Paul Heyman has a strong reputation in the wrestling world with his time in ECW celebrated for all the positive moments. However, not even Heyman at his peak was flawless as there were some hiccups along the way. ECW wasn’t a perfect promotion by any means with some issues on-screen and behind-the-scenes missing the mark.
The decisions of Heyman didn’t always lead to hardcore rainbows and sunshine. ECW wasn’t for everyone and some of the moves from the mad genius hurt the company’s growth. Heyman even admitted he would have done some things differently despite being rightfully proud of his work. Without further ado, let's find out the rare moments of negativity with the ways Heyman failed ECW.
10 Letting Sabu Leave Due To Disagreements
The business side of Paul Heyman was hit or miss in ECW despite creative being his strength. Sabu leaving the company for a few months in 1995 was a shock to the viewers since Sabu was among the bigger new stars. Heyman was upset with Sabu picking a Japan booking over ECW when he was advertised for a big match.
Sabu did not get booked by ECW again when Heyman felt betrayed over his decision. A weak run in WCW allowed the doors to open for Sabu to return and help the company’s rise. Heyman even risking losing Sabu for taking a higher priority was foolish on his own part.
9 Lita's Character
Paul Heyman had a reputation for discovering great talents and using them at their best. However, there were a few misses along the way to show he didn’t have a perfect track record. ECW was the first major promotion to book Lita with a strange gimmick.
Miss Congeniality was the name of Lita as she was paired with the tag team of Danny Doring and Roadkill. Doring dated her in the angle with Lita mostly managing and taking part in tacky segments. Heyman never showcased any of the strengths that would make Lita a huge WWE star just a year later.
8 Bounced Checks
The financial side of ECW was the company’s biggest weakness with wrestlers often leaving for better deals in WWE or WCW. Paul Heyman did have many strengths that convinced wrestlers to stay loyal for the freedom and creativity in the smaller promotion.
Unfortunately, the lying about pay ultimately upset many wrestlers into wanting out. Heyman had a negative reputation for paying the talent with checks that bounced when ECW was running out of money in the final years.
7 Tommy Dreamer's Title Reign
The ECW Championship was the top prize in the promotion with wrestlers like Raven, Shane Douglas, and Taz taking the belt to new heights. Tommy Dreamer winning the title from Taz felt like a huge moment for the fans to see a heroic character prevail.
The underdog character and real story of a loyal ECW star made fans want to see Dreamer win the belt. Both Dreamer and Paul Heyman agreed his character was better chasing the title as he lost it seconds later to Justin Credible. The lackluster reign of Credible just made it look worse that fans missed out on something they wanted.
6 Sunny Exposed
Paul Heyman benefited from the falling out between Sunny and WWE to add a top wrestling name to the ECW roster. Sunny worked under her real name of Tammy Sytch and continued her legendary managing career working with her boyfriend Chris Candido and others.
The desire of Heyman to get the most mileage out of Sytch was to run a “tell-all” expose segment about her personal issues. ECW hyped up a big interview like a tabloid magazine implying Sytch would discuss everything about drugs and sex in WWE. The segment was received terribly with Tammy revealing she regretted going with Heyman’s concept.
5 Rob Van Dam Not Winning ECW Championship During Original ECW Run
The fan base is the ultimate dictator of what a wrestling promotion should do to thrive. Paul Heyman often listened to the fans, but he would get stuck in his own ways at the time. Rob Van Dam was the most beloved star over the final years without anyone close to him.
The epic ECW TV Championship reign of RVD made him a must-watch star, but the fans wanted him to win the ECW World Championship. Heyman felt Van Dam was already over without the belt and wanted to elevate new stars like Steve Corino and Rhyno instead. ECW fans never got the joy of celebrating an RVD world title reign unless counting the WWE days.
4 Not Making 2 Cold Scorpio A Bigger Star
ECW tried to build new stars to book the promotion around instead of falling into the trap of pushing former WWE and WCW names from their time there. Paul Heyman was finding success with 2 Cold Scorpio having innovative matches and a unique style of charisma.
Scorpio never moved into the world title picture during his hottest run and eventually left for WWE. Even when the WWE run failed and ended, Heyman missed out on bringing him back with a bigger push. Scorpio is viewed as one of the most underrated ECW stars given how well his matches hold up today.
3 TNN Deal
One of the biggest gambles from Paul Heyman saw him signing a television deal for ECW with TNN. The cable network gave ECW their first-ever national show after years of appearing in syndication and having PPVs.
TNN showed zero care for ECW and treated them like a lower priority of their schedule. Heyman burying the network with a heel faction based on them burned the bridge and reached the point of no return. TNN eventually got the rights to Raw when ditching ECW and eventually rebranding as Spike TV.
2 Missing Out On Kurt Angle
ECW had a chance to pull off a major signing when Kurt Angle attended an event shortly after winning his Olympic gold medals. Angle appeared due to his connections with Shane Douglas and Taz as he was looking for a potential new career path.
The horrible timing saw Raven having his controversial segment crucifying The Sandman which led to Angle growing upset about his involvement. Angle was offended and demanded his presence not be involved on any show with that segment.
Paul Heyman going through with Raven’s idea led to Angle never wanting to work with ECW again. WWE signed him a few years later to start his legendary career.
1 Signing With WWE Before Telling Wrestlers ECW Ended
The end of ECW provided a lot of controversies and many wrestlers feeling betrayed by Paul Heyman. ECW’s roster was depleted, and the shows started to grow less consistent. January 2001 marked the end of ECW with Heyman not officially announcing it.
Wrestlers had mixed stories about word-of-mouth spreading of the company either being done or Heyman trying to relaunch it. All rumors ended when Heyman showed up on WWE television as a color commentator while many wrestlers were awaiting his word on their futures. Tommy Dreamer stated he even considered killing Heyman during moments of rage due to the ugly ending of ECW.