Paul Heyman is respected for his creative input in the wrestling business in various stages. ECW was the place where Heyman was freely able to show his vision for wrestling. A diehard fan base and loyal locker room showed that Heyman’s mind was brilliant at times. WWE adding Heyman as a talent led to him having more creative roles backstage.

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The early brand split Smackdown years, ECW rebirth and a couple of recent Raw stints had Heyman come up with ideas to run the show. Even his time as a character featured important decisions. Fans often talk about the best things Heyman did, but he was not flawless by any means. Each of the following instances are the most questionable wrestling decisions made by Heyman.

UPDATE: 2022/10/20 08:00 EST BY Andrew Kelly

Paul Heyman is one of the greatest managers of all time in professional wrestling, and he may also be one of the best minds in the business too. But even WWE’s resident ‘wise man’ isn’t incapable of making some mistakes at times. Heyman has had a long career in the professional wrestling industry, both as a booker, owner, writer, and on-screen talent, and in that time he has been a part of, and responsible for, many questionable, tactless, and downright disastrous scenarios from time to time. He still remains someone who is given a lot of respect and praise for his work, but he, much like many others who have been in wrestling for a very long time, has hit a few road blocks on his path to legendary status.

13 Dawn Marie Marrying Torrie Wilson’s Father

Dawn Marie and Al Wilson's wedding

During Paul Heyman’s time in charge of SmackDown in the Ruthless Aggression Era, there was a lot to love, with a strong roster and great in-ring work. However, not everything was perfect, and the feud between Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie was among the worst storylines from that era.

After developing some bad blood, Dawn Marie decided to enter a relationship with Al Wilson, Torrie’s father. During the storyline, Al was said to have died as a result of him and Marie having intercourse too many times on their honeymoon. This was bizarre and ludicrous, and it was all down to Heyman’s sometimes crazy booking mind.

12 Erick Rowan’s Cage

Erick Rowan

When Paul Heyman became the creative head in control of Raw, it led to various wacky and weird storylines, one of which included Erick Rowan bringing a cage to the ring.

The contents of the cage was kept a secret, with those who peered into it looking completely scarred. However, it ended up being an obviously fake, giant fluffy spider, which wasted many months of potential build and pay-off. Whilst Heyman has been sometimes referred to as a genius, this was an example of madness, with the angle having no sense of rhyme or reason.

11 Publicly Arguing With Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon Vs Paul Heyman

In 2006, things were heated between Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman, with the pair having contrasting views on what the revamped ECW brand should look like. Heyman wanted a different type of superstar to be pushed, whereas McMahon preferred more conventional wrestlers and established names.

Due to a disagreement about the push of CM Punk, Heyman and McMahon would argue in front of an array of other writers on McMahon’s jet. Doing this led to Heyman parting ways with WWE. Whilst this was likely for the best in the long-term, deciding to publicly air out grievances to the boss is not a good idea for job security.

10 Raven Crucifying The Sandman

Raven as the ECW Champion

ECW ran a controversial angle when trying to make things more personal between Raven and The Sandman. Things were already hostile when Raven started influencing Sandman’s wife and kid, but another moment was even more brutal.

Paul Heyman allowed Raven to crucify Sandman on a makeshift cross in a segment that upset many people. Kurt Angle was visiting ECW to see if wrestling would be a fit for him and cursed out people backstage due to his anger of the segment before leaving.

9 Managing Curtis Axel

Curtis Axel WWE Intercontinental Champion Cropped

Paul Heyman has had a lot of creative input over the past decade since returning to work with Brock Lesnar. The success with top names like Brock, CM Punk and Roman Reigns added to Heyman’s legacy as arguably the greatest manager of all time.

However, his desire to manage younger talent in need of something to get over the top turned out to be a mistake. Curtis Axel was revealed as a big project of Heyman getting pushed with him at ringside. The push ended up flopping with Heyman adding a rare failure to his name.

8 Sunny's Expose

Sunny WWE

One thing Paul Heyman received criticism for was convincing talent to do controversial things that could harm their career. Tammy Sytch was arguably the biggest name in ECW when she joined the promotion to manage Chris Candido.

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The WWE run of Sytch as Sunny made her a huge star and among the most over names in the business. Heyman tried to exploit that by running an “Expose” segment featuring Tammy talking about the price of fame harming her life like entertainment tabloid shows often did with tragedy stories.

7 Impersonating Paul Bearer After He Passed Away

Paul Heyman as Paul Bearer

Paul Heyman is one of the few talents in recent years to have a strong input into the things he did on screen. WWE would not see Heyman doing anything on television that he didn’t want to thanks to his contributions and presence in the company.

That means he deserves a lot of the fault for a segment that crossed the line for many fans. Heyman impersonated Paul Bearer shortly after he passed away to disrespect the late manager and make Undertaker upset heading into a WrestleMania 29 match vs CM Punk.

6 Tommy Dreamer Dropping ECW Title Right Away

Tommy Dreamer Beulah

ECW was often good about giving the audience what they wanted to truly build that connection. However, there were also moments where Paul Heyman wanted to prove that he could still work the most tapped in fan base by playing with their emotions.

Tommy Dreamer winning the ECW Championship in 2000 felt like a rare heartwarming moment seeing a fan favorite finally win the big one. Heyman shocked everyone by having Dreamer’s reign end minutes later with Justin Credible defeating him. Fans deserved at least a few weeks of the Dreamer reign they desired.

5 Lana/Rusev/Lashley Love Triangle

Lana Rusev Lashley

The recent stint running Raw by Paul Heyman featured a mixed bag of both the good and the bad. Heyman wanted to highlight younger talents and push new names, but he also relied on some old weaknesses of his.

A love triangle between Lana, Rusev and Bobby Lashley created some of the worst “crash TV” segments. Rusev and Lana both suffered from this run flopping, and Lashley didn’t get over until a while after when ditching Lana for MVP. The segments felt like 90s wrestling when shock and awe was prioritized over logical storytelling.

4 Insulting TNN While On Their Network

Paul Heyman ECW Promo

Paul Heyman believed ECW getting a television deal with TNN in 2000 would be the thing to elevate the company to the next level. ECW existed with local television deals, a strong fan base tape trading, and PPVs that became their biggest source of income.

Unfortunately, the TNN deal didn’t give them the national exposure after Heyman clashed with the network. Heyman made a bold move by cutting promos ripping apart TNN and having a heel faction portray them on the actual network to cause things to end ugly.

3 Never Putting ECW Championship On Rob Van Dam

RVD in ECW

Rob Van Dam is usually the top name listed when fans talk about the greatest ECW stars of all-time. The connection between Van Dam and the ECW audience truly was one of a kind. ECW fans loved quite a few stars, but RVD matches felt like a spiritual wrestling experience at the time.

Paul Heyman had the philosophy that Van Dam was over enough that he didn’t need the belt. RVD instead held the TV Championship to make that more credible and arguably more over than the world title. Fans however deserved that moment of getting to crown Van Dam their champion.

2 Not Telling ECW Wrestlers About Promotion Ending

Paul Heyman Jim Ross

The worst business Paul Heyman made came at the expense of the wrestlers who had the most violent matches for him. ECW became a good third option for wrestlers to make a living, but it obviously wasn’t as secure as a WWE or WCW job.

RELATED: 9 Baffling Booking Decisions On Good ECW PPVs

Many wrestlers prioritized ECW over moving on and sacrificed a lot to show loyalty to the promotion. Heyman not telling the talent that the company was closing in 2001 was a low move. Quite a few names felt betrayed that Heyman gave them no warning before losing their livelihoods.

1 Big Show Ending Brock Lesnar's Undefeated Streak

Big Show Vs Brock Lesnar

Paul Heyman’s WWE time on the creative team is often praised most for his early 2000s run. Smackdown became a must-watch show after the brand split due to Heyman’s creative influence giving new stars a chance to break out with epic matches and great storylines.

One rare flaw from the time featured a heel turn that worked but that ended a valuable undefeated streak. Brock Lesnar’s winning streak defeating legends and winning the WWE Championship a half-year into his debut was incredible. Big Show ending it was the wrong choice, given how many other names had a bigger upside to benefit from this.