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152-705: In the spring of 1987, Paul E. Dangerously formed The Dangerous Alliance with Adrian Adonis and The Midnight Express ( Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose ) in the American Wrestling Association (AWA). In October 1987, Dangerously successfully led Condrey and Rose to win the AWA World Tag Team Championship from Mid-South legends Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee , only to lose the titles to The Midnight Rockers ( Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty ) two months later. Dangerously also helped Adonis in his feud with Tommy Rich and his bid to win

304-499: A Fatal Four-Way to retain the Universal Championship. At Extreme Rules 2018 , Kurt Angle said that if Lesnar, then-reigning Universal Champion , did not show up for Raw or agree to the terms of when Lesnar will defend the championship, he would be stripped of the championship. On July 16, 2018, episode of Raw , Heyman interrupted Angle, who was about to strip Lesnar of the title, and stated that Lesnar would hold on to

456-643: A ratings competition against the flagship program of the WWF, Monday Night Raw , in a period now known as the Monday Night War . From 1996 to 1998, WCW surpassed their rival program in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks. Beginning in 1999, WCW endured significant losses in ratings and revenue due to creative missteps and suffered from the fallout from the 2001 merger of America Online (AOL) and Turner Broadcasting parent Time Warner (later WarnerMedia, now known as Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)). Soon thereafter, WCW

608-549: A "Paul Heyman Guy". After that, CM Punk came out to once again beat Heyman with a kendo stick. The following night on SmackDown , Heyman formally announced to Curtis Axel and Ryback that they were no longer Paul Heyman guys, therefore marking the end of Axel's association with Heyman as he continued to team with Ryback. Heyman returned on the December 30 episode of Raw alongside Brock Lesnar, who attacked Mark Henry . He stood by Lesnar as he feuded with Big Show and The Undertaker in

760-405: A "family-friendly" orientation, and drop the reforms that turned around the company's fortunes. Concurrently to WCW beginning to struggle under the weight of its own momentum, the WWF began to turn the corner on its own reforms. Having been caught flatfooted by the total reconfiguration of WCW and the success of Nitro in 1996 and 1997, by 1998 the WWF was building its own momentum. Taking most of

912-408: A "genius" was echoed by Tazz and Jim Cornette . Heyman is widely regarded as one of the greatest orators in professional wrestling history. Heyman's skills were praised by his former broadcast partner Jim Ross , who stated: "He was a really good antagonist because sometimes the best antagonists are the villains that say things that you know are true but you just don't want to hear them. Heyman had

1064-439: A 1-on-1 match for the next week's Raw , which Punk accepted. However, this was revealed to be a trap when Lesnar appeared prior to the match. The plan was foiled, however, when Heyman dared CM Punk to come into the ring and accept the challenge as CM Punk, who had anticipated the trap and hid under the ring, emerged and attacked Lesnar. However, Punk failed to get his hands on Heyman as Curtis Axel came to Heyman's aid. This led to

1216-453: A No Holds Barred match against Triple H at WrestleMania, with Triple H's career on the line. At WrestleMania, both of Heyman's clients lost their matches. On the April 15 episode of Raw , Heyman announced Lesnar had challenged Triple H to a steel cage match at Extreme Rules . The following week, Triple H accepted the match and delivered a Pedigree to Heyman. As a response, Lesnar and Heyman invaded

1368-480: A botched move at Starrcade 1999 , followed just days later by Goldberg very seriously injuring himself during an angle on Thunder , and Hollywood Hogan seemingly quitting the company live on PPV at Bash at the Beach 2000 only seemed to further a sense that the company was spiralling out of control. By July 2000 Bischoff had walked off the job. In 2000, several potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in

1520-583: A creative, deciding the storylines which include Reigns. At the Crown Jewel event in October 2021, Reigns retained the Universal Championship after striking Lesnar with the title belt. Heyman's alliance with Reigns ended on the December 17, 2021 episode of Smackdown after Reigns fired Heyman and attacked him. As Reigns was about to hit him with a steel chair, Lesnar saved him from being attacked. On

1672-458: A disgruntled talent roster as causes for Mr. Heyman's dismissal". Heyman was escorted from the Coliseum and sent home. He was also immediately pulled from ECW's creative team after the altercation. McMahon attempted to put the blame on Heyman for the poorly received pay-per-view, and after a meeting with Vince and Stephanie McMahon , Heyman legitimately left WWE but remained under contract. Heyman

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1824-558: A duo. The pairing was not cohesive and frequently chafed over the direction of the company. Creatively, the year 2000 saw WCW attempt numerous publicity stunts to gain traction, such as making actor David Arquette (who then had no professional wrestling experience) the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. These moves only served to push traditional wrestling fans away from WCW. Events such as Goldberg forcing WCW World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart into retirement following

1976-515: A face-off with Mick Foley , Heyman announced that he was granted a draft pick from both Raw and SmackDown! by Vince McMahon . His Raw draft pick was former ECW wrestler (and Money in the Bank contract holder) Rob Van Dam , and his SmackDown! draft pick was Kurt Angle . Heyman predicted that Van Dam would defeat John Cena at ECW One Night Stand for the WWE Championship and then declare himself

2128-438: A feud between Lesnar and Rollins. At Battleground , Lesnar defeated Rollins by disqualification ( The Undertaker returned and attacked Lesnar). The Undertaker further explained his actions as revenge, not for defeating the streak but over Heyman's constant taunting. At SummerSlam , Heyman was at ringside when the match between Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker ended in controversy; the bell was rung as The Undertaker tapped out, but

2280-561: A few wrestlers, including Sabu and 911 . A year later, the company was the flagship promotion of the struggling NWA. The NWA World Title Tournament was scheduled to be held in August 1994 for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship , at an ECW-hosted event mostly featuring ECW wrestlers. The proposed outcome was the current ECW champion Shane Douglas becoming champion, but Heyman conspired with Douglas and Gordon without

2432-712: A gruesome " WarGames " match at WrestleWar (1992) . During the match, Rude removed the turnbuckle from the post; Zbyszko tried to hit Sting with the metal hook, but ended up hitting his stablemate Eaton instead, allowing Sting to apply an armbar to Eaton and garner a submission victory for his team. After the match, Zbyszko was expelled from the Alliance, which began the group's downfall. Rude and Madusa went their own separate way and had much success. Anderson and Eaton started running with Michael Hayes , but they came back to Dangerously when he fired Madusa publicly at Halloween Havoc in October and she came after him, Austin went on forming

2584-502: A loophole in the match contract that specifically stated that if Sting was not able to defend his title, he would have to forfeit it to Rude. The announcers relayed the message to Bischoff, who in turn passed it along to Sting. Commotion could be heard in the background as Sting tried to leave the hospital and return to defend his title. It turned out that Eaton had been conspiring with Dangerously and Rude to ensure Sting did not make it out in time for his title defense. When it came time for

2736-471: A low ebb. To counter this, Bischoff felt that WCW was in need of radical reform; to this end, Bischoff sought to modernise WCW and move its image away from that of a Southern-based " rasslin " company. To achieve this, Bischoff increased WCW's production values, avoided unprofitable house shows , increased the number of WCW pay-per-views (PPVs, which were profitable), decreased the number of Southern accents on commentary, and began recruiting top stars away from

2888-419: A match between Lesnar and Punk at SummerSlam , which Lesnar won after interference from Heyman. "I think the bar was set so high with the chemistry that Brock and I have, and the chemistry that Punk and I had, that it would be very difficult to match that ... I've never walked through the curtain with someone I wasn't trying to audition as a WrestleMania main-eventer, and I never want to ... But sometimes

3040-443: A month before, had quit the company. Behind the scenes, Heyman had no interest at first in returning to WWE, as he still felt he held bad blood with a lot of the staff, but reconsidered after Lesnar requested his presence after a lackluster promo with John Laurinaitis . The following week on Raw SuperShow , Heyman confronted Triple H , handing him a lawsuit from Lesnar for breach of contract. Triple H responded by shoving Heyman into

3192-455: A new promotion in Texas with Jim Crockett Jr. Disagreement arose, however, as Crockett wanted to build a traditional wrestling brand, while Heyman believed traditional wrestling was antiquated and a new take on the genre was needed. At this time, Eddie Gilbert was a booker for a Philadelphia-based promotion, National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s Eastern Championship Wrestling , which he did under

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3344-637: A notable exception for almost a decade and a half. After the Invasion storyline concluded, the WWF divided the roster into two brands which was originally intended to revive WCW under the WWF umbrella but was instead divided into Raw and SmackDown! brands, named after two WWF's top programs at the time. Many other WCW wrestlers moved to the World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) or the XWF and then Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) which all started after

3496-399: A period of mainstream success characterized by a shift to reality-based storylines , and notable hirings of former WWF talent. WCW also gained attention for developing a popular cruiserweight division, which showcased an acrobatic, fast-paced, lucha libre -inspired style of wrestling. In 1995, WCW debuted their live flagship television program Monday Nitro , and subsequently developed

3648-526: A reunited nWo in the widely panned " Fingerpoke of Doom " angle. By September 1999, the rapidly declining ratings of Nitro (now half that of Raw ), drastic dropoff in revenue, and the increasing antagonism between Eric Bischoff and Time Warner executives prompted the head of Turner Sports , Harvey Schiller , to relieve Bischoff of his position. Almost immediately Schiller found a duo to replace Bischoff: former head writers for Raw Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera . Russo had just weeks prior walked off

3800-479: A segment with Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff announcing ECW One Night Stand , with Heyman in charge. On the May 22, 2006 episode of Raw , Heyman appeared as ECW Representative promoting ECW One Night Stand . On May 25, 2006, it was announced that ECW would relaunch , as a third WWE brand. Heyman was in charge of the new brand on-camera but had minimal creative input off-camera as well. On the May 29 episode of Raw , during

3952-413: A singles match between Lesnar and Strowman for the now- vacant title at Crown Jewel, a match Lesnar won. At WrestleMania 35 , Heyman came out just after the opening segment, demanding that Seth Rollins fights his client to start off the main card. Lesnar and Rollins appeared thereafter. Lesnar then severely beat up Rollins before the match started. When the match finally started, Rollins ultimately won

4104-485: A stable, which then immediately merged with Shane McMahon 's WCW to form the Alliance during the Invasion angle . Heyman was " fired " following the 2001 Survivor Series when the Alliance lost a winner takes all match that marked the end of the invasion angle. Heyman was replaced on Raw commentary by the returning Jerry Lawler . Heyman was the lead writer for SmackDown! from July 2002 to February 2003. On Heyman's 2014 WWE documentary Ladies and Gentleman, My Name

4256-744: A tag team with Flyin Brian . By the end of November 1992 after the Clash of the Champions XXI , the Dangerous Alliance had disbanded after Dangerously left after a bitter contract dispute. Arn Anderson, in an interview video with RF Video, referred to the Dangerous Alliance as one of the greatest gatherings of talent ever. However, Anderson opined that it never became a memorable group because of WCW's incompetent bookers (i.e. Jim Herd , Kip Allen Frey , and Bill Watts ) failing to promote stars. Dangerously revived

4408-504: A teenager, he fast-talked his way backstage at a World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) event at Madison Square Garden as a photojournalist. He was paid by the company for several of his photographs. He graduated from Edgemont High School . He attended SUNY Purchase and worked on-air as an opinionated, controversial host at SUNY's radio station and the WARY-FM New York radio station for Westchester Community College ; in 1985, at

4560-486: A three volume series hosted by Diamond Dallas Page called The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro . WCW's library content would be made available with the launch of WWE Network in 2014. WWE would revive several of WCW's events, including Great American Bash in 2004, Starrcade in 2017 and Halloween Havoc in 2020. WWE also utilized the Night of Champions name and theme used on the last episode of Nitro beginning in 2001, which

4712-481: A unique and popular identity by integrating and mixing wrestlers from all around the world and from vastly different wrestling styles, particularly Mexican luchadores such as Rey Misterio Jr. , Psicosis , and Juventud Guerrera , but also Japanese "Super Juniors" such as Último Dragón . North American wrestlers, such as Chris Jericho , Eddie Guerrero , Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit , who had travelled abroad to Mexico and Japan earlier in their careers and learned

Dangerous Alliance - Misplaced Pages Continue

4864-482: A writer, but was fired on his first day in the middle of his first TV taping. In 1991, WCW needed to re-structure its " heels ", so Heyman returned to the role of spokesman and ringside manager as the manager of the Dangerous Alliance, with Rick Rude as the centerpiece of the stable. According to Heyman, he and Stone Cold Steve Austin learned their craft from Rude. Heyman led Rude to the United States title and

5016-585: Is Paul Heyman , Heyman stated that the SmackDown! brand he was writing was beating Raw in ratings, merchandise and live show attendance during a time McMahon wanted real-life competition between the Raw and SmackDown! brands. While he was in WWE, Tazz spoke to him about Brock Lesnar , a WWE developmental wrestler. Heyman began mentoring Lesnar, and McMahon decided to make Heyman Lesnar's manager. Heyman helped Lesnar capture

5168-613: Is an American professional wrestling manager , executive and former promoter. He is signed to WWE , where he appears on the SmackDown brand . Born in Scarsdale, New York to a family of Holocaust survivors , Heyman debuted in the professional wrestling business in 1986, becoming known as the CEO and creative force behind the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion from 1993 until its closure in 2001. Before owning ECW, he

5320-632: The AWA International Television Championship , in which Adonis lost the title in a tournament final to Greg Gagne . By 1988, the Dangerous Alliance disbanded, as Dangerously, Condrey, and Rose left the AWA, while Adonis died that July in a van accident during a tour in Canada. In 1988, Dangerously and the husband and wife duo of Eddie Gilbert and Missy Hyatt reused the Dangerous Alliance name for their manager/wrestler/valet partnership in

5472-503: The Alabama -based Continental Wrestling Federation . Behind the scenes, Gilbert was the head booker of the promotion , and Heyman became his assistant. Heyman was also the head booker for Windy City Wrestling in Chicago and started developing a reputation as being an innovative television writer and producer. In 1988, Heyman jumped to Jim Crockett Promotions , where Dangerously again managed

5624-666: The CWA and Continental territories. By the end of the year, all three were signed to WCW . After Dangerously was "fired" as an announcer for World Championship Wrestling , the precursors to resurrecting his stable came at the Halloween Havoc pay-per-view in Chattanooga, Tennessee . Prior to the show, announcer Eric Bischoff was working as a valet in the parking lot. When Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham pulled up and got out of their car,

5776-681: The ECW World Tag Team Championship in February 1995, before losing the titles three weeks later. In April 1995, Sabu was fired by Dangerously, due to choosing a tour with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) over a booking on April 8. In July 1995, The Tazmaniac, now under the name Taz, suffered a serious neck injury during a tag team match in Florida. With Sabu fired and Taz injured, Dangerously finally disbanded The Dangerous Alliance. Paul Heyman Paul Heyman (born September 11, 1965)

5928-556: The Intercontinental Championship with Axel winning the match and the title. Heyman accompanied Punk to the ring later in the show for his match with Chris Jericho. After Payback , a WWE.com exclusive video aired with Punk telling Heyman that he is his friend and not his client. On the June 17 episode of Raw , Punk challenged Alberto Del Rio , mentioning that he did not want Heyman managing him anymore. Following Punk's match, he

6080-578: The No Mercy pay-per-view, the storyline was that she was forced to resign from her position as general manager (GM) of SmackDown! . Heyman returned to television to assume Stephanie McMahon's on-camera role as General Manager. On March 22, 2004, he appeared on Raw to take part in the annual WWE draft lottery . During the show he was drafted to the Raw brand to work for Raw general manager Eric Bischoff . Instead, he decided to "quit" rather than work for Bischoff,

6232-538: The USA Network . The meeting led to Turner greenlighting the creation of WCW Monday Nitro , which would air on TNT on the same day and in the same time slot as Raw . Nitro would debut on September 4, 1995, and directly lead into the Monday Night War era of professional wrestling, in which WCW Nitro and WWF Raw would fiercely compete to beat each other in the Nielson ratings each and every week. The struggle between

Dangerous Alliance - Misplaced Pages Continue

6384-526: The WWE Undisputed Championship 126 days after Lesnar's main roster debut when Lesnar beat The Rock at SummerSlam to also become the youngest WWE Undisputed Champion at the time. At the Survivor Series , Heyman turned on Lesnar and allied himself with Big Show , while helping him win the title from Lesnar in the process. After McMahon defeated his daughter Stephanie in October 2003 at

6536-680: The X Division . Throughout the 2000s, WWE would incorporate elements into their shows formerly associated with WCW. Former WCW Championships such as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship , the WCW United States Championship and the WCW Cruiserweight Championship would be reactivated in WWE, with their WCW lineages acknowledged. The Cruiserweight division concept was introduced to WWE in 2002 and since then has been used intermittently throughout

6688-459: The tag team of Eaton and Arn Anderson to the Tag Team titles . The Dangerous Alliance dominated WCW through most of 1992. Heyman was fired from WCW after clashes with booker Bill Watts . In February 1993, Heyman filed a lawsuit against WCW alleging wrongful termination and ethnic discrimination. The lawsuit was settled privately out of court. After departing WCW, Heyman attempted to start

6840-573: The 2000s, 2010s and 2020s from 2002 onwards. Some WCW mainstays such as Booker T, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho were able to achieve long-term top positions within WWE by the mid to late 2000s. Similarly, promotions such as Total Nonstop Action would also make use of former WCW talent when possible and also continued the legacy of the Cruiserweight with their X-Division. WWE has since released various WCW documentaries, anthologies, and compilations, including The Rise and Fall of WCW , and

6992-417: The August 13, 2018 episode of Raw , Heyman revealed it was all a ruse as both Heyman (wielding pepper spray ) and Lesnar ambushed Reigns . Heyman would accompany Lesnar to SummerSlam, where Lesnar's 504 day reign as champion would come to an end after Lesnar was pinned by Reigns. Heyman would appear in a segment backstage at the Raw following SummerSlam to invoke Lesnar's rematch clause against Roman for

7144-502: The Bank , Heyman betrayed CM Punk, costing him his chance at the Money in the Bank briefcase by hitting him three times with a ladder, knocking Punk off the ladder when he was ascending. On the August 5 episode of Raw , Punk retaliated by choking Heyman while Heyman was in Curtis Axel's corner during a match. This prompted Lesnar to enter the ring and attack Punk. Heyman later challenged Punk to

7296-458: The Beach series of shows with AEW Bash at the Beach on January 15, 2020. However, a lawsuit by WWE prevented further reuse of that branding. Beginning in 2021, AEW began presenting their own version of WCW's WarGames match , held at the AEW Blood & Guts event. Who Killed WCW? , a four-part documentary series based off the downfall of WCW premiered June 6, 2024 on Vice TV . The series

7448-528: The Bloodline. Heyman was by Reigns' side as he beat Cody Rhodes at Wrestlemania 39 in the main event. Reigns' title reign as Universal Champion lasted 1,316 days when he ultimately lost to Rhodes at WrestleMania XL in April 2024. That same year, Heyman was announced as the first 2024 WWE Hall of Fame inductee and was inducted on April 5. After Reigns' title loss, Heyman turned into a tweener , after his character became innocent after Solo Sikoa , who joined

7600-498: The Dangerous Alliance in NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling (NWA-ECW) in 1993 with Jimmy Snuka , Don Muraco , The Dark Patriot and "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert . On the October 19th, 1993 episode of ECW Hardcore TV , Paul Heyman introduced a new Dangerous Alliance featuring ECW Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas and Sherri Martel as Director of Covert Operations. When Heyman attempted to introduce Sabu as

7752-747: The Hall and Nash debuts as it gave the show an unscripted, "anything can happen at any time" feeling to the television audience. The start of the nWo angle, which immediately proved immensely popular and intriguing to wrestling fans, was part of a wider shift in the WCW presentation still being pursued by Eric Bischoff. As part of his overhaul of WCW, Bischoff wanted to grow WCW's audience amongst 18 to 35-year-olds . To that end, he alongside WCW's booker Kevin Sullivan began grounding WCW characters and storylines more in reality, utilising real names and darker themes in contrast to

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7904-602: The January 3, 2022 episode of Raw , Heyman once again aligned himself with Lesnar after he had won the WWE Championship two days earlier at Day 1 . The reunion was short-lived, as three weeks later at the Royal Rumble event, Heyman betrayed Lesnar by handing Reigns the WWE Championship belt to attack Lesnar, allowing Bobby Lashley to win the title from him in the process and re-aligning him with Reigns. Lesnar went on to win

8056-469: The NWA and becoming a standalone wrestling promotion. In February 1993 former commentator Eric Bischoff was appointed as Executive Producer of WCW, and by 1994 he had been promoted once again to Senior Vice President, a position which gave Bischoff both creative and financial control of WCW. At this point, the promotion was struggling financially and was widely perceived within the wrestling industry to be at

8208-572: The October 31 episode of Raw , Heyman and Lesnar confronted Goldberg , and Heyman was speared by Goldberg; he was later taken by ambulance to a hospital in Hartford, Connecticut . On the July 31 episode of Raw , Heyman appeared with Lesnar to announce to acting authority figure Kurt Angle that, should Lesnar lose the championship at SummerSlam , they will both depart from the company. At Summerslam, Lesnar defeated Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, and Braun Strowman in

8360-543: The Original Midnight Express in a feud with the new Midnight Express ( Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane ) and their manager, Jim Cornette , as well as managing "Mean" Mark Callous . He settled into the role of an announcer, joining Jim Ross to call the matches on WTBS' World Championship Wrestling and other programming. Heyman admitted he learned more working with Ross than from his previous mentors. While in-between stints in WCW, Heyman went to work for ICW as

8512-608: The Phantom and had him unmask to reveal the returning "Ravishing" Rick Rude . Dangerously stated that even though he had been fired as a commentator, he still had his manager's license, and would use Rude to exact his revenge on the company that fired him. The storyline was furthered at Clash of the Champions XVII on November 19, 1991 in Savannah, Georgia . At the beginning of the Clash, which

8664-514: The Royal Rumble match and regained the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber , setting up a Champion vs. Champion Winner Takes All Championship Unification match against Reigns at WrestleMania 38 . Reigns defeated Lesnar, thus winning both the Universal and WWE Championships . It was around this time that Heyman would be announced as ‘The Wiseman’ as well as ‘Special Counsel’ to Roman Reigns and

8816-502: The September 3 episode of Raw , after CM Punk attacked John Cena , Heyman was seen driving the car Punk had entered. This began an alliance between CM Punk and Heyman. Heyman began accompanying Punk to the ring for his matches and promos. Because of the events of the previous weeks, on the February 11 episode of Raw , Heyman addressed the audience intending to resign from the company. CM Punk, however, convinced Heyman to not only stay with

8968-476: The Universal Championship at Hell in a Cell , but the rematch was denied by Kurt Angle. However, at Hell in a Cell, Heyman appeared as Lesnar interfered with the main event match between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. The next day, Heyman appeared on Raw , setting up a triple threat match at Crown Jewel between Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman, and Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship. However, following Reigns' leukemia announcement, Heyman would instead set up

9120-486: The WWE Championship in quick fashion, at a fan-less event, due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Lesnar then opted not to sign a new contract, thus leaving his professional wrestling career in uncertainty due to him becoming a "free agent". On the August 28, 2020 episode of SmackDown , Heyman aligned with the returning Roman Reigns , portraying the character of his special counsel. Besides his work as manager, Heyman also worked as

9272-483: The WWE immediately and participated in The Invasion storyline as part of The Alliance which lasted until the end of 2001, however many of WCW's top stars had contracts with AOL Time Warner rather than WCW itself that the WWF did not acquire, and most choose to sit out the length of their contracts rather than breaking them in order to work for the WWF. Most would eventually find their way to WWE, although Sting remained

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9424-565: The WWF free to acquire the key assets of WCW through its new subsidiary W. Acquisition Company, which was renamed WCW Inc. afterwards. AOL Time Warner sold the rights to the World Championship Wrestling name, branding, championships, and all other remaining assets aside from the talent roster and video library to WWF for $ 2.5 million in March 2001. Shortly afterwards WWF paid an additional $ 1.8 million to cover costs to AOL Time Warner in

9576-443: The WWF in January 2000, an incident which resulted in a number of firings amongst WCW management. With shakeups to WCW management becoming more and more frequent, the WCW talent began to lose any sense of leadership or direction, which in turn caused them to form bickering political cliques amongst themselves. In April 2000, WCW attempted to resolve its creative issues by asking Eric Bischoff to return but work alongside Vince Russo as

9728-560: The WWF seizing back the ratings lead as well as WCW's own internal problem caused tension amongst both the on-screen talent and management. By November 1998 Kevin Nash had become head booker of WCW, overseeing the creative direction of both Nitro and Thunder . Nash's tenure was fraught with unpopular decisions, such as the move that saw the popular undefeated streak of WCW Champion Goldberg ended by Nash himself, who then became champion, only for Nash to then lay down for Hollywood Hogan and reform

9880-736: The WWF throughout 2001. The storyline began proper at the WWF Invasion pay-per-view, which received 775,000 buys and became one of the highest-grossing wrestling pay-per-views of all time. Although WWF was able to recruit many of those on the WCW roster at the time of the purchase, it was unable to secure the use of most of its top-level stars, as they were signed to long-term contracts with AOL-Time Warner rather than WCW. As such, these stars could remain inactive but still continue to be paid, and were not incentivized to join WWF until those contracts expired. It would not be until 2002 onwards that headline WCW stars such as Goldberg or Scott Steiner would join

10032-453: The WWF to fight a proxy war. They also alleged that they would soon be joined by a third major figure; this "third man" was eventually revealed to be Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach 1996 . A major advantage WCW Nitro initially had over WWF Raw was that Nitro was live-to-air every week, while Raw alternated between live episodes and ones taped in advance and aired the following week. Nitro ' s live atmosphere enhanced segments such as

10184-497: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF). This led to marquee names such as Hulk Hogan and "The Macho Man" Randy Savage joining WCW's ranks and helping to supplement its business. In 1995, during a face-to-face meeting with Ted Turner, Bischoff was able to convince Turner that in order for WCW to become competitive with the WWF, WCW would require an equivalent to WWF's new flagship cable show WWF Raw , which aired on

10336-600: The X-Division was considered a direct spiritual successor to the style developed in the WCW Cruiserweight division and became influential in its own right. WWE and TNA/Impact have continued to experiment and use the Cruiserweight/X-Division concept on and off throughout the 2000s and 2010s and into the 2020s. Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s WCW

10488-632: The ability to tell his version of the truth, [he was] plausible. He just wasn't a heel getting himself over, he got talent over and did a great job." Heyman is the co-founder of the award-winning New York City firm The Looking4Larry Agency. The firm broke new ground with its initial campaign with Electronic Arts , THQ video games, 2K Sports , the Hard Rock Hotel, and Casino Las Vegas. Heyman also worked with Brock Lesnar , collaborating with him on Lesnar's autobiography, Death Clutch: My Story of Determination, Domination, and Survival . He has appeared in

10640-517: The acquisition of WCW by WWF/WWE in 2001, WWE revived the Cruiserweight division in 2002 to be a feature of its Smackdown brand, with the WWE Cruiserweight Championship being deemed by the promotion to be the direct lineal successor to the WCW title. Simultaneously, the newly formed Total Nonstop Action wrestling promotion heavily featured their X Division , which did not limit participants by weight but rather by style. Nonetheless,

10792-559: The age of 14, he called Capitol Wrestling Corporation , the parent company of the World Wide Wrestling Federation , and obtained a backstage pass for Madison Square Garden , his first official work in pro wrestling. Posed photographs from this period of Heyman with the WWF's three dominant heel managers of the period, Lou Albano , Fred Blassie and The Grand Wizard were later published by Pro Wrestling Illustrated as evidence that Heyman had studied heel management under

10944-628: The age of 19, he became a photographer, then a producer and promoter for the New York City nightclub Studio 54 . Heyman decided he wanted to work in professional wrestling when he saw Vince McMahon interviewing "Superstar" Billy Graham . He began as a photographer when he was 13 and bought his own photo lab to take photos of pro wrestlers in New York. He published his own newsletter, The Wrestling Times Magazine , and wrote for third-party wrestling publications such as Pro Wrestling Illustrated . At

11096-489: The battle for the largest television audience. However, in June 1996, Nitro would begin a streak of 83 constructive victories over Raw , initially sparked by the start of the New World Order (nWo) storyline. The start of the nWo angle saw former WWF talent Scott Hall and Kevin Nash unexpectedly leave the WWF to come to Monday Nitro on consecutive episodes, and each time insinuate that they were there on behalf of

11248-427: The bodyguard, Shane Douglas balked and stated that he was not consulted on this decision. Sherri Martel sided with Shane Douglas and the arguments continued in the locker room. By August 1994, when ECW broke away from the NWA and renamed itself Extreme Championship Wrestling, Dangerously formed the last incarnation of the Dangerous Alliance composed of The Tazmaniac , Sabu , and 911 . Tazmaniac and Sabu wound up winning

11400-468: The championship for "however long he pleases". Angle then scheduled Lesnar to defend the championship at SummerSlam; if he did not, he would be indefinitely stripped. On the July 30 episode of Raw , Angle threatened Heyman's employment due to Lesnar's refusal to leave the backstage area and appear in the ring. After several failed attempts by Heyman to convince Lesnar to appear in the ring, Lesnar attacked Angle with an F-5 and choked Heyman. Two weeks later on

11552-430: The chemistry just isn't there". Heyman in 2013, regarding wrestlers he did not complement well with. Heyman and Axel delivered a brutal assault to Punk on Raw the following week, with Heyman breaking a kendo stick over Punk's back while Punk was handcuffed. Heyman was then booked to team with Axel against CM Punk in an elimination handicap match at Night of Champions . Heyman tried various times to get out of

11704-664: The circuit. WCW also had a presence in NASCAR from the mid-1990s to 2000, sponsoring the #29 team in the Busch Grand National Series full-time and the #9 Melling Racing team in the Winston Cup Series part-time. In 1996, Kyle Petty 's #49 car in the Busch Grand National series was sponsored by the nWo, and Greg Sacks briefly drove a WCW-sponsored for Galaxy Motorsports. Several WCW video games were made in

11856-423: The closure of WCW, several new professional wrestling promotions would launch featuring former talent associated with WCW. The most prominent of these, Total Nonstop Action (TNA), was founded by Jeff Jarrett in 2002 and would attempt to take over WCW's market position in the mid-to-late 2000s using some former WCW stars such as Sting. TNA would also adopt their own version of the Cruiserweight division, branded as

12008-564: The company $ 7 million in arrears, with over $ 3 million owed to the company by InDemand pay per view. On January 28, 2003, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. purchased ECW's assets from HHG Corporation in court, acquiring the rights to ECW's video library. Heyman became a commentator for the WWF on Raw Is War , replacing Jerry Lawler who had quit due to a dispute when his wife The Kat was fired in February 2001. During that time, he resumed his storyline rivalry with Jim Ross . In July, while retaining his commentator role, Heyman recreated ECW as

12160-450: The company initially less dependent on the nWo storyline for ratings. However, beginning in Spring 1998, WCW began an angle which saw the nWo split into a heel faction, nWo Hollywood (centered around "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan), and the rival face nWo Wolfpac (consisting of stars such as Kevin Nash, Sting, Lex Luger and Konnan ). Speaking in hindsight in 2023, Eric Bischoff has said the angle

12312-504: The company solely as the NWA, reasoning that "it has become apparent that the NWA and the World Championship area are one and the same." By late 1988, JCP was financially struggling after further territory acquisitions. Ted Turner , the namesake principal owner of Turner Broadcasting System, formed a new subsidiary in October 1988 to acquire most of the assets of JCP. The acquisition was completed on November 2, 1988. While initially

12464-496: The company went from struggling financially as late as 1995 to generating $ 55 million in profit in 1998. December 1997's Starrcade pay-per-view (PPV) event became the highest-grossing PPV of all time for the company, thanks in large part to the show being billed as the culmination of a year-and-a-half feud between Sting and "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan. 1996 and 1997 had been banner years for WCW, with profits and popularity soaring. 1998 saw profits continue to rise. However, maintaining

12616-447: The company, but also to be in Punk's corner at the upcoming Elimination Chamber pay-per-view for his WWE Championship match. Around this time, Heyman quietly cut off his signature ponytail . Later, CM Punk earned the right to fight The Undertaker at WrestleMania 29 after winning a Fatal Four Way match at Old School Raw . In addition, Heyman's other client Brock Lesnar was booked for

12768-600: The company. At the No Way Out pay-per-view in February 2002, WWE began their own version of the new World order centered around Hogan, Nash and Hall, but later incorporating former WCW stars the Giant (now known as the Big Show) and Booker T as well as WWE talent such as Shawn Michaels . Throughout the early 2000s, many former WCW headliners found it difficult to integrate into WWE, as there continued to be legitimate tensions between

12920-457: The company. Ted Turner, however, did not hold influence over Time Warner before the final merger of America Online (AOL) and Time Warner in 2001, and most offers were rejected. Eric Bischoff, working with Fusient Media Ventures, made a bid to acquire the company in January 2001. One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out after AOL Time Warner refused to allow WCW to continue airing on its networks, leaving Fusient to take that offer off

13072-400: The contract to make it official. The same week on SmackDown , Jericho faced off against Curtis Axel. As Jericho was closing in on the victory, Heyman stood on the announcers table and yelled: "It's clobbering time". Punk's music began to play, distracting Jericho long enough for Axel to pick up the victory. At Payback, Heyman coached Axel during his match with Wade Barrett and The Miz for

13224-505: The cruiserweight division and the talent represented therein probably had as much to do with the success of Nitro as the nWo storyline and Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash. I don’t think people recognize it. The talent in that division not only helped Nitro consistently defeat WWE...that talent forced WWE, as much as the nWo, to change the way they were presenting the product. The Cruiserweight division would continue to directly influence North American wrestling for many decades. Following

13376-643: The dynastic Anoaʻi family of Samoan professional wrestlers. Critics have praised his managing and promo skills. He has also competed sporadically in matches, usually as a comedic foil, including in the main event of the 2002 Rebellion event. Heyman was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2005 and the WWE Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024. Heyman was born in New York City 's Bronx borough on September 11, 1965,

13528-468: The end of WCW. In the spring of 1996, WCW introduced its "Cruiserweight division", a segmented portion of the roster featuring smaller, faster and more agile wrestlers that contrasted starkly, both visually and stylistically, with their heavyweight counterparts. Although weight categories were not a new concept in wrestling or even WCW, the WCW Cruiserweight Division was quickly able to form

13680-654: The events that became known as Black Saturday , in which GCW and its television program briefly came under the ownership of the WWF, the promotion was eventually purchased by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the promoter of the Mid-Atlantic territory immediately north of Georgia. Influential wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its sister publications thereafter habitually referred to JCP as "World Championship Wrestling", "WCW" and most commonly "the World Championship area" and continued to do so until early 1988 when it began referring to

13832-530: The film adaptation of the long-running Off-Broadway show Tony n' Tina's Wedding . World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System , through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territory Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) (which had aired its programming on TBS ). For all of its existence, WCW

13984-606: The first four months of 2014. Lesnar ended The Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania XXX ; this was The Undertaker's first loss at a WrestleMania, as he previously had a record of 21 wins. On the Raw following WrestleMania, Cesaro revealed himself to be a "Paul Heyman Guy". Cesaro eventually declared himself no longer a "Paul Heyman Guy" on the July 21 episode of Raw . After Triple H announced that Randy Orton would challenge John Cena at SummerSlam , Roman Reigns came out and fought with Orton backstage. Heyman then came out and told Triple H to implement "Plan C" which

14136-671: The formation of the Dangerous Alliance, which included Rude, Eaton, Anderson, Zbyszko, Madusa, and ”Stunning” Steve Austin . The Dangerous Alliance went on to dominate WCW for the next six months, as Anderson and Eaton won the WCW World Tag Team Championship and Austin held the WCW World Television Championship for a time. Their main feuds were with Sting, Ricky Steamboat , Barry Windham , Dustin Rhodes , and Nikita Koloff . The Alliance and its rivals went back and forth until they settled their issues in

14288-548: The headquarters of WWE and trashed Triple H's office. At Extreme Rules, Lesnar defeated Triple H with the help of Heyman. Heyman announced Michael McGillicutty as the newest "Paul Heyman guy" on the May 20 Raw and gave him the new name of Curtis Axel . On the May 27 episode of Raw , Heyman appeared on the Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho , where Jericho challenged CM Punk to a match at Payback which Heyman accepted on Punk's behalf. The next week, Heyman and Jericho signed

14440-400: The heel Luger off and take Sting to the hospital. Sting, however, had to defend his title against Rude that night and did not want to leave. Eaton kept telling him he would have time, so he left. Bischoff rode in the ambulance with Sting and gave live updates on the condition of Sting from the hospital between matches to announcers Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone . Meanwhile, Dangerously had found

14592-546: The innovations WCW had implemented and reapplying them to their own presentation, WWF began its " Attitude Era ". Building around newly emerging stars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock , as well as WWF promoter Vince McMahon becoming a major on-screen character himself, the WWF finally ended Nitro ' s 83 weeks of ratings victories on April 13, 1998. For the next four months, Nitro and Raw would trade wins until October 26, 1998, when Nitro scored its last-ever ratings victory over Raw . The combined pressure of

14744-441: The job at the WWF after a dispute with Vince McMahon over work hours, and Ed Ferrera soon followed. Russo and Ferrera were heralded at the time as the main drivers in the turnaround at WWF over the previous two years with their writing philosophy of "Crash TV", a presentation style that emphasized Soap opera style storylines, lengthier non-wrestling segments, frequent heel/face turns, an increased amount of female representation on

14896-418: The knowledge of NWA president Dennis Coralluzzo to have Douglas (and by extension, ECW itself) publicly denounce the NWA and its "tradition" after winning the tournament. In his post-match speech, Douglas aggressively assaulted the title's lineage, throwing the belt itself down, proclaiming the NWA a "dead organization" and declaring his ECW title a world-level championship. The plan for this shoot screwjob

15048-436: The local styles were also able to thrive in the division. The division as a whole became a showcase of a fast-paced, aerial and athletic style of wrestling which became highly influential in both the short and long term in the industry. Eric Bischoff has credited with the division as becoming a defining feature of Monday Nitro that was as fundamental to the late 1990s popularity of WCW as the New World Order faction: I think

15200-508: The man he cited for the death of ECW by raiding its talent. Heyman was replaced as SmackDown! General Manager by his former client Kurt Angle on March 25. On July 10, 2005, it was reported that Heyman took over the positions of head booker and writer in Ohio Valley Wrestling , a developmental territory maintained by WWE. It was during this time that he forged a real-life friendship with CM Punk . On May 23, 2005, Heyman returned in

15352-468: The match in under 5 minutes, carrying out a low blow when a referee was knocked down, and executing his finisher three times. In June 2019, WWE announced that Heyman would be the executive director of Raw . Heyman also appeared on SmackDown due to Lesnar being drafted to the brand in the 2019 WWE Draft , but shortly thereafter, Lesnar returned to Raw . Heyman continued to represent Lesnar up to WrestleMania 36 , when Drew McIntyre defeated him for

15504-502: The match, Sting was a no-show and Dangerously declared Rude the United States Heavyweight Champion (which had been their plan all along). The telecast featured a split screen of the ambulance arriving at the back area of the arena with Sting's knee wrapped up. Dangerously demanded referee Nick Patrick start the match and count Sting out, but he kept interrupting the count which allowed Sting enough time to make it out to

15656-429: The match, which caused General Manager Brad Maddox to make the match into a no disqualification elimination handicap match. At Night of Champions, Punk eliminated Axel (who had been forced to defend his Intercontinental Championship against Kofi Kingston earlier in the night), leaving Heyman alone with Punk. After receiving a beating from Punk and being placed in handcuffs, just as Heyman did to Punk weeks before, Punk

15808-453: The more cartoon-like presentation which had dominated wrestling in the 1980s and early 90s. An example of this shift in tone was seen in the transformation of top WCW star Sting over the course of 1996 following the start of the nWo angle, whose persona shifted from a colorful and cheerful clean-cut face to a dark, depressed and brooding antihero inspired by the 1994 film The Crow . Another major innovation occurring concurrently in WCW

15960-419: The negotiations, bringing the final tally of WCW's sale to $ 4.3 million. AOL Time Warner maintained its subsidiary, which reverted to its original legal name of Universal Wrestling Corporation, to deal with legal obligations and liabilities not acquired by the WWF. The UWC was listed as a subsidiary of Time Warner until 2017, when it was merged into Turner Broadcasting System. Some of the WCW wrestlers joined

16112-430: The network for the first time since WCW's closure. On January 5, 2022, Dynamite moved to TNT's sibling network, TBS, marking the first time TBS has aired wrestling programming since the March 21, 2001, episode of WCW Thunder . TNT has also broadcast AEW's second show, AEW Rampage , since August 13, 2021, and added another AEW show with the June 17, 2023, debut of AEW Collision . In 2020, AEW revived WCW's Bash at

16264-470: The new ECW World Heavyweight Champion . At ECW One Night Stand, Van Dam defeated Cena to win the WWE Championship. After Cena knocked an ECW referee unconscious, Edge (in a disguise) appeared and speared Cena through a table, before taking out SmackDown! referee Nick Patrick , allowing Van Dam to hit the Five-Star Frog Splash on Cena. With no referee available Heyman ran down the aisle to count

16416-421: The other trucks is most prominent with Goldberg. Driven by to great success by Tom Meents (including Monster Jam World Finals championships both years the truck ran), after the end of the sponsorship Meents continued to run the truck as "Team Meents" in 2002 before debuting its new name Maximum Destruction in 2003. Max-D continues to compete in the series and rivals the legendary Grave Digger in popularity on

16568-486: The ownership of a local pawn shop owner named Tod Gordon . Heyman came in to help Gilbert teach the younger wrestlers how to perform on interviews, but Gilbert's erratic behavior became too much for Gordon, who had a major falling out with Gilbert right before the UltraClash event on September 18, 1993. From that point forward, Heyman was in charge of the creative direction of the company. As Paul E. Dangerously, he managed

16720-490: The pin fall. The following night on Raw , Heyman confirmed that because the championship match was contested under "ECW rules" (which meant, essentially, there were no rules) that the decision stood and Van Dam was the "Undisputed" WWE Champion. As the WWE Champion, Van Dam was the number one man in the reformed ECW, so on the debut of ECW on Sci Fi the next night Heyman, announced as an "ECW Representative", presented him with

16872-513: The quality of the shows became difficult, particularly after WCW's owners Time Warner Entertainment (who bought Turner Broadcasting System in 1996) ordered the creation of a second live cable WCW program WCW Thunder , to air on Thursdays on TBS Superstation starting on January 8, 1998 , as well as ordering a third hour to be added to Nitro ' s runtime. Nonetheless, the creation of new major headline babyface stars such as Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg were causes for optimism, making

17024-634: The re-instated ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Van Dam elected to keep both title belts and was recognized as both the WWE Champion and ECW World Heavyweight Champion. On the July 4 episode of ECW , Heyman helped Big Show defeat Van Dam for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. At the Raw/ECW taping in South Carolina in December 2006, it was announced that Vince McMahon had sent Heyman home, citing "slumping television ratings and

17176-460: The referee did not see it. This allowed The Undertaker to defeat Lesnar after he passed out to the Hell's Gate . At Hell in a Cell , Heyman was present when Lesnar defeated The Undertaker in the rematch, ending their feud. Heyman returned with Lesnar on the January 11, 2016 Raw , and was ringside with Lesnar for the Royal Rumble . Lesnar was eliminated in the match by Bray Wyatt , after interference by

17328-470: The reigning World Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko ran up to Bischoff and Windham and slammed the car door on Windham's hand, breaking it. It was from this incident that Zbyszko gained his nickname from around this time, "The Cruncher". Later at the same show, the mysterious WCW Halloween Phantom appeared, and squashed Tom Zenk in a match using a reverse neckbreaker. Then, in an interview segment with Bischoff, Dangerously brought out

17480-420: The rest of The Wyatt Family . He accompanied Lesnar to the ring at WrestleMania 32 where Lesnar defeated Dean Ambrose in a No Holds Barred Street Fight. On July 19 at the 2016 WWE Draft , Lesnar and Heyman were drafted to the Raw brand. Heyman returned alongside Lesnar on the August 1 episode of Raw, hyping the match between Lesnar and Randy Orton at SummerSlam while Lesnar took an RKO from Orton. On

17632-445: The ring. After having trouble finding the right door to enter the building, his fight song started playing and Sting limped out. Rude met him at the runway with punches but Sting was so pumped he took it to him instead and the match was underway. Rude defeated Sting, mainly due to his injured knee, with a small package pin. On the following episode of World Championship Wrestling (this was before Monday Nitro ), Dangerously announced

17784-421: The ropes, leading Heyman to announce that he would file a lawsuit against Triple H for assault and battery. On the June 18 episode of Raw SuperShow , Heyman declined Triple H's challenge for a match against Lesnar at SummerSlam on Lesnar's behalf. Later that month, Heyman stated that Brock Lesnar would answer Triple H's challenge himself at Raw 1000 . Lesnar would go on to defeat Triple H at SummerSlam. On

17936-473: The show and was replaced as the leader of the backstage and creative by ECW wrestler Tommy Dreamer . Heyman could not get out of financial trouble and ECW closed on April 4, 2001. Heyman also supposedly had never told his wrestlers that the company was on its dying legs and was unable to pay them for a while. ECW entered into bankruptcy in 2001 (just weeks after WCW was sold to WWF for $ 2 million, after AOL Time Warner wrote off over $ 100 million in debt), with

18088-555: The show, expanded storyline depth, frequent title changes, and a greater focus on developing mid-card talent. The tenure of Russo and Ferrera at the creative helm of WCW was short-lived; by March 2000 the pair had been suspended from their positions as their provocative and edgy angles caused constant protest from AOL Time Warner executives. AOL and Time Warner had merged in January 2000 and, according to Bischoff and Russo, headquarters′ eagerness to tone down WCW had only grown more intense because of this. Mounting frustrations amongst

18240-481: The son of Jewish parents Sulamita (née Szarf; 1928–2009) and Richard S. Heyman (1926–2013). His father was a prominent personal injury attorney and World War II veteran, while his mother was a Holocaust survivor who suffered through experiences in Auschwitz , Bergen-Belsen , and the Łódź Ghetto . By age 11, he was running a mail order business selling celebrity and sports memorabilia from his home. While still

18392-558: The stable in 2022 , took temporary leadership of The Bloodline after exiling Jimmy Uso and inducting Tama Tonga , Tonga Loa , and Jacob Fatu . On the June 28 episode of SmackDown , Heyman was kicked out of The Bloodline after refusing to acknowledge Sikoa as the Tribal Chief, turning Heyman face for the first time since 2022 in the process. On the November 15 episode of SmackDown , Reigns attempted to contact Heyman, however his number

18544-504: The subsidiary was incorporated as the "Universal Wrestling Corporation", following the purchase the decision was made to utilize the familiar "World Championship Wrestling" as the name for the promotion. In late Summer/early Autumn 1993, a behind-the-scenes dispute between WCW and the NWA Board of Directors over who had the right to authorize NWA World Heavyweight Championship title changes ultimately resulted in WCW formally withdrawing from

18696-514: The table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, Jamie Kellner was handed control over the Turner Broadcasting division in 2000, eventually succeeding Ted Turner on March 7, 2001. Along with AOL Time Warner, Kellner deemed WCW, along with Turner Sports as a whole, to be out of line with its image and saying that it "would not be favorable enough to get the 'right' advertisers to buy airtime" (even though Thunder

18848-399: The talent resulted in many leaving WCW for the WWF; The Giant and Chris Jericho were the first major talent to "jump" to the WWF in 1999, but they were soon followed by many others. Chris Benoit (WCW World Champion at the time), Dean Malenko , Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn , who performed together on WCW television as " The Revolution ", all collectively walked out of WCW and over to

19000-452: The tutelage of the "Three Wise Men". Heyman met Dusty Rhodes at a Jim Crockett Promotions taping, when he entered a production meeting. In 1985, Heyman was hired by New York Studio 54 as a photographer. The same year, he became producer of Studio 54 and hosted the first Wrestle Party 85 show. He called Jim Crockett, who sent Ric Flair , Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T. A. The show featured Bam Bam Bigelow 's debut and an award to Flair. At

19152-432: The two groups. Former WCW performers such as Diamond Dallas Page (who had accepted a WWF contract in 2001) were perceived to be intentionally poorly used as part of a "victory lap" by WWF. In turn, this dissuaded some WCW stars from trusting WWE; for example, Sting choose to remain out of WWE until 2014, and even when he did join, WWE was criticised using Sting to perform yet another victory lap at WrestleMania 31 . After

19304-523: The two promotions, each one attempting to produce the best television show possible each week, led to an explosion in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States and in hindsight is widely considered a golden era. WCW Monday Nitro proved a success for the company, which was immediately able to create a television audience of an equivalent size to WWF Raw . Between September 1995 and May 1996, Nitro and Raw regularly traded victories in

19456-560: The urging of Bigelow, Heyman made his managerial debut on January 2, 1987, initially appearing on the Northeast independent circuit before moving to a more high-profile stint with Championship Wrestling from Florida in February 1987. There, he joined forces with Kevin Sullivan and Oliver Humperdink , and acquired the name Paul E. Dangerously because of his resemblance to Michael Keaton 's character in Johnny Dangerously . After CWF

19608-479: The video games WWE Day of Reckoning , WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw , WWE 2K14 , WWE 2K15 , WWE 2K16 , WWE 2K17 , WWE 2K18 , WWE 2K19 , WWE 2K20 , WWE 2K22 , WWE 2K23 , and WWE 2K24 . Heyman portrayed a sports announcer in 2002's Rollerball , and an uncredited role in the WWE film Countdown . After a family emergency forced the original actor to pull out, he was chosen by I Am Legend executive producer Michael Tadross to play "Gino" in

19760-563: The writing team on McMahon's corporate jet the day after the pay-per-view. The argument with McMahon was over a disagreement over the Extreme Elimination Chamber match at December to Dismember. Heyman thought that Big Show should be eliminated in the Elimination Chamber match by CM Punk via submission, to push the rising star. Big Show agreed with this idea, wanting to help push Punk's career, but McMahon disagreed, and Punk

19912-508: Was a manager under the ring name Paul E. Dangerously in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and other promotions. He is the co-owner of New York City 's Looking4Larry Agency. In WWE, Heyman had managed or has served as manager for a record seven world champions ( The Undertaker , Big Show , Kurt Angle , Brock Lesnar , CM Punk , Rob Van Dam , and Roman Reigns ), although besides Reigns, he also managed several members of

20064-465: Was a television show produced by Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) since 1982. Jim Barnett (who had briefly owned the Australian promotion of that name ) came to Atlanta in the 1970s during an internal struggle for control of GCW. Barnett ultimately became majority owner of the promotion, and began using his previous promotion's name for GCW's weekly Saturday television program in 1982. Following

20216-480: Was about to attack Heyman with a kendo stick when Ryback interfered and cost Punk the match by putting Punk through a table. At Battleground , Punk pinned Ryback after a low blow. At Hell in a Cell , Punk defeated both Ryback and Heyman and after the match attacked Heyman on top of the cell, putting an end to their feud. On the November 11, 2013 episode of Raw , Heyman stated that he was no longer with Ryback as Ryback never officially accepted his proposal to become

20368-612: Was absorbed by Jim Crockett Promotions, Bigelow brought him to Memphis and the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) to manage Tommy Rich and Austin Idol in a heated feud with Jerry Lawler , a war which later carried over to the American Wrestling Association (AWA), with the Midnight Express ( Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose ) taking over for Idol and the face - turned Rich. The Paul E. Dangerously gimmick

20520-556: Was against the decision of Bobby Lashley being booked to win the ECW World Championship, and instead wanted to have CM Punk win it, a decision McMahon disliked. This was one of multiple behind-the-scenes creative disagreements between Heyman and McMahon that led to the split, and that Heyman had been overruled on a number of decisions regarding the product over ECW's only pay-per-view under WWE, December to Dismember . McMahon and Heyman clashed in front of several members of

20672-582: Was an extension of Heyman's own personality: a brash New Yorker with a yuppie attitude, often seen holding a mobile phone, which was occasionally used as a "foreign object" (according to Heyman, he decided to use the mobile phone as a weapon when he watched Gordon Gekko in Wall Street ). After departing the AWA, Heyman went back to the CWA. Heyman joined with Eddie Gilbert and his wife and valet Missy Hyatt and together they feuded with Lawler before moving on to

20824-421: Was attacked by Lesnar. The next week on Raw , Punk demanded answers from Heyman, who swore he did not ask Lesnar to attack him. Punk forgave Heyman and then faced Darren Young and, following his win, was attacked by Titus O'Neil until Curtis Axel saved him, to Punk's chagrin. Heyman announced that he would team with Axel against The Prime Time Players the next week, again to Punk's disapproval. At Money in

20976-416: Was extremely influential within professional wrestling in the 1990s and several elements innovated and introduced by WCW would continue to be used in professional wrestling decades after its closure. In the immediate aftermath of WWF's purchase of WCW, a significant portion of WCW's active roster was integrated into the WWF. These former WCW talents would be used as part of a "WCW vs WWF" storyline that ran in

21128-518: Was interested in some ECW wrestlers, such as Terry Gordy and 2 Cold Scorpio . McMahon paid Heyman $ 1,000 per week to rent Scorpio. Heyman also acknowledged how an effort to put ECW on the USA Network failed after USA Network President Steven Chau became aware of an email Vince McMahon sent which pressured him and other network executives to put ECW on the USA Network. In the final days of ECW, Heyman became persona non grata as he did not appear on

21280-696: Was known only to those three. That same week, Heyman and Tod Gordon rechristened the promotion, eliminating the regional branding "Eastern" and declaring the promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling . They broke the company away from the NWA, and ECW became its own entity. Heyman encouraged wrestlers to express their true feelings about the WWF, the NWA, and WCW. In May 1995, Heyman bought out Gordon and became sole owner of ECW. During his time in ECW, Heyman found an ally in Vince McMahon 's WWF. McMahon had sent some WWF wrestlers to ECW (under WWF payroll) to develop them and

21432-516: Was later known as Clash of Champions , similarly named from WCW's Clash of the Champions . In 2017, WWE held its first annual NXT WarGames event for its NXT brand , with that's year's event featuring the first WarGames match since the September 4, 2000, episode of Nitro . In 2019, new promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) formed a partnership with WarnerMedia to air their flagship show, AEW Dynamite , on TNT, returning professional wrestling to

21584-503: Was no longer in service. On the November 22 episode of SmackDown , Heyman returned and announced CM Punk as the fifth member for the Original Bloodline's team for Survivor Series: WarGames . Heyman's work as a promoter and booker has been praised by many wrestling fellows and critics. Former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Raven called him "the most creative genius the business has ever seen". Raven's description of Heyman as

21736-483: Was one of the two top professional wrestling promotions in the United States alongside the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), at one point surpassing the latter in terms of popularity. After initial success through utilization of established wrestling stars of the 1980s, the company appointed Eric Bischoff to executive producer of television in 1993. Under Bischoff's leadership, the company enjoyed

21888-486: Was presented by Dwayne Johnson and featured former WCW personalities including Bill Goldberg , Eric Bischoff , Bret Hart , Booker T , Kevin Nash , amongst others. From 2000 to 2001, Monster Jam had a series of monster trucks based on wrestlers' names. These included the nWo , Sting , Nitro Machine, Madusa and Goldberg . Following the end of WCW, Debrah Miceli , the only one of the truck's namesakes to actually drive them, remained in monster trucks. The legacy of

22040-487: Was rushed, ill-conceived and had no long-term direction. By this point, many critics began to argue that WCW was now completely overreliant on the nWo storyline and unable to pivot to a new grand concept. Additionally, beginning in the summer of 1998, Bischoff has claimed that Time Warner Entertainment management began to increasingly micromanage WCW and meddle in its presentation. Executives at Time Warner Entertainment began to increasingly advocate that WCW should pivot to more

22192-566: Was shut down, and the WWF purchased select WCW assets in 2001, including its video library, intellectual property (including the WCW name and championships), and some wrestler contracts. The corporate subsidiary, which was retained to deal with legal obligations and reverted to the Universal Wrestling Corporation name, officially became defunct in 2017. Its headquarters were located in Smyrna, Georgia . "World Championship Wrestling"

22344-519: Was televised live on TBS , WCW United States Heavyweight Champion (and perennial face ) Sting was in the ring doing an interview. Madusa came out dressed as a harem girl and distracted Sting so WCW World Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger could attack him from behind by clipping his knee, the same one Sting injured in February 1990. Luger then bashed the knee against the runway repeatedly to make it seem like Sting had suffered severe damage. Several face wrestlers, including Bobby Eaton , ran out to run

22496-510: Was the highest-rated show on TBS at the time). As a result, WCW programming was cancelled on TBS and TNT . Another factor in Kellner's decision to cancel all WCW programming was the terms of the company's purchase deal with Fusient, which included giving Fusient control over time slots on TNT and TBS even if those slots did not air WCW programming. WCW's losses were then written off via purchase accounting. The cancellation of WCW programming left

22648-532: Was the introduction of the Cruiserweight division, which saw the introduction of smaller, more agile and more athletic wrestlers performing fast-paced, high-flying dangerous matches on WCW shows. This added another unique element to WCW shows that helped propel their surging popularity. The combination of a more adult-orientated presentation, live and unedited television, more reality-based storylines, new top-level talent, new and intriguing characters, and more varied in-ring action saw WCW's fortunes dramatically shift;

22800-521: Was the return of Lesnar, who would have a match against Cena at SummerSlam. Lesnar defeated Cena at SummerSlam to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship . At the Royal Rumble , Heyman was at ringside when Lesnar retained his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Cena and Seth Rollins . At WrestleMania 31 , Heyman was at ringside when Lesnar defended his title belt against the 2015 Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns, but Lesnar

22952-497: Was ultimately eliminated first. After allegedly turning down an offer from Stephanie McMahon to return to his post writing television for WWE developmental television shows, Heyman officially parted ways quietly with WWE on December 17, 2006. After a five-year absence following the controversial departure after the December to Dismember PPV in 2006, Heyman returned to WWE on the May 7, 2012 episode of Raw SuperShow as Brock Lesnar 's legal advisor, announcing that Lesnar, who returned

23104-541: Was unsuccessful as Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase and made the match a Triple Threat match. Rollins pinned Reigns for the win. The next night on Raw , Lesnar was suspended after he demanded a rematch for the title and attacked several innocent people. In June, Heyman and Lesnar returned to the WWE after Lesnar was named the No. 1 contender to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, igniting

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