Alright a few more...
ECW wasn't THAT great and Paul Heyman wasn't AS creative as made out to be.
This one is bound to anger some people but so be it. Living in Ohio we got Eastern Championship Wrestling as well as Extreme Championship Wrestling late nights on a local channel. I came in shortly after it became Extreme and continued watching until they closed down. It was a good product no doubt, but it wasn't as great as it has been romanticized as, nor was it as creative as is made out to be. Actually their early TV tapings were horrible. You usually had ONE match for the entire show broken up with commercials and a promo or two mixed in.
Starting with the talent, there honestly wasn't THAT much of it going around. You had Raven, Shane Douglas and Taz. That was it for years when it came to ECW talent that could cut a promo AND have good matches. The rest was largely your various career Indy fed types. The only thing that differentiated ECW from any of the other Indy feds was Heyman was able to get Terry Funk, 2 Cold Scorpio, Brian Pillman, Steve Austin, Cactus Jack and some others to go to Philly and work short programs before heading back to WCW or the WWF.
I know what you're going to say, "what about Jericho, the New Japan guys and the Luchadores? Heyman introduced them to America!" Well we'll get to that. First things first, they weren't there that long. Second, he didn't introduce them to America as he claims, Eric Bischoff did. Chris Benit wrestled in WCW two years before Heyman even went to ECW. He partnered with AAA out of Mexico to put on a PPV called "When Worlds Collide" a year prior to ECW becoming extreme. Featuring who? Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Psicosis, La Parka, Chris Benoit and Konnan. Muta and other NJPW guys had crossed over to WCW for years, even predating Bischoff.
Which brings me to Paul Heyman and creative. One of his big claims to creative fame was bringing those guys to America. Cross it off, he didn't. He signed them to work a few programs in a bingo hall after the WCW/AAA PPV. His second creative claim to fame, the "hardcore concept." He didn't come up with it. Alot of the stuff he did was rehashed late 70's angles from Florida Championship Wrestling. The brawls in the crowds and using random weapons had been done before. In Mid South. In Mid Southern. In FCW. In WCW. In JCP. In WCCW. In GWF. Ditto for using tables as a prop. The super hardcore stuff was stuff Cactus and Funk did regularly in Japan and didn't start happening until AFTER they arrived.
That's not to say he is some talentless hack, he isn't. He IS a creative guy. He took over an Indy fed doing shows in front of 20-50 people in 1995 and by 1998 they were drawing a couple thousand people. He took a group of little talent guys like The Sandman, Sabu, Roadkill, Al Snow ect and just had them beat each other with random objects and/or act funny. He marketed his Indy promotion as a counter-culture revolution that was going to destroy the big two and got people buying in. He's a creative guy, no doubt, just not AS creative as he is made out to be and not the guy who had nothing BUT great ideas as fans make him out to be. For every good ECW creation he had he also had one that absolutely sucked. In that vein....
Vince Russo isn't the hack the IWC and dirtsheets make him out to be.
In contrast to Paul Heyman, for every bad Russo idea there was a good Russo idea. There's no doubt Russo has thought of some really bad ideas, but he's also had some really good ideas.
Starting with the WWF, the guy was ahead of his time. Anyone who used to flip through the WWF Magazines seen Vic Venom ripping the WWF's horrible product for years. His columns were pure Attitude Era style while Vince was booking T.L. Hopper and The Goon as Jim Ross and Jim Cornette kissed his ass telling him those were money ideas. The truth of his WWF run is as soon as Cornette was removed from creative and Russo was put in his spot the product started reflecting his Vic Venom columns.
Some would say and be correct he took alot of his stuff from ECW. They would be correct. When he became the head booker in the WWF they took on a very ECW style feel and used more than a few ECW storylines and gimmicks. Thing is by doing that he beat Bischoff at Bischoffs own game. E.B. was doing the same and having wild success by interjecting ECW style stuff into the WCW product. Russo was simply smart enough to start grabbing all of their stuff and doing it before WCW could. Many companies have done that over the years.
As to the WCW run, I try to give people a chance to explain situations before rushing to judgment. His explanation in WCW was that he wasn't given enough time, that standards and practices continually vetoed ideas of his and he had a massive amount of backstage politics to deal with. His explanation is consistent with Bischoffs, Sullivans and Jimmy Harts. They've all said the exact same things at one time or another. Nash, Hall, Hogan, Goldberg, DDP, Sting, Flair, Hart, they all had creative control over their contracts and final say so over any proposed storylines. The Radicalz after jumping ship all said Sullivan refused to push Benoit or anyone associated with him over Nancy leaving him. Nash was on the booking committee and as we all know Nash doesn't agree to anything that doesn't put him or his buddies over as the star of the show.
Even with all of that he still did alot of good things he never receives credit for, largely because he left McMahon and dared to state Vince isn't the infallible icon he props himself as. Russo during his initial run started pushing Bret, Benoit, Eddie and Jarrett(Who his detractors seem to forget WAS in line for a run in the WWF and big push until Austin refused to put him over), gave airtime to charismatic and funny characters like Norman Smiley and Ernest Miller and was moving the product forward as the ratings show.
Not only does he not receive credit he also gets blame for other peoples doings. A recent example would be the electric cage in TNA, thought up by Dutch Mantel. In WCW he regularly gets blame for the live bands on the programming, the actors and actresses showing up, talent off making movies and the product being branded by the mainstream. The sad thing is he gets all the blame even though that was all Time Warners doing and what they had been doing for years prior. It wasn't his idea to sign The Misfits to a wrestling deal, it wasn't his idea to create a wrestling KISS character and it wasn't his idea to book half the roster in Hollywood making movies.
All in all IMO he isn't the devil the IWC makes him out to be and is a creative guy at times who did more for the business than the IWC's hero Vince McMahon.
