To follow up on the Paul Heyman situation, it looks like he is gone from WWE. PwInsider talked to a few people in the know and the general concensus was that Vince McMahon was angry at how bad December To Dismember was and pinned the whole mess on Heyman. He got the blame for it with the theory being that “he is caught in the past and doesn’t understand the new vision of ECW”.
PwInsiders sources also revealed that the problems started Sunday at the ECW PPV when everyone realized that the show really stunk. Heyman was said to be unhappy with the way that the show was booked and sources backstage reported that he voiced that concern both before the show and after it. People at the Raw/ECW Tapings said that it was obvious that there were issues between Vince McMahon and Heyman because of the how the show played out on pay TV, with everyone knowing it was a disaster.
Problems carried over from Sunday night and led to the incidents that happened Monday. A number of sources said that there was a meeting at Monday’s show around two o’clock with Heyman, Vince McMahon and Stephanie McMahon-Levesque at the building. Heyman came out the meeting and seemed like his normal self, with no one having any idea that something bad had happened. Shortly thereafter, Heyman gathered his things and left the building to go home. The word going around is that this is not a storyline in any way and he is legitimately done with the company.
Now it doesn’t take a genius to look at ECW as it is today and look at ECW as it was to realize who is actually booking those shows now . . . Vince McMahon. Heyman may have been writing the shows but it is very obvious they went through the Vince McMahon/WWE Creative Editorial process. This was my complaint about the new ECW since the begining . . . Vince wouldn’t let Heyman do what he does best, McMahon had to have his hand in the pie. But even with Vince’s interferance, ECW still put on a better show than SmackDown and that right there could also be a contributing factor to Heyman’s departure. Either way McMahon has made a huge mistake and has let a huge asset go. WWE Creative is terrible and Heyman was the only person bringing good ideas to the table. It would not suprise me to see ECW folded into SmackDown in 2007. Depending on his contract status, this could be a huge opportunity for TNA to get rid of Vince Russo and bring in a great wrestling mind to book their shows. Imagine how good TNA could be with Heyman and Cornette booking their shows?
ECW legend Tommy Dreamer says that WWE funded Paul Heyman’s creation since day 1, even though it appeared, at times, that ECW was competing with Vince McMahon’s WWE during 1990s, and the infamous Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW.
“I did not find out that Paul was in bed with them until we did any episode of Byte This together and he said it on the air and if you watch my face you can see it” Dreamer said, during an interview with WSVN-TV Entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet .
“The story changes all the time, Jim Ross who was the head of talent relations at the time says they were in bed together all the time and that Paul Heyman would get checks, but Paul said he didn’t get checks.
“It’s many, many conspiracy theories. Shane McMahon told me Paul was in bed with WWE the entire time. Bruce Prichard said he was in bed with them since day one.”
Dreamer also talked about All-In, where he was seen walking with Cody to the ring for his NWA World Title match against Nick Aldis.
“Honestly, when I saw NWA’s YouTube show ’10 Pounds of Gold’ and Cody talked about Dusty’s five guys I seriously got all teary eyed. Then when talking with Glacier and DDP they were like we didn’t know that either.
“So now we’re forever connected. A lot of people say in life you can count your friends on one hand or you’re lucky if you can count them on two and for the fact that Dusty Rhodes counted three wrestlers that were part of his five guys, it was an amazing, amazing thing that we all witnessed together.
“Cody is someone I hired into WWE and The Young Bucks I use them all the time on my shows and they were like my main eventers before people thought they were main eventers. They’re my guys.”
The Dudley Boyz are going to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, joining Bill Goldberg as a part of the 2018 class, according to CBS Sports.
“The legacy of the Dudley Boyz is really the last of the Mohicans,” Bubba Ray told CBS Sports. “We are the last, legitimate, great tag team that you most likely will ever see; the most old school tag team that there is. I don’t think you will ever see a tag team go on to accomplish what we have accomplished, whether that’s in the WWE or any place else. We really are the last of many, many generations of great tag teams.”
“The great thing about us is we didn’t take no for an answer,” D-Von said. “We just went out there and did it when nobody thought we could. That was the biggest thing that Bubba and I had to face in our career because, back in ECW, we weren’t really supposed to be an act to be reckoned with.”
The globally recognized tag team has won titles in ECW, WWE, TNA/Impact Wrestling, All Japan and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Former WWE, WCW, ECW and Lucha Underground superstar Rey Mysterio has been a free agent for quite some time, but is eyeing one final run in WWE.
Mysterio spoke with ESPN and talked about being a free agent as well as finishing his career in the place he experienced his most success.
“I’m not locked up to any company. I’m an independent contractor, as we say. I could go work wherever I want. That’s the beautiful thing about being on this side of the fence. You don’t have a commitment with only one company. You can go around and pretty much wrestle wherever you want. You can choose when you want your off-days to be. That was one of my main priorities when I left WWE.”
“I told myself, once I started feeling aching and I was having hard times getting up from my bed in the morning when I woke up, it was gonna start getting close to that time [to quit]. I was feeling that right towards my end of the last year or so of WWE. It came to the point where I was feeling like that constantly. I didn’t want to fall into another phase of taking either medication to ease my pain. I wanted to use the rest way to heal my body up. Believe it or not, the last two years, I don’t think I’ve felt better.”
And about a WWE return?
“This is the way I was thinking at the time, and I still think that to this day. When I left WWE, from my understanding and from the time that we sat down … that I decided not to re-sign another contract with WWE was for me to get some off time. I never meant or insinuated in any way or form that I was gonna leave for good. I think that should say a lot. I wasn’t announcing that was the end of Rey Mysterio’s career. I would definitely love to go back and finish up. Whether it’s one year or whatever the case might be. Whether it’s a farewell. I owe a lot to that company. That company gave me such an amazing opportunity, and I took advantage of every single moment I was with WWE to the fullest. I wouldn’t want to just be remembered as ‘Oh, man, he never re-signed and he never came back.’ I would definitely love to come back and do a last run and say goodbye to my WWE fans. Tell them goodbye in a proper way.”