Not Talking TNA, Paul Heyman Bridges Gap Between UFC and Pro Wrestling

In the worlds of both Mixed Martial Arts and Pro Wrestling, the name Paul Heyman sure comes up a lot now, doesn't it? The heralded mad genius of sports entertainment is on the minds of TNA Wrestling, the SpikeTV pro wrestling franchise that has struggled along despite tens of millions of dollars invested by Panda Energy of Texas, a privately owned corporation by oil man Bob Carter, with the company being run by his daughter, Dixie. TNA wants Heyman to come in and take over creative control of the company. According to Dave Meltzer of www.wrestlingobserver.com, Heyman thinks the company is in such dire straits, more than just creative needs to be addressed, and Heyman has told people he has absolutely no interest in going to TNA (and getting back into pro wrestling) unless he gets "Dana White" type of control to turn the company around. Heyman, who built the ECWbrand into a global Extreme phenomenon, obviously admires the job White has done with UFC.

In a tweet posted this afternoon from Las Vegas, Heyman (best friend of UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, and the only person with any bit of connection to the media who has ever been embedded in Camp Lesnar the week of a fight) wrote that Dana White owns a room, but unlike with Vince McMahon, other people can have oxygen, too.

Heyman's stories on the www.heymanhustle.com included the revelation Brock was switching southpaw, which was a huge shocker coming out of the UFC 116 Open Workouts on Wednesday. Then came the observeration before anyone else noticed that Shane Carwin did not bring the UFC Interim Title to the press conference because he himself views the title as fake. In a superb article about Carwin leaving the Interim Title belt behind, it was reported on the Hustle in an excellent article (http://heymanhustle.craveonline.com/articles/news/103286-shane-carwin-press-conference) that Shane said once Brock starting calling his title fake, the belt went pooooof!

As both MMA sites and pro wrestling sites are keeping a close eye on what Heyman writes about, even AOL got in on the action, with noted AOL MMA reporter Ariel Helwani (who is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/arielhelwani) interviewing Heyman about Brock Lesnar, Heyman's attempt to buy Strikeforce from Scot Coker, plus does Heyman miss pro wrestling, and what is Heyman's true connection to Lesnar?

Paul Heyman has pulled another Ultimate manipulation. He's a power broker in both pro wrestling and, all of a sudden, the MMA world, too. The Mad Scientist has pulled a Hustle.