Scott Fishman of the Miami Herald conducted an amazing interview with Paul Heyman today.
Among the highlights:
On the roster and their motivation coming into the new brand:
“It’s the most motivated bunch of guys you’ve ever seen in your life,” said Heyman. It’s amazing to see the difference in Rob Van Dam. It’s amazing to feel in one night how the Big Show’s life has changed, and he’ll tell you that. Here’s a guy, call a spade, a spade, 7-feet tall and 500 pounds. He’s not 6-foot-6, 285 pounds, and we claim he’s 7-feet tall, 500 pounds.Here he is now motivated because you tell me the best they can do with him on Raw is what you’ve seen. It’s been horrible, and he knows that. Now he has the opportunity to be himself. A legitimate giant, the world’s largest athlete, and that is how we’re going to promote him, use him and write for him.”
On the differences between the new ECW and the old ECW:
“It’s going to be a balance like it was before,” said Heyman. “The Public Enemy was never really based on pure wrestling science. This won’t be based on pure wrestling science. Although, we have the best in the world in Kurt Angle. This is going to be based on a mix. This is going to be everything you loved about the old ECW and thinking into the future. It’s going to be based on hot, new, contemporary and riveting characters with contemporary music. It’s going to be based with the most hard-hitting action and realistic storylines. Hopefully, it will be based on a product Raw and SmackDown! can’t compete with, and that’s my goals for ECW.”
On his goals for the new promotion:
“My present goals are to whip Raw and SmackDown!’s $%%#@* creatively,” said Heyman. “I want to build a fanbase, creating new characters and expanding the name ECW into a global phenomenon for a second time. What I’m going to do differently from last time is I don’t’ have to be a book-keeper anymore. That pressure is off of me. They’ve got a lot of bean counters out in that [Stanford] tower there that would love to sit there and handle the books. This means I can sit back and handle what I like, which is promoting, presenting, producing, directing and writing for an extraordinary bunch of performers, who are just craving the opportunity to be put out there in the public.”
