By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN’S REVIEW SERIES
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MY NAME IS PAUL HEYMAN”
RELEASED IN AUGUST 2014 BY WWE

“Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name Is Paul Heyman” is one of the better documentaries WWE has produced. This is not an ECW documentary for those who might think “The Rise and Fall of ECW” covered all there is to know about Paul Heyman. Instead, this release is a look at the life and career of Paul Heyman.

The documentary sets up several themes about Heyman that tell his story. Heyman got his drive from his mother, who was a Holocaust survivor. Heyman got his drive to never give up from his mother. Heyman’s ability to hustle came from his father, who he calls the most honest personal injury attorney in the Bronx.

Heyman was an entrepreneur at a young age. He started a movie collectibles business at age 11, but his passion was wrestling, so he invested all of the money from his bar mitzvah into buying the equipment to publish phots in a wrestling newsletter he distributed at the age of 13. Heyman tells a great story about how he was able to get himself a press pass to take photographs at MSG from Vincent J. McMahon. “It was my first hustle,” says Heyman.

At a young age, Heyman rubbed the other photographers at ringside the wrong way, the theme of Heyman’s personality clashing with other runs throughout the documentary. Bill Apter discusses Heyman’s behavior at ringside and says, “Paul Heyman was a pain in the a--.”

Although Heyman rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, Capt. Lou Albano, Fred Blassie, and The Grand Wizard all took a liking to Heyman. He began to learn the inner workings of wrestling and the McMahon way of doing things. Heyman began to travel to different cities and got to know people in the industry.

Heyman tells another great story about traveling to the Carolinas for a JCP show and walking into the production meeting. He does an impression of Dusty Rhodes questioning him about sneaking into the production meeting. It wasn’t long before Heyman was learning Rhodes’s way of booking. Although Heyman started by sitting in on the productions meetings Rhodes says, "By the third week he had almost moved up in my lap."

Heyman knew how to talk to people and it seemed he was always in the right place at the right time. He promoted his first wrestling event at the famous Studio 54 in New York City, but wasn’t inside wrestling like he wanted to be. Heyman eventually began managing on the independent scene in the Northeast. Kevin Sullivan took notice of Heyman and he got his first major break in the Florida, but JCP bought the territory and he was out of a job.

Heyman went to Memphis where he managed the top heel unit of Austin Idol & Tommy Rich as Paul E. Dangerously. The theme of Heyman rubbing people the wrong way continues here, as Lawler appears and says, “He thought he was God’s gift to the wrestling industry.”

Heyman bounced around from AWA and then started building his reputation working behind the scenes in independent promotions in Chicago and Alabama. He finally got a break and went to WCW, but Heyman appears on screen and says, “It was a volatile time.” Heyman was eventually fired by Ric Flair, but brought back to the announce team by Jim Ross.

It’s really interesting to listen to Heyman and Ross talking about their time together announcing in WCW. Heyman says he learned more about the performance aspect of wrestling from Ross than anyone else he had encountered in the business, which is a huge compliment, but Heyman continued to clash with management. Heyman was smart and could point out holes in the creative direction of the company. Ross says the problem was that Heyman was abrasive and had “I want to slap you in the face presentation skills.” Heyman clashed with Turner management and was suspended.

Jim Crockett eventually brought Heyman back to WCW to lead the Dangerous Alliance and he got a lot of TV exposure and was on magazine covers and PPV poster. Heyman continued to be defiant and headstrong behind the scenes according to Ross. Heyman always believed he was right when it came to clashing with management. Ross says that being the son of attorney rubbed off on him and eventually Heyman was dismissed by the company.

Heyman was burned out from clashing with WCW management at the time. He was set to go head-to-head on the airwaves with Howard Stern as a radio personality when Jim Crockett called him and said he was looking to take on Vince McMahon. He offered Heyman creative control of the company. At the same time Eddie Gilbert was running ECW and asked Heyman to come in and help the talent with promos. Heyman wasn’t supposed to be there long, but Crockett’s promotion never got off the ground. Todd Gordon ended up having to dismiss Gilbert and he gave Heyman the book.

For the first time, Heyman had complete creative control and didn’t have the outside forces from management to clash with. Heyman was able to use his gifts. Heyman’s former assistant in ECW and current DGUSA/EVOLVE VP and booker Gabe Sapolsky says of Heyman, “He took talent that failed in other places made them stars,” referencing talent such as Taz and Tommy Dreamer.

The ECW portion focusing on Heyman is fantastic. There are a lot of never before seen clips of Heyman coaching promos and a young Sapolsky can even be seen in the background as Heyman is working out of a briefcase backstage. Seeing Heyman working behind the scenes in ECW is incredible. There’s one scene in particular where Heyman addresses the talent and says if they’re willing to be part of the team, they can stay, but if they’re unhappy, they’re free to walk out the door. It was those types of inspirational speeches that endeared Heyman to the wrestlers.

Raven appears and talks about why ECW was different behind the scene and how Heyman knew how to manage personalities and make them believe in his vision: "ECW was so different because the boys weren't jaded yet, they weren't cynical, and nobody had been anywhere yet except me."

Heyman addresses his relationship with Vince McMahon while he was running ECW. He says there was no bigger support of ECW than Vince McMahon. Heyman believes that McMahon supported the company because he thought they were a great place to develop talent. Ross appears and talks about how Vince and Paul had a great relationship and they were helping them because they thought at some point they would be able to take some talent here and there. WWE also paid for some of their talent to develop in ECW.

Heyman’s ability to explain his actions shine when he addresses whether or not he took money from Vince McMahon when he was in charge of ECW. Another of Heyman’s abilities to explain his actions comes when he discusses appearing on Raw for 90 days before ECW filed for bankruptcy later in the documentary.

Heyman knew how to read and motivate people, which helped him keep the company going when things weren’t going well financially. Raven says he remembers the first time he heard a big Heyman speech and how he talked about the team. The other wrestlers were buying it and he wasn’t at first, but then even Raven got goose bumps and he had been somewhere and was somewhat jaded unlike the other guys. He says he was ready to put his head through a wall for Heyman after hearing his speech.

Tommy Dreamer appears and talked about how Heyman offered to show him how the behind the scenes aspects of ECW worked in the production studio, which he claimed was unheard of in those days because a wrestler was a wrestler and nothing more. This is another example of Heyman’s ability to connect with his talent and make them feel like they’re part of the team.

ECW was growing fast and the company didn’t have the infrastructure to handle its success. Dreamer says ECW was like a mom and pop sandwich shop becoming Subway. Heyman had other wrestlers and even his parents helping as investors and behind the scene, but it was a battle for the company to survive day to day.

Former ECW announcer Joey Styles appears and says by the time Heyman was in charge of business and creator, they were in trouble. There was nobody to rein him in according to Gordon. They were expanding because of Heyman's creativity and it kept the company going as long as it could.

"I got the company to the next day and sometimes that's not a pleasant task," said Heyman on his reputation and why he did what he did. Watching the documentary and listening to Heyman, it is obvious his mother surviving The Holocaust had a huge influence on him. "I never envisioned ECW dying. I was the son of a survivor,” said Heyman. He did whatever it took for ECW to survive, including lying to talent and using his ability to convince the wrestlers that they all had a stake in the company to stay on board, despite not being paid. Dreamer says ultimately it was the wrestler’s choice to keep coming back.

Styles says that Heyman was just done and became distant during the final days of the company. Heyman had an open offer to work for WWE if ECW closed and Dreamer talks about being devastated when Heyman showed up as an announcer on Raw.

Taz told Heyman about a young Brock Lesnar. Heyman said Lesnar was getting some bad advice and Heyman spoke to him and gave him some advice and had McMahon watch one of his matches and he liked it. McMahon ended up pairing Heyman and Lesnar together as an act on TV. Once again, Heyman was able to use his gift to get talent to believe in themselves by mentoring a young Lesnar.

Heyman eventually became the lead writer on Smackdown during the brand split when the rosters were kept separate. Heyman was once again able to use his gifts to work with young talent and get them over. Heyman discusses how what he’s about to say will get edited and goes on to say that Smackdown was the b---- of WWE. Heyman said his goal was to beat Raw and explains how McMahon is a competition junkie and during this time he pitted his own talent against each other to create competition.

When Heyman was in charge of Smackdown, it was my favorite show to watch and I loved reviewing the show when I started as a contributor for PWTorch.com. Edge appears and talks about how Heyman made him believe in himself was he was the lead of creative on Smackdown. He says that Heyman gave him his first big break as a singles wrestler.

Stephanie McMahon appears and it’s clear that she wasn’t a big fan of Heyman during this period. She says he wasn’t a model employee during a highly competitive time between the Raw and Smackdown creative teams. Although Heyman helped Smackdown beat Raw in viewership and helped the young wrestlers in the company grow as talents, he constantly clashed with Vince at production meetings.

Big Show appears and says Heyman would push Vince over small issues because he didn’t know any better, which fits into the overarching theme of the documentary that Heyman’s downfall in the corporate wrestling environment was his inability to deal with his superiors. Heyman appears and discusses how he fought a lot of battles that he shouldn't have. "Diplomatically I was still a child."

Heyman was suspended without pay and eventually sent to the OVW developmental territory. Heyman discusses how he had a five-year-contract and that McMahon kept him in the company because as he once told him it was better to have him pissing inside the castle than outside.

Heyman said it was a gift to go to OVW to him because he got a chance to develop talent, which he loved doing. C.M. Punk appears and says things got brighter when Heyman came to OVW and tells a story I had heard before about Heyman invited him one night to help him write TV. He taught him how to time, pace, and book a show. Heyman says nobody picked up formatting a show like Punk and he asked the best questions. Heyman said he was learning from Punk before he was done teaching him.

Eventually Heyman was put in charge of the ECW brand where he continued to work with young talent, but as everybody knows, putting the ECW moniker on the third WWE brand was a big mistake. Heyman says if they called it anything besides ECW it would have a chance to succeed. Predictably, Heyman became frustrated and clashed with his superiors. Stephanie talks about how Heyman couldn’t handle that he wasn’t the boss at the end of the day. Eventually Heyman had a blowup with McMahon and believed he would never return to WWE.

The last part of the documentary should have been called the redemption of Paul Heyman. Heyman talks about how he wanted to buy Strikeforce and bring in Brock Lesnar to fight in the promotion. Eventually he launched the Heyman Hustle online TV program with business partner Mitchell Stuart. Heyman was able to use his creative abilities outside of wrestling for the first time during this period. Eventually he started Looking For Larry, an advertising and branding agency, with Stuart. He also worked with Brock Lesnar on his autobiography during this period as well.

The thing that changed Heyman during this period was becoming a father. Stephanie appears and talks about how Heyman has changed now that he has children and Styles talks about how Heyman realizes his children are more important than his career. Rob Van Dam talks about how having children has helped Heyman learn to balance everything in his life and be a great father.

When Lesnar returned to WWE in 2012, Heyman wanted no part of WWE, but eventually he was asked to come back and pair with Lesnar. Heyman talks about how he’s a better performer now than he was in the past because he needed to find something else to do and learn other ways to approach business and performance.

Stephanie says Heyman is now contributing in a wonderful way and the audience is enjoying it. Ross talks about how Heyman is arguably now the best orator in the business. It’s really interesting to watch Heyman talking with the young WWE talent behind the scenes and Stephanie says that Heyman tries to mentor as much as he can.

Heyman, as he always has been, is a fan of talent.

Ross says he's arguably the best orator in the business. Heyman says he can learn more from Renee Young by giving her advice than just saying thank you for the interview. He also has a really good anecdote about how he gets to work with young talent that don't have decades of experience that teachers them what not to do, so he gets to learn from them.

The documentary closes with Heyman saying the definition of him as a man will be his children. "Everything else is what I had fun doing. They are my legacy,” says Heyman.

“Ladies and Gentleman, my Name is Paul Heyman” is a wonderful look at the entire career of Paul Heyman. More importantly, it gives viewers an inside look at how throughout his career he was able to explain things to wrestlers to get them to see his vision and buy into it no matter how dire the situation was in reality.

Heyman’s clashes working in the corporate wrestling world are well-documented and it’s clear that Stephanie McMahon was not a huge fan of Paul Heyman when he was working in WWE after ECW folded. Ross also chronicles Heyman’s battles behind the scenes while working in WCW and WWE.

The most interesting parts of the documentary focus on Heyman’s ability to mentor young talent and get the most out of them whether it was working with Taz and Dreamer in ECW, Edge and Guerrero in WWE, a young C.M Punk in WWE, Punk was always able to work with talent and learn from them as well. This is one of the best documentaries WWE has produced to date and the extras with Heyman promos, more interviews, and behind the scenes footage makes it a must buy.

You can purchase Ladies and Gentlemen, my Name is Paul Heyman” by clicking HERE or by visiting shop.WWE.com.

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