Paul Heyman Is Conspicuous By His IMPACTful Silence, Makes News w/ Coco

As wrestling fans around the world celebrate TNA's decision to crown Rob Van Dam as the centerpiece of the promotion with his phenomenal victory over AJ Styles on TNA Impact! Monday night, the question on everyone's mind remains: When will TNA be able to lure in the most respected and sought-after lead writer in sports entertainment, the always controversial Paul Heyman?

It's been 3 and a half years since Paul Heyman has appeared on a pro wrestling television show. In 2006, when Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment re-launched the ECW brand on Sci Fi (Now SyFy, the soon-to-be new home for WWE Smackdown), Heyman was the presented as the leader of the new breed unleashed on television. But behind the scenes, Heyman struggled with WWE Chairman McMahon, Creative head Stephanie McMahon-LeVesque, and Executive Producer Kevin Dunn. The constant changing of Heyman's direction lead to a showdown with McMahon after the December To Dismember pay per view event, and Heyman opted out, never to return.

Never to return, that is, at all. Going against the grain, Heyman refused all offers to do shoot tapes, conventions, appearances, and even now famously declined TNA Lead Writer Vince Russo's personal invitation to join TNA last year, as Russo detailed painfully in his recently released book, Rope Opera: How WCW Killed Vince Russo.

Heyman, who is best known for his amazing 7 year global expansion of the tiny little bingo hall promotion from 1993-2001 was probably at his best, however, when in charge of the WWE Smackdown brand in 2002-03. But once he left World Wrestling Entertainment, Heyman ventured elsewhere. He teamed up with Emmy winning New York City creative house HQ Productions and formed "Looking For Larry Productions" with HQ CEO Mitchell K. Stuart, who is touted as a Hi-Def Pioneer. Their first project? A digital program called "The Heyman Hustle."

Interviewing wild celebrities like Aubrey O'Day, Holly Madison, Jesse Ventura, The Naked Cowboy, Stars of Jackass, Joumana "Hurricane" Kidd, Taylor Momsen, and the 1st Couple of Hip Hop Ice-T and Coco, Heyman reinvented himself, going from the loud bragadocious Paul E. Dangerously or Pro Wrestling Cult Leader to self-depreciating master of ceremonies as he tried to put the spotlight on the celebrities themselves.

So when Rob Van Dam won the TNA World Title on live television Monday night, many were expecting Heyman to blog on the new champion. Unlike fellow former on-air manager and longtime booker Jim Cornette, Heyman has avoided constantly criticizing the wrestling products. His blogs, while critical at times, usually focus on the behind the scenes manueverings either in the wrestling companies or the networks that influence the decisions that effect the product. Cornette just rips into everything he sees. Heyman, once again, separates himself from everyone else, and explains to the readers why they see things, not just how he feels about what is on the shows.

But Heyman didn't blog about RVD. At least, he hasn't posted a blog on Van Dam yet.

Instead, he did what was his trademark in ECW and Smackdown. "When the other guys would zig," Heyman confidante and former ECW Champion Taz, now the TNA color commentator once said, "Paul would zag. When the other guys decided to zag, he'd zig."

Heyman posted a story on his Heyman Hustle website regarding one of the most popular guests from the 1st season of the show, Coco. The wife of the hip hop legend  Ice-T, Coco is known, frankly, for her insanely-proportioned body. The bosomy blonde bombshell posted a photo on Twitter yesterday of herself at The Blu Spa in New Jersey, getting a Brazilian Wax. It was almost immediately yanked off of Twitter. But not before The Heyman Hustle got a copy and posted a story on Coco's tweet. As the story pointed out, we live in the Instant Information Age.

So Heyman's website, instead of being the home of Paul's blog on new TNA World Champion Rob Van Dam (which may still come, when Paul writes or posts the story), instead became the focus of an international controversy over Coco's wild tweet and picture.

Speaking with Simon Rothstein of the UK Sun, which was not so coincidentally the original home of Heyman's "Hustle" show and blogs, Heyman commented, "I don't understand how any hosting company can stand in the way of Coco's artistic expression for the work of art known as her own body. Ahem."

So now Heyman has inserted himself in pop culture controversies, keeping everyone waiting for his opinion on his favorite ECW alumnus Rob Van Dam's ascention to the top of TNA Wrestling. All while everyone waits for whether the news of TNA's desire to bring in Heyman and Jim Ross, whose contract with WWE is expiring, to help turn the company's fortunes around and make TNA a true competitor to World Wrestling Entertainment.

You can see the original story on the Heyman Hustle website, with the Coco photo that started the whole media frenzy, at http://heymanhustle.craveonline.com/articles/news/82646-coco-wax

The UK Sun story by Simon Rothstein can be found at http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/usa/2941576/Coco-in-new-Twitter-picture-ban-after-posting-snap-of-herself-getting-a-Brazilian-wax.html

The story has already been picked up by the Hollywood blogs, including the legendary popwreck site Taxi Driver Movie, which can be found at http://twitter.com/TaxiDriverMovie

In an amazing statistic, Coco has over 72,000 followers on Twitter. Her husband, whose 1992 song "Cop Killer" lead to the music industry being subjected to a rating system and was one of the main lynchpins in the debate regarding Gangsta Rap, has just over 41,000 followers.