WWE News: Paul Heyman Talks Managing The Undertaker
WWE superstar Paul Heyman has had a very long career in the professional wrestling industry. The man started out taking photos for the WWE as a child and then moved on to work as a manager in the AWA and WCW before running his own company in ECW. Along the way, Heyman has managed some of professional wrestling’s top stars including Brock Lesnar, The Big Show, CM Punk, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Undertaker. In a recent interview with The Ringer, Heyman talked about his long career in wrestling.
Managing The Undertaker
A lot of professional wrestling fans might not remember that Paul Heyman managed The Undertaker. This came about in 1990 during Heyman’s second stint in WCW.
On his first trip though WCW, he was coming off a successful stint as a manager in the AWA up in Minnesota. He came into WCW, which at the time was run by Jim Crockett under the NWA banner. He managed the Original Midnight Express in a feud battling manager Jim Cornette and the New Midnight Express.
When “Nature Boy” Ric Flair took over as the head booker, he fired Paul Heyman in 1989. Soon, Turner Broadcasting bought the company and Jim Ross convinced them to bring Heyman back in 1990. He came back and the first man they gave him to manage was Mark Callis, who later took on the persona The Undertaker in the WWE.
This is really good. Heyman just knows who he is.
The Dangerous Advocacy of Paul Heyman https://t.co/xxXioxC2ZD via @ringer
— . (@thesull04) November 18, 2017
According to Heyman, The Undertaker was “shockingly mature for someone so new to the industry.”
After this, Heyman started The Dangerous Alliance with some top-notch superstars in it, including a young “Stunning” Steve Austin as well as former Midnight Express member Beautiful Bobby Eaton, former AWA world champion Larry Zbyszko, Four Horsemen member Arn Anderson, and former WWE superstar Ravishing Rick Rude.
Later Interactions With The Undertaker In The WWE
Paul Heyman said that he was one of the people who recognized stars before the rest of the world even knew they would be stars. Heyman said he knew that Stone Cold Steve Austin would be a star before he was ever Stone Cold, Mark Callis would be a star before he became The Undertaker and also pointed out Brock Lesnar and CM Punk would also be big stars in the business.
Paul Heyman was also involved in one of the biggest moments in the career of The Undertaker 24 years after he managed him in WCW. That was in 2014 when Brock Lesnar beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX, the first time The Undertaker took a loss at a WrestleMania event.
“Brock Lesnar vs. the Undertaker at WrestleMania, there was a lot of discussion about that,” Heyman remembers.
[Featured Image by Adam Hunger/AP Images]
