Courtesy of Liam Savage, the full Q&A from 1995 that gave us the clip of Paul Heyman predicting the success of Nitro, which he was somewhat on the money with but not for the exact reasons. I’m skipping seventy minutes in because I’m not really as interested in listening to the wrestlers who talk about how if you could cut them in half like a stick of rock it would read ECW right through, then were gone as soon as a WWF or WCW contract worth something was slid under their noses (and rightfully so, honestly). It’s when Paul E comes in and holds court that we REALLY want to hear. Goes without saying that he’s flanked as always by Dreamer and Taz. Sound quality is about as good as you’d expect for camcorder footage from 27 years ago.
Paul’s first bit of business is promoting a card/tour in New York, with a bit of a bitch about the tax they’ll have to pay.
Tod Gordon talks about who the company has working relationships with briefly before Paul cuts in and talks about the Headhunters not making dates with them to face the Public Enemy because Victor Quinones reneged on his promises to them. He says he likes them, but he can live without them when he has the likes of Terry Funk working with them. He clarifies that it’s not about money, but Victor seems to keep on letting it fall through.
Paul says a criticism the company gets is not doing enough wrestling, so Taz, Benoit, Malenko and Guerrero are there as an effort to meet that requirement. He talks about wanting to do classic wrestling of different types for 1995 (updated Sheik, Dick the Bruiser, Billy Robinson, etc.).
Bill Alfonso is discussed as a conscious effort to emphasise that wrestling still needs rules, even as unruly as it gets. If he says there’s a penalty for a punch, it makes a punch mean more.
Tommy Dreamer goes to answer a question, but Paul cuts him off straight away to talk about something else with getting their show on TV and all the inherent challenges that includes with getting a time slot. Back to Tommy, who talks about whether the major sports REALLY need a recap show that badly and how they could use that time slot instead, but the ECW fans are setting their VCR for the 3am airing regardless. Paul just encourages the fans to call up MSG Network and harass them until they give them something better.
MSG cancelled the show once because Paul refused to bleep the word ass “and we only said it nine times!”. Tommy likens their challenges to Howard Stern, where you’ve got to have someone willing to take a chance on you and ready to fight your corner.
Paul talks about nervous white executives in Los Angeles who won’t refer to rap or hip hop songs they used in their bumpers as anything other than “urban contemporary music” when the audience is so highly made up of minorities.
Sabu is brought up, with Paul publicly berating him for not making a show. He says he likes him a lot, but an example needed to be made otherwise everyone would do it. He thinks their credibility is the most important thing as a company. “I’d love to tell you I was going to bring him back, but I can’t, because it would be catastrophic for the dressing room.” By the end of the year, guess who was back…
Taz weighs in on the Sabu situation, to me already starting to work his angle that would pay off two years later. “Bring him back and I’ll wrestle him every night for free!” Paul’s ear probably perked up hearing that.
911 – “He’s out masked guy – he’s not in title matches, not pursuing any guys, he’s just there to beat the living shit out of anyone we bring in that the fans don’t like, whether it’s Jungle Jim Steele or Doink the Clown.” He likens him to the early killer versions of Nikita Koloff or Lex Luger (which was all he was, nothing more). He’s a response to the stuff the WWF and WCW does that nobody likes, so they get the chokeslam.
A fan from Alabama asks Paul to clarify what his position in the company was. Paul talks about being a TV junkie who brings that pop culture reference into wrestling. That contrasts with Verne Gagne, who was only a wrestling guy, and Jim Herd, who was only a TV guy. Vince McMahon surrounds himself with wrestling AND TV guys. He then talks about breeding that kind of culture within ECW and avoiding cliques.
He talks about how in WCW everyone would agree with one another, then when someone left the room they were buried. Ric Flair gets quickly knocked for firing him in 1989 before he talks about arranging a tryout with the WWF. Paul was still under contract with WCW, so Vince put him in the studio. Bruce Prichard was heading up the studio and Kerwin Silfies was spending all day exhausting himself over getting the perfect camera shot for a press conference until he had it. He loved it, Bruce loved it, then Vince got brought in and didn’t love it, at which point Bruce went “Well, I thought that, but nobody gives me the authority to challenge these things!”. Kerwin was fired before being brought back. The more things change, the more they stay the same. With yes men you go nowhere.
How are the big two reacting to Paul criticising them on air? WCW is trying to scoop up a bunch of their guys now (and did) and Shane Douglas is going to the WWF. Taz and Dreamer get regular calls to check “Are you happy? Is Paul paying you enough? Are you getting enough bookings?”. It would take them another five years. Cactus Jack joins the panel and straight away gets in a dig about Mabel winning the King of the Ring. Paul thinks that if they’re really that bothered they’ll change their product.
Jim Herd used to bitch about what an arsehole Lex Luger was and was constantly questioning him and Jim Ross “Why do we pay that guy ten grand a week?!”. Paul’s reaction was to agree and ask him why, because they could change that and fix the problem, but nobody would. If they really wanted him gone they would find a way. Same with the wrestler side, he hopes everyone can be where they’re happy and make loads of money, but if you’re not and you’re gonna be a problem then you need to go. Both sides need to be happy and if they’re not then they need to find somewhere else.
Stevie Richards gets paid tribute to as a guy that always shows up ready to give it all and had been politely persistent for a long time, turning up with his bag until they had something for him and never complaining, standing up to be used and help the company.
Dreamer talks about the miserable failure that was WCW Uncensored, badly copying ECW. WWF is starting to use a moving camera for their promos and using some production techniques that ECW uses. Paul credits his “crack” production crew, then jokingly implies that they smoke crack too with a hand gesture.
Paul endorses the “something for everyone” approach and talks about the varied roster and matches they try to have. Taz veers off into how someone like a Tito Santana would be reticent to come to ECW and face a Sandman because of their style (“They’re pussies!”). I’m not keen on Taz anyway, but this turns into a Four Yorkshiremen routine about going out of their way to work hard when others are lazy (“If you get in the ring with me, I’m gonna drop you on your fucking head.” And when he got dropped on his “fucking head”, he turned into a fat, lazy fuck too because that’s not the way to have a long, successful career like a Tito had).
A fan brings up Jim Cornette criticising ECW. Paul says Jim should worry more about running his own business (which was out of business by the end of the year).
Paul talks about being a creature of the night and staying up late. (Boy, would people who work for him come to hate that!)
Cactus takes a few questions about working for ECW and whether he feels comfortable there (“Not physically!”). He talks about the freedom he has with promos. He learned from Rick Rude to leave your raunchiest, most controversial stuff for live shows, because they can’t edit it off then. He then talks about how they never believed him, even with proof from doctors, when he was injured. Despite that, he worried about the angle where he got wiped out on the floor by Vader with a powerbomb not looking good enough (“It was the Lost in Cleveland videos where I thought my career was REALLY over!”).
Paul gets into his famous rant about WCW getting Nitro to go against Raw. He surmises that Ted Turner called Eric Bischoff’s bluff on how well they would do if they had the same time slot by giving it to them. Eric would then return to the booking committee and Kevin Sullivan would just sit back, Hulk Hogan would ask who he was going to beat, and Ric Flair asked if they could turn Alex Wright heel so that he could hang around with him and get some younger women to go with him. He thinks they’ll get their ass kicked and Eric should brush up his CV, because they’ll devolve back to filming from a studio with Ole Anderson booking a bunch of young, cheap talent from Jody Hamilton’s school and one star on a six figure contract “with Thunder and Lightning as the tag champs and nobody giving a shit, with it back on at 18:05 to fill a slot”. Not quite, but the glory days wouldn’t last forever.
He’s not much keener on the WWF, talking about painfully watching Waylon Mercy getting in the ring and shit matches like Henry Godwinn versus Adam Bomb that blow. He thinks it’s a shame because there’s a lot of talent out there that deserves work.
Dreamer talks about being a fan and how he’d be a fan of ECW if he wasn’t a wrestler. His influences are discussed, like Kevin Sullivan feuding with Blackjack Mulligan and Randy Savage piledriving Ricky Morton through a table, which he tried to do. Cactus’ three words of advice to him: “Lose the suspenders!”. He then recalls a time where Bob Backlund fobbed him off for an autograph and how it affected his enjoyment of him after, so he tries to do right by the fans.
Who could survive in ECW? Paul says Vader, then Steve Austin, who he says is the future of the business (definitely right!). Paul says he had an idea to bring Brian Pillman into WCW as a new member of the Midnight Express, with Dennis Condrey taking a step back. He admires how hungry he is for the business and recalls matches Steve and Brian had planned that were so good, but agents like Mike Graham would come over and just tell them to do the bare minimum with no time. He credits Pillman with making people appreciate Alex Wright when everyone hated him and seeing something in him. With Austin, nobody has had a clue what to do with him, when they should just leave it to the man himself. Rick Rude, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, all would do well in ECW.
Pillman’s last appearance in ECW wasn’t as good as it could be because it was very last minute and he was having problems with his wife at the time (don’t know if that was Rochelle or Melanie). He can’t knock him, though.
Jack thinks the Nasty Boys would be good in ECW if they wanted to do it, but a lot of guys don’t want to. This prompt Paul E to suggest Ric Flair as a guy who would be good in ECW, but he’d want to do his old routine and not break out of his comfort zone. Nobody pushes or motivates him enough to do any different. Terry Funk tried to, so Flair pushed him out of the way.
Paul takes a moment to tease Taz about thinking he’s a 24/7 pit fighter, while Taz drinks from a wine glass.
Best and worst angles Paul has ever seen – best as a fan was Eddie Gilbert burying Bill Watts beneath the Russian flag, because Jim Ross sold it like he wanted to cry and probably could’ve made himself cry if he really wanted to. He then jokes that if he had cried then Watts would’ve bollocked him because “real men don’t cry”. The best angle he’s personally been involved in was the money back guarantee with Jerry Lawler and Austin Idol and Tommy Rich, where Tommy was under the ring for hours before and couldn’t piss because there wasn’t a bucket and he’d been drinking all afternoon. Also attacking the Midnight Express and hitting Corny with the phone, but it didn’t go anywhere.
Worst – Cactus recalls a thing where Jason Hervey had a voodoo doll of the One Man Gang and Gang was taking bumps as Hervey shook the thing around.
What would Paul’s dream match be to book? Depends on the time and context. If he had TV in the Carolinas and had Shane ragging on Ric Flair until they said “That’s enough” it would be a great match. Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio would be a great match (sure would!).
Jack talks about knowing his limitations and that he can wrestle, but it makes more sense to have Mikey Whipwreck with him to do the outstanding stuff.
The Q&A finishes with Tommy saying it’s the fans that make ECW what it is and Paul adds that he appreciates everything the fans say, good and bad, because it’s brought them to attention.
Melting it down: Not thoroughly good, but Paul is a top tier speaker and was passionate at the time about ECW. Cactus knew when to pick his spots to add something, Dreamer made a few good small contributions, and Taz was a dick. Sounds about right.