By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Former WWE writer & ECW owner Paul Heyman says he is done with the pro wrestling industry. Heyman claimed in an interview with Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com that he was "real close" to an agreement with TNA to take an ownership interest in the company.

Heyman says he had a five-year plan - 18 months building the roster, 18 months exploiting the established roster, going public at the three-year mark, and then running the company for two more years before exiting.

"To me, it was more of a deal with Spike TV and then a stock and ownership deal involving TNA," Heyman said. "I told TNA what my plan was and I told Spike TV what my plan was and how we would capitalize on it and how we would make this thing move.

Heyman said the plan included an acknowledgment that "wrestling is a diminishing market and it's not perceived as cool," and his plan would have included a method to present wrestling differently to "have a chance" to compete against WWE.

"When that didn't happen, that was it. I didn't have any other interest in doing it. It was close. I would have done it for that particular deal and that's it. That time passed," Heyman said. "Now I'm looking at taking my abilities elsewhere and the logical step for me is this entry point right now both into MMA and into also just the branding world."

Heyman's first major project in MMA will be working with EA Sports on their upcoming MMA video game. EA Sports is working with the Strikeforce promotion, but Heyman says he's not working directly with Strikeforce, just yet.

"I'm not going to try to bring pro wrestling into MMA. What I learned in pro wrestling about promotion of a persona can come with me and how to present someone as a star can come with me," he said. "But it's certainly not going to be that Fabricio kidnaps Fedor's sister and the revenge happens in their rematch at the HP Pavilion. That's not what I'm bringing to MMA."

Link: Read more of Heyman's in-depth interview on MMAFighting.com.

[Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWNLIVE NEWS: NXT star Sami Zayn announced for EVOLVE Tour

NEWS: Daughter of Bill DeMott dies in weekend car crash

HAAS NEWS: Charlie Haas getting back in the ring - big reunion match at OVW, headliner for CWE year-end tour