Heyman "Dismissed" from WWE.....We Think

[IvanTheImpaler]

Everybody from 1wrestling.com to wrestlingobserver.com is reporting that the wwe.com blurb that Paul Heyman has been dismissed from WWE is NOT an angle. Also, they say that the PPV plans which Heyman submitted to WWE were nowhere near the final product on Sunday night.

Shoot or work?

If it is true, and depending on how long of a no-compete clause Paul had in his contract, do you expect him to show up in TNA soon? And in what role?

[Joey "The Bruiser" Tenebruso]

Can you imagine Heyman, Cornette and Russo under one roof? "Repent...for the world is coming to an end!"

[william2k2dj]

Mike Johnson and Buck Woodward of Pwinsider reported tonight via their elite audio hotline the following update on all things as they know them from the Paul Heyman front. Apparently for the last several weeks Heyman has been under alot more stress and pressure stemming from the live events being killed off and Vince insisting that the elimination chamber be included on the D2D (putting all of the big name ECW stars in one match, making it harder to book the show). Sources are saying that in the past few weeks Heyman has been alot more paranoid and worried as to how he could keep things afloat for the brand. However despite that Heyman had been behind Vince and the creative direction ECW was facing. Paul Heyman had turned in his D2D booking plans to the rest of the WWE creative and after it got through the HHH/McMahon (this is the reports words not mine) filter the show was changed completely, much to his dismay. Apparently Paul's original idea for the show was going to have Lashley win the title and then turn heel among other differences, but WWE creative decided otherwise and made the entire show about Lashley as a babyface overcoming the odds (hence Sabu being removed as mentioned earlier). Apparently Paul made it clear to Vince that he wasnt happy with the changes to the show before and after it was over which is what set things in motion. This lead to Vince beleiving that Paul didnt understand the new direction ECW was heading into and blaming him for the scripting errors on the show. So around 2 pm after they had the Raw production meeting, Paul had a closed door session with both Vince and Stephanie where he was simply told his services were no longer needed. According to more than a few sources Paul spoke with a few people briefly then collected his belongings and headed back home to NYC.

More than a few sources told Pwinsider that Paul leaving also couldve been a direct effect of Big Show also leaving the company. Big Show and Paul have been good friends since Paul came to the WWE, so without a guy with alot of clout backing Heyman he no longer had any backstage allies with any real power. Some even pointed out the speech Paul Heyman made during the D2D broadcast where he said that "After Hogan is dead Hulkamania is dead, after Flair is dead the wooo's stop, but when hes dead ECW will live on." As possibly Heyman knowing that he was on his way out the door and that being his farewell to the fans and ECW.

People who were close to Paul are under the impression that he was actually releived about being fired from the creative staff because he was sick of having to fight for the original idea of ECW while at the same time having to appease the McMahon's creative direction. There is no word at this time if he was given his release, but Buck Woodward said on the hotline that it's doubtful Vince would let him go and would rather have him sit at home doing nothing.

They then answered the big question of whether Paul would jump to a TNA or ROH. Mike Johnson said that " You would be crazy if you didnt think that Gabe Sapolsky would love to reunite with his mentor and have Heyman appear inside a ROH ring." When TNA was brought up they said its obviously still too soon to know where anything stands. Jim Cornette obviously hates Heyman however he at one time called Heyman "Wrestlings last great hope," but Cornette has no backstage stroke, Jeremy Borash would love to have Paul in the company, while Jarrett and Dixie Carter would kind of be neutral on the matter. Kurt Angle obviously has ALOT of stroke backstage as of late and as we know he wasnt happy when he was in ECW at the end of his WWE run and in the 90's we all remember what happened when Kurt appeared at the ECW arena, so one would have to think Kurt would be against the idea. When Vince Russo was brought up Mike Johnson pointed out that they were both from New York and if the two got together and could play off one anothers stregnths TNA would be unstoppable. Buck Woodward then pointed out that Heyman coming to TNA however would be like if White Snake were doing a tour and then Led Zepplin jumped on the bill. Obviously Russo has taken more than a few ideas from Heyman in the past (like white snake taking their persona from zepplin) so why would he want Heyman jumping to the company taking away his complete creative control.

They wound the hotline down by saying that this could also potentially just be the end of Heyman's career in wrestling. He has tried to break into acting in the past, and he has mentioned in past interviews that he is working on some movie scripts, and obviously more than a few publishers would be trying to get him to write a book. Regardless they made sure to point out that this Tuesday's ECW on Sci-Fi show will be the first time since 1993 that an ECW product was put out without Paul Heyman's input.