Paul Heyman Credits Philadelphia with Making Him the Success He Is Today

Paul Heyman was born and reared in New York, but he was made in Philadelphia.

It was in Philadelphia where Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion rose to prominence and essentially elevated Heyman into the spot he is in today—among WWE’s elite performers. And in an interview with Philly.com, Heyman says he has nothing but love for the fans of the City of Brotherly Love for supporting him in the early days:

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If you pleased them, if you gave them what they were looking for, if you satiated their appetite for satisfaction in a product, the Philly fans would reward you by publicizing and singing your virtues to the masses because Philly accepted you as their home team and they wanted the bragging rights of saying, ‘This happened here in Philadelphia.’ That could only happen in Philadelphia.

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In the interview, Heyman recalls converting an old bingo hall into what became known as ECW Arena. He would stand at the top of the arena and shout encouragement to the wrestlers inside the ring. In turn, they would go to extreme measures in their matches.

And, as Heyman recalls in the interview, the fans loved it. The promotion caught the eye of WWE, which eventually purchased ECW and launched Heyman into the position he finds himself in today.

At next month’s WrestleMania 29, Heyman will be featured prominently in two of the three main events on the card. CM Punk and Brock Lesnar—Heyman’s “clients”—will face The Undertaker and Triple H, respectively.

Heyman tells Philly.com he loves his WWE role because he gets to work with two men of whom he truly is fond:

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I’m ecstatic with my current role in WWE. I get to work every Monday with my two best friends, Brock Lesnar and CM Punk. I have ‘The Beast’ [Lesnar] and ‘The Best’ [Punk].

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During the interview, Heyman slips into his ring character when he says that at WrestleMania, fans will get to show appreciation for Triple H in his win-or-retire match with Lesnar because after that event, “you’re not going to see him wrestle again.”

When asked in the interview why he is so confident Lesnar and Punk will win, Heyman brings up the name of a previous WrestleMania celebrity and current WWE Hall of Famer.

“Of course I am [confident],” Heyman says in the interview, “I’m not Pete Rose. I don’t bet against my team.”

Follow Bill Atkinson on Twitter @BAtkinson1963