Mick Foley Praises Heyman’s Promo Work On RAW

Wrestling’s history is full of talented performers who lacked the instinct for survival – guys who hung on to something that had worked for them, even if the times, and tastes around them were changing. The Paul Heyman who used a cell phone as a weapon in the late 80’s through the mid-90’s – a big, brick-like foreign object, at a time when cell-phones were still uncommon – would look ridiculous today, wielding a palm-sized I-phone. Likewise, the ball-cap wearing Heyman who inspired a ragtag band of misfits in a bingo hall into the leaders of a wrestling revolution – while still being effective, just wouldn’t be as absorbing in today’s game.

But this current incarnation of Paul Heyman is the best on-air representation I’ve seen yet from wrestling’s mad scientist. Ironically, the man who often willingly depicts himself as a coward on-air, is doing some of the most courageous work I’ve seen – taking chances (saying “I love you” to Punk, and asking Ryback to be a Paul Heyman guy) and baring parts of his inner self that a less confident man would never dare.