Resident Evil

There seems to be some kind of popup at the site so I'm posting the interview here http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport...ticle762131.ece Paul Heyman: Why I left WWE By Simon Rothstein HE’S the man who revolutionised the wrestling business. The outspoken leader of a hardcore cult that will never die. The creative genius forever synonymous with the letters E-C-W. But for more than a year no one has heard a peep out of Paul Heyman. Where was he? Why did he walk out of the WWE in December 2006? And most importantly what does he really think of Vince McMahon’s ‘new’ ECW? Now, for the first time Paul answers those questions and more as only Paul can. He also reveals the first details and advert for his exciting new project, the Heyman Hustle, which starts right here on The Sun Online on Monday February 18. Enjoy! Paul, let’s cut right to the chase. What happened with you and Vince McMahon? I think what it boils down to is Vince McMahon and I have totally separate and distinct visions for what a wrestling or sports entertainment product should be. There’s nothing wrong with having those different visions, the problem was that Vince started to take the difference of opinion personally. And once that personality conflict comes into play, when you’re trying to steer the direction of a product, it becomes a bad work environment. So Vince didn’t like working with me anymore and I didn’t like working with Vince anymore. And it’s his company, so obviously he has to stay! What do you think went wrong and why? The brand should never have been brought back after the very first One Night Stand in 2005. The follow-up show in 2006 made money, but only because it served as the platform for Rob Van Dam to beat John Cena. Then Sci-Fi Channel was willing to give a test run for the brand ECW and they currently pay a lot of money for that TV show. So the theory of bringing ECW back and making it profitable worked as a business move. But the expectation from the audience that ECW was being brought back only served to be a monumental letdown. By comparison, if someone were to resurrect The Beatles and say: “You know what, we want to make them more globally accepted, so we’re going to have a white guy, an Asian female, a Hispanic Bisexual and an African-American with a Scottish accent.” In the land of WWE that actually makes sense. But no matter how you look at it, it’s just not the Beatles. So in the same light, it’s just not ECW. ‘Extreme’ doesn’t mean blood, or tables, or barbed wire. ECW was always about progression, moving forward, giving more bang for the buck. For example, a finish in most every match. Simple thought. A winner and a loser. And a story with it that makes sense. But if you voiced that opinion, Vince would take it personally. If you look at the attempts to recreate the nWo, to re-create Goldberg and, even now, trying to recreate Ric Flair’s career on the line, Vince’s magic only happens when he creates it from the get-go. If Vince doesn’t create it from the get-go, he can’t embrace the formula. But why didn’t Vince just say: “Paul, I know you’re good at ECW, it’s on Sci-Fi, do your stuff, work your magic, make me some money?” Because that goes against everything that is Vince McMahon. Vince is such a control freak that if he sneezes, the next 10 minutes of any meeting are ruined because he is so p***ed at himself for not being able to control the sneeze. PERSONALITY CLASH ... Paul with Vince McMahon And it’s worked very well for him in life. He is a billionaire. He has his own luxury private plane and, by the way, it’s a really nice plane. He has things and property and cash that every other wrestling promoter in the world doesn’t have. He has achieved these goals HIS WAY and so Vince is not about to let anyone have free reign over anything in his kingdom. That’s just not going to happen. How was it for you to see ECW - your baby, the thing you created - almost destroyed in front of your eyes? It was a very rough road because, make no mistake about it, Vince McMahon has every right to do anything that he wants with ECW. He bought the right to exploit the intellectual property of the brand. It’s his, he owns it, and nobody can question whether or not he is entitled to do whatever he damn well pleases with it. Rob Van Dam has articulated on this brilliantly in some recent interviews and it kind of brought back the memories of that time in 2006. I tried to resign, and in front of other people because I wanted witnesses, several times in last two months of my tenure in WWE/ECW. I offered my resignation to Stephanie on several occasions. I told her the tensions between me and Vince were getting in the way of the brand, that Vince was taking everything personally, and that it was neither fun, creative, or productive any more. I thought if I left, Vince would give the brand the TLC - um, that’s Tender Loving Care, not Tables Ladders and Chairs - it needed. Stephanie kept trying to get involved, but Vince was on a tear. I dare suggest that Vince was craving for someone to compete with him on any level, in anything in life, and also at the same time, hating to lose, said: “I have the original owner of ECW, I have the original creative mind of ECW, and you know what, we’re gonna battle over the creative direction of this product.” And, at the same time, it’s like the WrestleMania main event - because it’s a predetermined finish. At the end of the day, Vince has to determine what the direction is. I’m not there to compete with him. I’m there to help him. I’m on his side, I’m his tag team partner. It just became misery to work there which is why, as Van Dam has pointed out, I just wanted out so badly I finally couldn’t take it any more. When did that happen, what was the actual date, because no one has known where you’ve been for a long time? The final straw was the December to Dismember Pay Per View. That show was just a wreck. I knew it going in. I kept trying to pitch different things for the show that week, that weekend, and even the day of the show. All day long on the day of the show, I kept coming to Vince saying: “The people are going to throw this back in our face.” Can you give us some examples of the things that you wanted to do that Vince said “no” to? I thought the undercard was horrible. I thought that the design of the show itself made no sense. I just felt that the entire layout of the show, the entire complexion of the event was a downer. I also thought that we were doing Bobby Lashley no favours the way he was going to win the title. Lashley winning the title, especially if you eliminate Rob Van Dam and CM Punk early, would be leapfrogging over RVD and Punk. Van Dam was the sentimental favourite, Punk was the kid that all the crowd was getting behind and they wanted to see the upset. If you don’t appease the need for the audience to see that new hero get crowned like Punk did the week before at Survivor Series when DX let him say ‘Are you ready?’ then the audience will feel ripped off. If you don’t put that spotlight on Van Dam, with whom the paying customers have just taken this long ride back into the title chase, then the paying customer will feel ripped off. 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. Even though he was being choked out within five minutes, Big Show liked it? Of course, because he was making a new guy! Big Show is so underappreciated in terms of how smart he is to the business, and how willing he is to make new stars. Vince wanted all babyfaces out of the way and for all the spotlight on Lashley and for Lashley to do a Goldberg-style two minute squash of The Big Show. At that point, not only did I realise that this is going to suck, not only is everyone going to throw this back at us, but this show is going to run short. And during the show, I pointed all this out to Vince, which just angered him even more, and he didn’t care. His attitude was: “When this broadcast is over, people will see a new champion, they’ll have a new hero and they’ll all be happy.” When I went to Vince right before I went out to introduce the Chamber, I pointed out again to him “Vince this show is horribly short.” I had this idea of getting 15 minutes out of the crowd, but Vince said: “No, no, no. Just go out there, make your point, and introduce the Chamber.” Which is why, when I was in the ring, I made the statement: “ECW will live long after I am gone.” Because I knew, either when I went back into the dressing room, or within the next day or two, it was time for me to leave. Was there a part of you that thought about breaking character and actually quitting in the ring live on PPV? No, because that would be unprofessional. All that is doing is, in an emotional state, thinking that I am f***ing Vince McMahon over, and it’s a very dramatic thought but I have to say this on the record - I don’t think Vince McMahon f***ed me over. I don’t think Vince, in his mind, did anything malicious towards me. I think Vince did what he either persuaded or convinced himself was the best for business. MAKING HIS POINT ... Heyman The biggest shoot that I could do in that ring was not to say “I quit”. The biggest shoot that I could do was to make the statement “this brand goes on without me”. That’s what I said, and that’s what ended up happening. Do you think that Vince was trying to prove that Extreme didn’t work, as he didn’t invent it. That he was trying to destroy the legacy of ECW? Like most people who make grand achievements in life – Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Richard Branson, Bill Clinton – Vince McMahon is a most complex individual. It would take Freud himself to accurate describe, and probably 900 pages to do so, how Vince’s mind works. There’s a lot of self-justification that goes on. Vince could never accept that another brand could be successful. Look at the success of The Rise and Fall of ECW, the DVD, which has sold close to 400,000 copies worldwide and at any point is the No1 or No2 bestselling DVD in sports entertainment history. The World Class DVD is just breaking out of 10,000 units sold right now. The Rey Mysterio DVD, the John Cena My Life DVD, sold approximately 30,000 units each. You look at the staggeringly successful numbers that ECW DVD did, Vince’s answer to you will be: ‘Well, of course it sold that many, we’ve educated the audience that ECW is something special by the fact that every time a table broke, every time a high spot happened, every time an extreme style was showcased, we’ve encouraged the audience to chant E-C-W and we’ve allowed it on our broadcast.” Now if you think about that logic, it’s so ass-backwards, that you’re going to think this man is a f***ing idiot or he’s insane, but he’s neither. He has convinced, or persuaded, himself the statement is true. And he wholeheartedly believes that the success of the first ECW PPV was because the $400,000+ gate that was in the Hammerstein Ballroom were the last vestiges of the ECW audience and all those people that bought it on PPV were WWE fans who were educated that ECW would be something special. Vince McMahon would swear on his grandchildren that is an accurate statement. He won’t be lying, he’ll mean it when he says it, unfortunately it’s the furthest thing from the truth. So after December to Dismember, you literally left that night and never came back? No, we clashed that night after the show, and the next day too. By then, that was fait accompli. We were clashing on the plane going to North Charleston, South Carolina. It was ridiculous. So by the time we got to North Charleston, I had already called home and said: “Just so you know, I’m coming home tonight.” I’d already made up my mind. After the producers’ meeting, Vince, Stephanie and I sat in that room trying to determine what the future held¿ and I just wanted to go home. We sat there for a while, there’s a lot of history with me and Vince, and there was a lot I wanted to say to him, to his face, and there was a lot that he wanted to say to my face. I think we both had merits in our argument. At the end of the day, I shook his hand and went home and I’ve never looked back. Have you spoken to Vince or Stephanie since? Oh, Stephanie called me the next day several times, and tried to repair it. I don’t think there was anything to repair. I had a run in the wrestling industry that in my wildest dreams as a kid I could never have imagined. As a performer I accomplished everything I could possibly have wanted. As I writer/booker, I had a run that all but the most uber-successful people in the history of this business could have ever fantasised about. I owned a company that is the only company in history to be resurrected. Ted Turner lost hundreds of millions of dollars on WCW, no-one’s calling for the resurrection of that promotion. My tiny little creative vision called ECW not only was resurrected but still stands today without me. What more is there left for me to do? Stephanie made me an offer in 2007 to come back and run developmental, because of the success we had in OVW. She said; “Vince wants you to create new stars again, do what you were doing in OVW and also get Deep South Wrestling on track.” They offered me that position, with the same pay, same stock options, same benefits. It was a wonderful offer and anybody that has the opinion they wanted to drive Paul Heyman out of the business should understand that this offer was given to me and it was most flattering. Of course, I’m sure that part of the deal would be “no contact with Vince” but Stephanie really wanted me to take the job, and was pushing me to take the job. Stephanie was shocked that I wouldn’t jump all over this opportunity because on a money basis, it was an insanely lucrative deal. A miniscule amount of the work I had to put in before, on a job that I truly enjoy which is developing characters, working with the next generation so every star of the next generation will have been moulded at least partially by me. It was a very financially lucrative and creatively fulfilling job but by this point I just didn’t want it any more. Our MMA correspondent at The Sun, Mark Gilbert, said you were trying to buy Strike Force at one point, is that true? You kind of caught me off guard in asking the question, but it’s 100% true. I don’t know whose names I’m supposed or not supposed to discuss, so I will skirt the issue of who else was involved by simply saying we formed a group of qualified, intelligent, motivated people last summer and had some meetings with Scott Coker about buying Strike Force and obviously keeping Coker intricately involved. I think Strike Force was in a position to, if not challenge UFC, then be what ECW was in the 90s which is a very viable alternative brand. I have a lot of admiration for what Scott Coker and his team have built in Northern California, and I like the name Strike Force. Good name for branding. I like their presentation, I think they have some marketable fighters under contract, and we had a collective vision that I think could have really, really worked. The negotiations stopped because one of the key people in our group ended up being someone we didn’t want to get stuck with, because we realised in the negotiations that he was the wrong guy for the deal. Scott Coker is a good man. I like him personally, love his organization, and think he deserves a lot of credit for what he’s built. Finally let’s talk about the Heyman Hustle. Let’s give people a taste of what’s going to happen on The Sun’s website in two weeks time. Well, my partner Mitchell Stuart always laughs at me because I define the Hustle as the High Definition Video Blog of a Rambling Mind. Our goal is to break ground in the wireless/broadband and digital/mobile platforms, which get so much attention from the entertainment industry right now because its unchartered turf and no-one has been able to figure out what the future holds on this constantly evolving concept. We want to peel back the layers of celebrity and we’re going to demonstrate that larger-than-life personalities are not only found on television and the movies. We’re going to find the extraordinary in the ordinary and find the ordinary in the extraordinary. So, we’re just diving in as deep as we can go and trying to be the leaders of the exploration of this new universe. So, we’re content providers in a brand new, exploding, and already rapidly changing field. Damn, that sounds exhilarating!

In your opinion, True or False? The Rockers vs the Orient Express from the Royal Rumble is the best WWF/WWE tag team match ever Personally, I think it's up there at the very top with only the very top stuff like Angle/Benoit vs Edge/Rey ahead of it. I think this match really sets itself as being different, thoughtful and innovative. If only things went down a little differently, I think it would be talked about as one of the best tag matches ever. From anywhere.

Come on Pegasus, you know the internet rule, Bash it before you see it. I just watched it and it was pretty exciting. That standup was such crap. You're a big man for admitting you leaped before looking. Others can learn from you. Glad you enjoyed it.

A minute and a half actually. Did you watch the fight before taking a needless cheaphot at Brock? LOL, look at Brock. He's a looooser at what he does! Give me a break. The guy impressed people. http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=A9G_...o&type=lgns Just some quotes here But after one of the most exciting 90-second fights in UFC history, most of the talk after the match was about Lesnar’s potential to be one of the most dominant heavyweights in mixed martial arts history. “I expected him to be strong, but I didn’t expect him to be as fast as he was,” said Mir. “One second he was on my right, then he was on my left. That second armbar I tried works 99 percent of the time in practice except against the most experienced guys.” UFC officials were thrilled by the match and buzzing over Lesnar’s potential in the sport.

I forget the password for the downloads section. I'd like to request the password again. Thank you very much. PM'd you. -- Loss, 01/29

I remember enjoying this but that's all I can remember since it's been years since I've seen it. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much.

Great. Looking forward to it.

It boils down to this just like it does with a lot of wrestlers out there. The people who think Cena is a very good professional wrestler think he is believable enough in what he does. There's no problem there. The ones who don't think he is a very good professional wrestler don't believe in what he does. There's a problem there. Once that believability is strong enough for an individual than they will always think that wrestler is a very good professional wrestler. If they don't think he is believable enough in what he does than they will never think he is a very good professional wrestler. That's why as of now there are people on both sides of the fence on Cena's wrestling ability. It's why they will never cross over to the other side of the fence no matter what the other people on the other side of the fence are saying. Only if Cena changes will you see the possiblity of people fence jumping.

If you look to Benjamin's match past as a reason for his popularity than you have to remember that the fans are going to be fond of the million fantastic matches he had as part of the WGTT. The single matches against Edge, Jericho on Raw, the excellent Michales match, Christian, Benoit and so on. All better matches imo and in many fans' opinoins than the one he had against HHH. That's why people have a fond memory of him and I would assume why he gets the underrated award so much. The guy's been involved in a lot of great stuff. Benjamin does have some strong attributes in the ring. When he's booked properly and put in matches that highlight those attributes than he is an awesome wrestler. However last time I looked he was not put in matches that featured his strenghts. If I was booking Benjamin I would have him a superstar and everybody would be proclaiming how great a wrestler he is.

So how many Flair Luger matches were there in Luger's first run in WCW? Great American Bash 1988 -- Watch part of this last night and this has got to be one of my favourites match endings of all time. So much energy in this. Starcade 88 Starcade 89 Clash of the Champions Capitol Combat 90 in the cage

Just watched the Wrestlewar match. I must say I absolutely loved the guardrail spot and I thought it fit well into what they were doing. Luger was Superman back than. He looked like it, he wrestled like it in thie match and kayfabe wise I think we have to have Luger as the favourite here. The match was going to end in skullduggery. If you're going that route than Luger has to make everyone think Flair was on the run and it's only a matter of time before Luger topples Flair. They wanted people to think this. A rematch has to come. An injured Sting comes down and slaps Luger to motivate him. Luger goes on an adrenaline rush. If he sells to a guardrail than than the match kinds of get wrecked. It also even hurts Sting. The storyline and the seriousness of the situation for Sting and Luger gets hurt because selling at that point in time would do that. They'd look stupid. Different match and a different scenario I might not like the guardrail spot but here it works. Pretty good match. Loved the story. Luger was motivated back than. Moreso than a lot of people.

Wrestling is fake. If people are getting hurt doing it they can change what they're doing. If they won't that has absolutely nothing to do with the nature of wrestling. Theoretically you could work a style that would guarantee no one would ever get hurt. The question is how far you can go toward that style without becoming unbearably boring, not whether you can go towards it. Impossible. Absolutely impossible to work a style that would guarantee no one would ever get hurt. Wrestling is fake and real. There is impact in wrestling. A TV fight is completely "fake". It's the real aspect of the wrestling show combined with the emotions that one can dig up with the benifit of the fakeness that makes wrestling tick for its fans. That's the nature of wrestling and why it differs to something like a movie fight and this leads to inuries, injuries, injuries. You might not agree that that's what wrestling should be but for better or for worse that's what it is It's not all or nothing though. You can take a lot of precautions that are not being taken, and even though it won't make wrestling "safe", it'll still be better than the current status quo. It's not like there's no middle ground between totally safe wrestling (read "none") and dudes headbutting ringposts in front of a couple hundred people. Look, I live on Long Island, and when ROH comes around, I usually go. It's Long Island, so the crowds tend to be pretty indifferent, and knowing this, the shows usually aren't that significant, and the internet at large tends to ignore them. There is precisely zero reason why the Briscoe Brothers should be doing lengthy spot-fu/headrop/indy stiffness/DANGEROUSSSSSSS matches that go 20+ minutes. And yet, that's exactly what happens, and they're not the only ones doing it. Why? Why does this have to be the match they work every time out, no matter the card position, card significance, match significance, etc. These are the kind of risks that can be reduced, and even though it won't make the matches "safe", it won't make them needlessly dangerous, either. I agree alsmost completely.

Wrestling is fake. If people are getting hurt doing it they can change what they're doing. If they won't that has absolutely nothing to do with the nature of wrestling. Theoretically you could work a style that would guarantee no one would ever get hurt. The question is how far you can go toward that style without becoming unbearably boring, not whether you can go towards it. Impossible. Absolutely impossible to work a style that would guarantee no one would ever get hurt. Wrestling is fake and real. There is impact in wrestling. A TV fight is completely "fake". It's the real aspect of the wrestling show combined with the emotions that one can dig up with the benifit of the fakeness that makes wrestling tick for its fans. That's the nature of wrestling and why it differs to something like a movie fight and this leads to inuries, injuries, injuries. You might not agree that that's what wrestling should be but for better or for worse that's what it is

All very much true but not many wrestlers can do what Bret can so they compensate in other ways. Yeah, Bret was awesome and he should be ranked higher than he is because he has some of the best looking offensive ever without injuring someone but even with everyone doing Bret's style you're still going to get beat down and your body's still going to rot on you. It's an extremely physical business.

Tazz. He hurt Tazz. Maybe even twice. I hear partly due to him worrying about how good his punches would look close to the camera.

Sure. Of course some people are going to get hurt wrestling, just as some people are going to get hurt being traffic cops, but I honestly don't see any reason why they have to be injured so often or so badly. (I also think that if this was really addressed the drug problems would largely take care of themselves.) Let's be honost here. We don't even hear about 1/50th of the injuries out there. The very nature of wrestling leads to injuries, injuries, injuries and more injuries. People can complain about it. That's ok. I've done it before. To me, I just want wrestling fans who are giving off a snob aura to realize that if they scream about wrestlers going too far than they have to realise that they're hypocritical because part of them watches wrestling for that very same reason. Otherwise, they'd only ever watch for the most part badly put together TV/Movie fights

Hey Tekcop. Good to see you around. I'm not sure actually. It was the Thunder match where DDP calls out Benoit after Benoit says "until someone takes notice" in an interview after the bout. I can't remember if Eddie and Jericho do that spot or not but I know they do that spot on Nitro. I didn't find the Nitro match as good as Thunder but the Nitro match is a really fun one too. I'm pretty sure they did that spot on the Brian Hildebrand show too.

Wait, why is an opinion a "fad?" Saying something like that implies you think people who believe that are being disingenuous. Why would someone claim to believe something that they really don't? Just to troll you? Some of us have better things to do, believe me. I think it's "not worth it" for a guy to smash his head into a ringpost 4-5 times or whatever just to please some chanting morons and make a few bucks. Especially when this wrestling thing is supposed to be a work and you're not really supposed to go out of your way to hurt yourself or someone else. Lots of people claim to believe something that they don't in the IWC. Some people even start believing what they write. I don't agree with smashing a head into a ringpost a bunch of times either (I also don't like someone using a weedwacker in a deathmatch) but if someone can't handle that than they can't handle a lot of what wrestling is, what wrestlers are and why a lot of us watch it. That was Nigel showing a lot of these characteristics amplified and it seems to have scared people.

I really like what I've seen so far from Mid South. I've never been a big fan of ROH though I'm glad they're around for wrestling fans sake. But I don't understand why ROH can get criticised in a couple of different places while Mid South can get praised. Mid South was kind of like ROH where it was "more serious" wrestling. Watts wanted the hard hitting action and scoffed at the weak hitting action of the WWF. Wouldn't he even show video tape evidence of this? This is the kind of action we're supposed to be against now because of concussions, isn't it? People are worried about all these concussions and rightfully so but a day after dissing ROH for concussions and their style right here on this board we have a match featuring Kikuchi who wrestled an extremely hard hitting style who is a poster boy for what can go wrong when your brain gets injured. Where's the consistency?

Ok, what did Storm say exactly? Going from your quote the first part about Vince not forcing people to take drugs isn't really true though I think I know where Storm's going with that if I remember correctly. The second part of the quote is very true. No, guys like Hawk and Mero didn't force people to do drugs but they certainly helped. Once one guy has an unfair advantage the other guy has to catch up just to try to stay on even ground. The second part of that quote is definitely accurate.

I'm saying, you really have to make a jump to get steroids out of that statement. Ross said in the same sentence, "get something that's a little more flattering for you." Did he mean OMG steroids then too! Or was he just referring to his outfit? Must have been steroids. It's honestly tiresome at times to hear people moralize about the wrestling industry when they've never been involved in it. When I refer to other sports, I'm referring specifically to eliminating steroid use. It's something no organization has done successfully. I'm starting to forget this segment from the Bret Hart documentary so my memory's a little foggy here. I do remember in detail thinking to myself and than telling my brother "He just told him to go on steroids". No, of course he didn't literally tell him that but people who truly know what they're talking about when it comes to this stuff will tell you this. Trust me. he's pretty much telling him. If I remember correctly, he tells him to put on x amount of muscle. No easy task. I tend to not like criticizing people. Now, Ross might not know any better. It's possible "he might not even know himself" (a lot of people wouldn't if they told someone the exact same thing) that he was telling him to go get some help. He might be thinking "Work hard boy and it'll come. Only the strong willed can survive here in the WWF". However, you would think he should know better though he might not be a expert in these matters.

Ric Flair vs Butch Reed. Super Star Wrestling Pretty good match by the way. http://youtube.com/watch?v=ccOm-TZXFxw This is the kind of commentary that I love.