There had always been a long-standing rumor amongst those in the wrestling business that at one point in time, WWE was secretly funding the original incarnation of ECW. While that is reportedly not entirely true, there was a point in time where Paul Heyman almost handed over the reigns to none other than Shane McMahon.
During a recent appearance on the “Insight” podcast, Paul Heyman recalled the final few months of ECW’s existence where the company received two payments from WWE. One in the summer for $500,000 so the ECW Heatwave 2000 pay-per-view could take place, and one in December where the company could survive long enough for the McMahon’s to take a look at the financial state of the company. “Shane wanted to buy it,” Heyman said. “So Shane wanted to buy ECW and run it on its own. Vince said ‘It’s easier to let it go into bankruptcy and we get Heyman.’ Shane still pushed and pushed…Vince found it more valuable to have me. As Vince would say ‘I’d rather have Paul Heyman in the castle p****** out than out of the castle p****** in.”
Heyman explained that the move was similar to what Apple did when it bought Beats Music in 2014 in that Apple didn’t need to buy Beats, but the company did want Jimmy Iovine as one of its executives. Ironically, Heyman coming into WWE in March 2001 ended up straining the relationship between himself and Vince as he found it a lot easier to be on the outside working with him than on the inside working for him. This would all infamously culminate in Heyman walking away from wrestling at the end of 2006 after the new version of ECW had strayed so far from his original vision that he had to take a break, a break that would last over five years.
Please credit “Insight” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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