During a recent interview on the ‘That 90s Wrestling Podcast’, Former WWE and ECW Champion, Rob Van Dam recently discussed how he felt sorry for former ECW Executive Paul Heyman going to WWE and how he didn’t know that Heyman was getting paid by WWE. Van Dam told the hosts of the show the following quote. Paul Heyman recently dropped this ECW replacement bombshell.
“I kinda felt- in a way I think I felt a little sorry for him because I believed that he really didn’t wanna be there and that things had come to that. I didn’t know he was getting paid by them all along, otherwise I would have had a different perspective. I thought this man is eating his hat as they used to say it. And I thought what other choices does he have? There’s no ECW, I didn’t know if WWE had bought WCW at that point or were purchasing it, but either way things had come to that, so I kinda felt sorry for him. Man, he would tell us, the Paul that we knew would never do this, never do this. And there he is, and I just thought man, that just makes him like everyone else. He needs a job but there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than I knew.”
In other news regarding Paul Heyman, during a recent edition of Jim Ross’ ‘Grilling JR’ podcast, legendary professional wrestling personality Jim ‘JR’ Ross, discussed Vince McMahon’s relationship with ECW and Paul Heyman. Ross told Conrad Thompson the following.
“I think it was the fact that Vince recognized talent, and for any of us to try to argue the point that Paul Heyman didn’t have significant talent, would be ridiculous. He did a lot with The Little Engine That Could. Paul did a phenomenal job – motivating or whatever you wanna say. Bubba [Dudley] talks about ECW in glowing terms, even though his pay was late seemingly more often than not and he had to wear multiple hats to pay the rent. There’s still a strong feeling of loyalty to the brand by some of their alums. I don’t have a problem with that because I’m very loyal to Mid-South Wrestling because that’s where I got my start. Paul Heyman took a shot at WWE Raw creative last month.
“So, Paul did a good job with the us against the world mentality. The brand was very defiant in its presentation. They had a very unique brand and very unique comradery within the locker room. We wanted to get a lot of their guys because we needed to freshen up our roster. We kind of knew what we wanted to get out of ECW. But if the only person we had got out of that deal was Paul Heyman and no talent, we’d win because he’s a brilliant TV writer and great creative guy. One of the smartest I’ve ever been around, and I’ve been around some smart guys.”
Credit to SportsKeeda and 411Mania for the quotes.
