Something to Wrestle With – Episode 58
Release Date: August 4, 2017
Recap By: Jeff Rush, PWPodcasts.com Specialist
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Top 10 impressions
10. Heyman toughs out a knee injury.
9. Heyman pitches Brother Love for the WWE HOF.
8. Pat Patterson wants you to stop being a pansy.
7. High pressure Heyman job interview.
6. Michael Hayes tells Stephanie that Heyman started it.
5. Heyman describes the events of 9/11 before they happen.
4. Heyman feels slighted by being sent out for lunch.
3. Heyman loves NYC, and Gray’s Papaya.
2. Heyman toasts Mean Mark.
1. Heyman doesn’t want to have to kick Tazz’s ass.
Noteworthy Items
– The story of Vince meeting Paul’s parents (and Paul) for the first time.
– Heyman lived with his parents until roughly 2005.
– Shane McMahon was a huge ECW fan and brokered the deal that brought Heyman to the WWF in 2001.
– Bruce feels Paul gets too much credit for writing Smackdown.
– The Rock was the primary voice behind Brock Lesnar’s monster rookie push.
– Heyman fought against using many former ECW stars on WWE TV.
– Heyman threatened to beat up Tazz behind his back.
– Heyman once eavesdropped on a writer’s conference call with Vince while suspended.
– Heyman was a part of the Undertaker’s first wedding.
– Stephanie provided Heyman with breath strips to use prior to approaching Vince.
– Heyman and Brian Gewirtz were once mistaken for being father and son.
What happened when Paul Heyman joined the WWE?
Asked to describe Paul Heyman, Bruce says imagine you’re at work in your office and a character from Game Of Thrones burst into the room making proclamations and spouting conspiracy theories. He compares him specifically to Littlefinger.
Bruce proposed they bring Paul in to the WWF in the late ’80s, but Vince was not interested in hiring him.
Bruce tells a story about Paul Heyman picking him up on a Friday afternoon and taking him into NYC against his wishes after he’d had a bad day. Paul spent the drive from Stamford to Manhattan extolling the virtues of the NYC lifestyle, exclaiming “where else can you see a bum pushing a baby grand piano down the street?” Bruce says, standing on Broadway following their arrival that afternoon, he saw a homeless man pushing a baby grand piano down the street. He says there’s no way Heyman could’ve set that up. He says he never saw the man before or since.
Paul brought Bruce to a restaurant in Little Italy once. When they arrived, everyone entered through the back. Bruce witnessed everyone kissing a man’s ring as they entered. They were eating and drinking in a back room prior to the restaurant opening and Bruce began noticing everyone was carrying a gun.
Bruce also met a guy named Gigi through Heyman. He says they later found that Gigi had committed suicide by shooting himself in the back of the head.
Next, we discuss the origins of Shotgun Saturday Night. The idea was to film a live show at midnight on Saturday at various nightclubs in Manhattan. Bruce, Vince, and Kevin Dunn went scouting clubs, but Bruce admits they were hardly the right guys for the job. Vince asked if Bruce knew anyone who knew the Manhattan nightclub scene and could show them around. Bruce called Paul.
They got in the limo and headed to Scarsdale, NY to pick up Paul… who lived with his parents. Bruce says Paul’s mom is a saint. When they arrived, Paul asked if Vince would meet his parents, so Vince got out of the limo, shook hands and told the Heyman’s what a fine son they had. Bruce says Vince didn’t know Paul at this point.
Conrad finds it fascinating that Heyman was still living with his parents around the time ECW was getting ready to launch their PPVs. Bruce says he believes Paul lived with them until around 2005.
At this point, Conrad and Bruce have been talking about Paul Heyman for all of 15 minutes. We’ve already heard three amazing stories with a sprinkling of anecdotes. You know this episode is going to kick ass.
Heyman had already been doing some writing for the WWF in spring of 2001. Vince decided to fire The Kat, as she had become too difficult to work with. The Kat was married to Jerry Lawler at the time, and Lawler quit on the spot over her dismissal. The guys discuss a few minor aspects of this story, but agree to save the bulk of it for a future Jerry Lawler episode.
The decision was made to have Heyman replace Lawler as a color man alongside Jim Ross. Bruce points out that Heyman had worked with JR before in WCW and was just the natural fit for the role.
Prior to this, Bruce says he believes it was Shane McMahon that put together the deal that brought Heyman into the creative position.
The guys discuss the fact that Heyman was still running ECW while going to work for the WWF and how this didn’t sit right with a lot of folks in ECW. Bruce says, on their side, WWF brass assumed Paul had his ducks in a row and didn’t consider that there would be problems with those in ECW.
Conrad asks about Paul wearing an ECW hat on the air. Bruce says people identified Heyman with ECW so why fight it? Additionally, he thinks Heyman may have been hoping Vince would somehow bail ECW out and keep them running.
Paul and JR had good chemistry on commentary. They had a north/south dynamic and genuinely appeared not to like one another.
During this time, Vince was not doing the heavy managing through the headsets to those on commentary. Bruce says Paul would get an earful after the show, but usually not during it.
Paul was originally brought in to join creative and continued to do so during his time on commentary.
Kevin Dunn wasn’t a huge fan of Heyman’s commentary. He felt his style was “too New York.” This prompts Conrad to have Bruce extoll his theory that Heyman is just a sophisticated Jim Cornette. He says they’re the same person. They are both passionate about wrestling, have had their own companies and have followed similar paths. Cornette is a Southern Heyman; Heyman is a New York Cornette.
In July of 2001, ECW would join the WWF/WCW Invasion angle. Heyman walked off his post on commentary during an episode of Raw and aligned himself with a few newly arriving ECW wrestlers.
Bruce talks about how Heyman originally wanted the Invasion to be an ECW angle, not WCW. No one else felt that strongly about ECW. Bruce says they were only brought into the Invasion picture when the WWF realized how little they had with the WCW brand and needed to beef it up.
Bruce says there was always speculation that Heyman was solely the guy giving information to Dave Meltzer and Wade Keller. It’s a funny moment because Bruce maintains a tone of “this is a conspiracy theory I’ve heard” throughout this segment, but then concludes that he absolutely believes Heyman was giving info to Meltzer. Conrad notes that Bruce has said in the past that Meltzer and Keller are the “biggest marks” because they’re being given their information by people with an agenda, not necessarily those who are reporting the truth. Conrad reminds Bruce that, at the top of the show, they discussed a rumor that the WWF wanted to bring Heyman in as a manger back in the late ’80s and that Bruce said that was “just Wade Keller BS.” Conrad says given this news, maybe it was Paul Heyman BS.
Heyman was the lead writer of the Smackdown team at this point. Bruce says while the Raw and Smackdown writing teams were technically separate, they all wrote in the same room in the same meetings with Vince. He says, in reality, everyone worked on everything. As such, Bruce says all the credit that went to Heyman for the finished Smackdown product should be going to all the writers, not just Heyman.
Prior to Survivor Series 2001, Heyman cuts an epic promo on Vince, telling him he stole Heyman’s life and ideas. Bruce says Heyman wrote the promo and went over it with Vince ahead of time. He feels it was one of the all-time great promos.
Heyman was storyline fired the night after Survivor Series and removed from doing commentary. Bruce thinks Paul enjoyed his time in front of the camera, but that there was so much pressure in that role that Paul was probably relieved to slip into the background. Bruce thinks Heyman is a great color commentator, a natural antagonist.
By 2002, Paul was a big advocate of Brock Lesnar behind the scenes. Bruce says the company knew what they had when it came to Lesnar’s in-ring skills, but they were worried about his mic work. He thinks pairing the All-American kid with a sleazy promoter was brilliant.
They decided to have Brock debut the night after WrestleMania 18 since they knew there would be a lot of people watching. He says the Raw after Mania is known as a turning of the page and the time to debut the next big thing. In this case, it was the Next Big Thing. Bruce notes Heyman came up with that nickname for Lesnar.
Conrad says, as opposed to being “the advocate”, Heyman was positioned as Lesnar’s agent. Bruce says this was done because Vince didn’t want Lesnar to have a manager. They decided since they hated agents more than anything else in the business, that’s what Paul would be.
Talk turns to the brand split of 2002 and Bruce mentions the UnAmericans. He says Lance Storm and Christian didn’t like the gimmick since they live in the US. Heyman knew that Brian Gewirtz and Christian were close, so the word was Heyman orchestrated a “trade” that would send Benoit and Guerrero over to Raw. Bruce says it’s funny that Heyman gets credit because it was something that all the writers had input on.
Bruce says, though Heyman was made Head Writer of Smackdown, it was ultimately Vince’s show and that Heyman never had control over it. He always answered to Vince.
It was common talk among everyone in the office at this point that Smackdown was the B show to Raw’s A show. Bruce says it was positioned that way by the lack of attention it got from Vince.
So these two statements back-to-back, while they don’t quite contradict each other, they make it clear that Smackdown was what it was, at least in part, due to Heyman’s influence. Bruce is quick to write off that assertion, but if it was considered “the B show” because it got less of Vince’s attention that Raw did, and yet it was considered the superior show in terms of quality of content during Heyman’s run as head booker, it doesn’t take Lanny Poffo to point to Heyman as the X-factor.
Back to the show…
Talk turns to wrestlers Heyman was a proponent of who receive a better push because of him: Edge, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero. Bruce then notes that Heyman was very much opposed to putting the Heavyweight championship on Eddie. He says Heyman thought he would flop in the role. Bruce isn’t sure what led to Heyman being so opposed to this idea, but he thinks part of it may have been Eddie specifically going over Brock, since Brock was Lesnar’s meal ticket.
This brings us, in my opinion, to the most fascinating segment of the show: Paul Heyman Guys. Who was and who wasn’t one.
Conrad says he would think all former ECW guys were Paul Heyman guys and was surprised to learn Eddie Guerrero was not one. So what’s the story?
Bruce says a lot of former ECW names were Paul Heyman guys, like Spike Dudley, RVD, etc. He also says Paul was a huge fan of Mike Knox. He continues that Paul was opposed to using many former ECW names as well.
“You don’t want Sandman. He’s an alcoholic.”
“Sabu can only do so much.”
“Tommy Dreamer’s best days are behind him.”
He points to Heyman’s love-hate relationship with the Dudleys.
“Their prime was in ECW. There’s nothing left for them.”
Bruce then tells us that Paul Heyman has actually made comments about beating up Tazz.
“Pete Senerchia, do not make me have to come and kick your ass, sir.”
Conrad says Bruce just buried Tazz and that he expects to get heat for it.
Bruce argues that he did not bury Tazz, but that this actually happened. He says Heyman and Tazz also had a love-hate relationship and that Heyman would always refer to Tazz by his actual name. He says the two would go back and forth with each other and it came off as more or less good-natured, but the minute Tazz left the room, Heyman would be back at it.
“He might find his ass whipped by the end of a Paul Heyman shoe, sir.”
Bruce says Paul got on the Big Show wagon for a time, but that it probably hurt Show more than it helped.
The guys you’d think would be big Heyman guys just weren’t. Paul was selective and didn’t like sticking his neck out for too many people.
Heyman absolutely hated the rap gimmick for John Cena. He felt it would stereotype him and kill his career. Heyman even told Cena it would kill his career. Bruce even feels that it was in part Heyman’s opposition to the gimmick that made Vince decide to give it a chance.
Next up, the guys discuss Heyman’s interview style when hiring new writers and assistants. Bruce says the whole room would interview new hires. He says Michael Hayes would use the same line at every interview, telling job candidates “this job is like tackle football on concrete.”
Heyman would present insane hypotheticals to interviewees about booking future WrestleManias. Bruce would cringe, saying he just wants to see if they could write. During one interview, Heyman asked a person about their love of wrestling, and then stared off into the distance while he answered. After the candidate was done, Heyman promised they would be the voice of the company within two weeks. He really laid it on thick with this person. Bruce says it was crazy and in the end, nothing ever came of it.
Lesnar defeated the Rock at SummerSlam 2002, but we don’t get into it much here, as the show will be covered at the end of this month.
Conrad wants to know how much Heyman influenced Brock getting the title after only five months. Bruce says 99.9% of that credit goes to the Rock. He came up with the idea and pitched it.
Bruce says Heyman loved recruiting “disciples” to run his errands. He would tell them he was taking them under his wing, but would really just have them fetching his lunch. He tells the story of once such disciple named Dominic. Bruce says this guy was nice, but goofy. During one writers meeting, Heyman put Dominic on the spot, saying he had a great idea that everyone needed to hear. Dominic’s idea was that there would be a women’s match where both women were stripped down naked.
Ok, then what? They can’t actually be naked.
Dominic said they would have nip covers.
Bruce says Brian Gewirtz blew up about the stupidity of this and he and Heyman went back and forth in front of the room. The two had to be separated from one another. Word got back to Stephanie of this situation. Both writers were sent home for three weeks.
At Survivor Series 2002, Heyman turned on Lesnar. Bruce says Paul was good with this because he got to be teamed up with Big Show and the spotlight stayed on him. Vince agreed to it because it would take a seven-foot giant to beat Lesnar.
Heyman was removed as Head Writer of Smackdown in February 2003. Conrad wants to know what the final straw was and Bruce says it was a culmination of many things. He and Vince were oil and water and argued all the time. Vince finally had enough. He didn’t want Paul in the writer’s room any more.
This brings us to “the Conference Call story”:
Bruce says the writers would have conference calls over the weekend. When you joined in on the call, an automated voice would announce “Bruce has joined the conference”, for example. Same would happen when you hung up: “Conrad has left the conference.”
One Saturday during Heyman’s suspension, the writers had a conference call with Vince. They used the same number they always did. In the middle of the call, the automated voice kicked in: “___ has left the conference.” No name was attached to the announcement. Vince demanded a role call to determine who’d left the call. Everyone spoke up; they were all still present. When you dial in to these calls, it logs where you are calling in from. Bruce says they determined this call had come from a Scarsdale, NY residence, last name Heyman. It was Paul’s parents house. Bruce says Heyman denied being on the call for the longest time, only recently admitting he was on it.
Heyman would constantly push Vince’s buttons in production meetings. Heyman felt the thinking was Vince would rather have him inside than working for competition, and this kept him around for so long, in spite of his antagonistic approach.
Bruce says Heyman would constantly “poke the bear.” He thinks Vince loved being challenged, in a way, but that Heyman didn’t know when to stop.
Conrad jumps to the Smackdown Six. He asks Bruce to talk about it, and Bruce says he’d never heard the term. It wasn’t until a writer contacted him for a story that he learned what it was. Fans remember them being Edge, Rey Mysterio, Benoit, Angle, Eddie and Chavo Guerrero. Their legend is that they were largely mid-card talent at the time that toppled Raw in the ratings and put Smackdown on the map in the early days. Bruce says this didn’t have much to do with Heyman and that they were all bound for greatness, regardless.
In October, Heyman was announced as the new Smackdown GM. Bruce says this happened because Vince loves rollercoasters. It was done to get people talking.
Conrad brings up a time Heyman took a Tombstone from the Undertaker on Smackdown. Bruce says he’d much rather take a Tombstone than an F5 or a Last Ride. He calls it a walk in the park.
Lesnar left WWE following WrestleMania XX. Bruce says everyone tried to get him to stay. Heyman pushed hard to get him to reconsider. Lesnar had made up his mind, though, that he was done with the travel and the lifestyle. Bruce adds this is one time Heyman knew when to quit.
Heyman is then paired up with the Undertaker, possessing the urn and commanding his deference. This program culminates at the Great American Bash 2004 that would see Paul Bearer was “killed” after being buried in concrete.
Bruce recalls there was a writer named Dan Madigan who loved the macabre and who pushed for this. Vince got on board, as he thought Bearer was weighing Taker down. He felt putting Taker over both Dudleys would have him coming out of the show super strong. Taker was fighting for Bearer’s freedom and yet was the one who pulled the switch to pour the concrete that killed him. Bruce remembers the finish was flat and horrible. He says it ruined everything they’d been trying to do with the Dudleys.
Heyman and Taker had worked together as part of the Skyscrapers back in WCW. Bruce says the two were friendly, even mentioning that Heyman was in Taker’s first wedding party.
Following the Bearer angle, Heyman was teamed up with John Heidenreich. Bruce says Heidenreich needed a mouthpiece, and that’s how Heyman got teamed up with most of the guys he managed.
Bruce recalls a time Heidenreich was on some sort of drug trip, hiding in a parking lot from men with machine guns. He says Heidenreich later had no recollection of the incident.
We then move on to an anecdote about Stephanie giving Heyman breath strips and reminding him to use them before going near Vince.
Heyman had a big hand in the production of the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD. Bruce recalls it was one of the best-selling DVD’s the company had done to that point.
This leads to Conrad reading excerpts of a Heyman interview where he defends not paying wrestlers as ECW went out of business, saying his company went bust and he had no money. Bruce says no one really blames him for not getting paid; it’s more about the fact that Heyman moved directly into a steady paycheck with the WWF while his former wrestlers were left empty handed.
The guys discuss the One Night Stand PPV briefly, but note that the WWECW episode of this show, the recap of which you can find right here at PWPodcasts.com.
Heyman was all for including everyone he could from the old ECW onto the PPV. Bruce says the idea was to do one show, to bring everyone back and let the fans “get it out of their system.” Though they ended up not getting every single wrestler, everyone was considered.
In July 2005, Heyman was sent to OVW. Stephanie made the call to move him there. She felt Paul worked well with young talent. They wanted him there to compliment Jim Cornette. Paul would work with the young talent and then report back to WWE with what he was seeing there. Bruce emphasizes that Paul did not run OVW. That was the job of Danny Davis and Jim Cornette.
By November of 2005, reports came out that Heyman was talking about starting his own MMA company. Bruce says there was absolutely nothing to this. Paul did not have the money to do anything and was creating smoke and mirrors to get people talking and to set himself up with a new deal in WWE.
Conrad asks about Heyman’s relationship with Shane McMahon. Bruce says Shane was a fan of ECW and he could envision a scenario where Paul would try to manipulate Shane to get a better spot with the company.
ECW was brought back in 2006, and again, this was covered in its own episode, so discussion of it in this show is limited.
Bruce says there was discussion regarding bringing Eric Bischoff into the fold for a storyline with ECW. Paul felt that doing so would’ve been a rehash and not worth doing.
Bruce feels Paul’s legacy in the business will always be ECW. He says Paul’s genius was in exploiting wrestlers positives and hiding their negatives. Conrad says his opinion, as an ECW fan, is that Paul’s genius was in delivering what the fans wanted. Bruce says that worked well for a niche audience but that it doesn’t translate to the masses. This brings on a classic Conrad-Bruce circular argument:
Conrad: Do you think Vince gives the fans what they want today?
Bruce: When you look at what they do business-wise, obviously he is. If they don’t like what he’s doing, then they won’t pay and they won’t come out to see the product.
Conrad: Let me ask you this, why did they just cut pyro from shows?
Bruce: Cutting costs.
Conrad: Well, I thought you just said business was great, so…
Bruce: I said he’s able to fill buildings and they’re still coming out and supporting him. When they stop supporting the product and they’re not buying anything and they have to shut the doors completely, then you can say that.
Conrad: Ok, so business isn’t down until it’s over. Like Houston wrestling.
Bruce: That’s not what I said. I said he’s still filling buildings, he’s still got a TV deal, and people are still paying to come see him. They’re not in danger of going out of business; they’re not bouncing checks.
Conrad: No, but they did promise a $30 Million profit this year and, more than half way through the year, they’re at like $5 or 6 Million.
Bruce: Ok. Are they going to have to shut the doors now and go out of business?
Conrad: You said by your own words that Vince had a better idea of what the masses want and your argument was “well, look at how business is doing.” I told you how business is doing and now you’re pivoting.
Bruce: I’m simply saying if Vince didn’t know what people wanted, then he’d be out of business. Paul knew what a small group of people wanted. He wasn’t able to take his product and make it viable for the masses, otherwise he would still be in business. If there were enough people that wanted what he was putting out, then he would still be in business.
Conrad: How’s 205 Live doing?
Bruce: I have no idea.
Conrad: Nobody else does either.
Conrad talks often about being a huge ECW fan back in the day. He clearly takes exception here to Bruce claiming the product wasn’t good enough to keep ECW going. Since he runs the show, he gets to shut down arguments and move on to other topics as he pleases and he did just that here.
I get that this is a recap and not a transcript, but the arguments that spark between these two are some of the best parts of this show. If you don’t listen, but instead catch up on recaps, I wanted to give you an idea of what those arguments are like.
We then move on to Twitter questions.
Bruce says Heyman aligning himself with Brock Lesnar was the most genius thing he did for both himself and for Lesnar.
Bruce then tells a story about Paul and Brian Gewirtz going out prior to WrestleMania 18 so Paul can buy a suit. He says while Paul is being fitted, the tailor looked at Brian and to Paul said “oh, is this your son?” Both men were equally disgusted by the notion.
Bruce says Vince’s condo in Boca Raton was where the McMahon family would spend the holidays. As a writer, if you wanted face time, you would have to travel there to meet with Vince. The writers just went there to work. They stayed at a hotel 20 minutes away. The first time they met there, Stephanie came in at lunch as suggested everyone break. She gave a good amount of cash (“more than sandwich cash”) to each writer and told them where a good area was to get a nice meal. Bruce says any time you can get a break from Vince at such meetings, it’s a plus. So most of the writers were thrilled with this occurrence. They all went downstairs and were discussing where to go get lunch. Paul, on the other hand, began cutting a promo:
“I guess we’re not good enough to eat in the family domicile.”
“Send the help out to get lunch.”
He was pissed and continued going on. Bruce says everyone but Paul and Dave Lagana went to a nice Italian restaurant. It was pricey, but they weren’t paying for it, so they were happy. Paul and Dave, on the other hand, went to Burger King and pocketed the remainder of the cash.
Paul later took exception to Linda offering filtered water from a cooler to the writers rather than having them drinking the McMahon’s bottled water. Bruce says it was just a suggestion to make life a little easier on the writers, but that Paul again felt insulted. From then on, he insisted on bringing his own large water bottle to the house and drinking from it. Bruce says Paul never would’ve drank that much water otherwise, but was just trying to stick it to the McMahon’s in his own silly way.
Bruce concludes with the story of his experience on 9/11. It’s noted that this was also Heyman’s birthday. The writers, along with Vince, all gathered in his hotel room in Houston watching everything unfold. Heyman was in the corner of the room on the phone with his father. He was explaining happenings out loud prior to them airing on the television in the room. There was speculation that Heyman’s father was privy to information before it was airing on the news. It turned out, instead, that the feed in Houston was 30 seconds behind.
Rating: Now that’s a f**king wrestling podcast! I’ll admit, when the topic was announced as the poll winner last week, I was underwhelmed to say the least. Aside from the WWECW episode a couple months ago, which was pretty much a Paul Heyman episode, Heyman has factored into so many of the newsworthy things that have taken place during Bruce’s time with the company, that I seriously thought there was nowhere else to go with this topic. I could not have been more wrong, and this podcast makes being wrong such a pleasant experience. The best episodes are well-rounded with intriguing discussion, a fascinating revelation, hilarious impressions and, of course, catching Conrad and Bruce on a week where their chemistry matches up perfectly. This episode had all of that, and then went and dropped six or seven more insane stories, told only the way Bruce tells them. Ten minutes into this episode and we’re hearing about the time Vince, Bruce and Kevin Dunn picked Heyman up at his parents house in the suburbs prior to a night of clubbing in Manhattan? They could’ve ended this show after that story and I would’ve recommended the download.
I cover this show because I think it’s the best wrestling podcast out there. If someone were to ask me what was so great about Something To Wrestle, this is one of the top episodes I would point them towards. A must listen. 10/10
Timestamps
14:27: Show begins
17:30: Paul in WCW
20:05: Hanging with Paul in NYC
25:40: Clubbing with Vince and Heyman
30:17: Heyman joins the WWF in 2001
42:04: Heyman on commentary
47:20: ECW Invasion
55:22: Illegal usage of ECW trademarks
58:21: The creative teams
1:00:15: On air injury
1:01:35: 2001 promo on Vince
1:03:18: Taken off commentary
1:05:15: Pairing with Brock Lesnar
1:10:00: Wrestling against the Hardy Boyz
1:12:30: Head writer of Smackdown
1:14:10: The UnAmericans
1:17:30: Raw/Smackdown A show/B show
1:19:42: Eddie as Champion
1:21:17: Paul Heyman Guys
1:28:35: Heyman’s job interview style
1:32:00: Lesnar becomes champ
1:34:02: Writing for both brands?
1:35:07: Suspended by Stephanie
1:40:35: Heyman turns on Brock
1:42:20: Removed as head writer
1:44:24: The conference call story
1:49:00: Paul’s disciples
1:50:35: In the castle pissing out
1:52:41: Cage match vs. Lesnar
1:54:25: The Smackdown Six
1:58:46: Smackdown GM
1:59:15: TV confrontation with Bischoff
2:00:45: Lesnar leaves WWE
2:02:08: Drafted to Raw
2:03:13: Paul Bearer buried alive
2:08:40: Heidenreich
2:11:17: Breath Strips
2:12:35: Rise And Fall Of ECW
2:20:45: Bringing back the originals
2:21:53: OVW
2:24:39: Alleged MMA Ambitions
2:26:55: Relationship with Shane McMahon
2:29:25: Bischoff involvement in WWECW
2:31:20: Final meeting with Vince
2:34:20: Heyman’s wrestling legacy
2:39:30: Twitter Questions
About Jeff:
Jeff Rush is a life-long fan of professional wrestling. He’s attended the last match of both Andre the Giant and Stone Cold Steve Austin’s careers and two of the three matches of the Rock-Austin WrestleMania trilogy. As a child, he was once yelled at by John Tenta for sitting too close to him on a bench at Hershey Park. Jeff listens to way too many wrestling podcasts and watches way too much WWE Network. He also catches as much indie wrestling as he can when it comes through his home of New York City. Follow along @jefflikesstuff
For more, check out last week’s recap of Something to Wrestle With on SummerSlam 2000.
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