreich vs. The Undertaker (handicap casket match) (Lost) (January 4 2005 episode of Smackdown) *Heyman vs. Sabu in an Extreme Rules Match (Won via interference from his personal enforcers) (August 29 2006 episode of ECW) *Heyman and Big Show vs. RVD and Hardcore Holly (No contest) November 7 2006 on ECW

In 2002, Heyman portrayed a sports announcer in 2002's Rollerball.

Heyman later played Gino in the film adaptation of long-running Off-Broadway show Tony n' Tina's Wedding.

In November 2007, it was announced that Paul Heyman will be hosting a new mobile experienced show titled "Heyman Hustle".

*Tommy Rich *Dennis Condrey *Randy Rose *Colonel DeBeers *Adrian Adonis *Samoan Swat Team *Mean Mark Callous *Madusa *Don Muraco

*Jimmy Snuka *Eddie Gilbert *Dark Patriot *Sabu *Taz/Tasmaniac *911 *Brock Lesnar *The Big Show *Kurt Angle *A-Train *Heidenreich

*Rob Van Dam *Matt Morgan *Nathan Jones *Rhino *Rick Rude *Shane Douglas *Tommy Dreamer *Cowboy Bob Orton *Test *Mike Knox *Hardcore Holly

Stables and tag teams: *Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Rick Rude, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Eaton, Steve Austin) *Team Angle (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) *The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley and Spike Dudley)

*Pro Wrestling Illustrated **PWI Manager of the Year (1992). *World Wrestling Entertainment **General Manager of SmackDown! **ECW Representative *Wrestling Observer **He is a member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (inducted in 2005) **1994 Best Booker **1995 Best Booker **1996 Best Booker **1997 Best Booker **2001 Best Non-Wrestler **2002 Best Booker **2002 Best Non-Wrestler **2004 Best Non-Wrestler

*Heyman Hustle Website *Paul Heyman's ECW Profile at SciFi.com * *