Paul Heyman came close to leaving wrestling before ECW ever became his creative home.
Speaking to Graham Bensinger, Heyman said it started with his WCW exit after Bill Watts was brought in to reshape the company
I got fired from WCW, and I didn’t want to ever get fired again. I was the CEO of the Dangerous Alliance, which was the group of villains that was opposing the big heroes in WCW. And they brought in an executive to reshape the company named Bill Watts, and he wanted to cut everybody’s contracts, and I wasn’t going to take the pay cut.
And I rebelled against it, and I ended up on the outs. And I was really p—ed off, and I was 28 years old, and I said, ‘Oh, I’m done with the wrestling business. I’m out.'
Heyman meant it. He already had his next move lined up.
So I was days away from signing the contract negotiated by William Morris to go on New York radio in the mornings, head-to-head with Howard Stern.
Then Jim Crockett Jr. called. Crockett was planning a new promotion and wanted Heyman as his booker. Heyman turned him down at first, until Crockett challenged him.
And he said, ‘So all the b—-ing that you’ve done about the other bookers, how far behind the times they are, how the business has lost the plot, it’s too embedded in its own thinking, that’s just you b—-ing like everybody else? You mean you don’t really want to change it? You don’t really want to show everybody how progressive, how forward-thinking you are?’ He called my bluff.
Heyman walked away from the radio deal.
Man, was William Morris p—ed off. I backed out of the deal before we signed the contract.
Around the same time, Heyman’s booking mentor Eddie Gilbert was running creative for a new Philadelphia promotion called Eastern Championship Wrestling. It would become ECW, with Heyman as its creative force.
