Paul Heyman's Cageside Evaluation

What you loved:

1. Manager - The majority felt he is second ever to only Bobby Heenan, and that's high praise. Not only is he amazing on the mic, but he can take bumps when the time calls for it.
   
2. Creative Genius - Your words, not mine. I don't think I've seen "genius" used so much in an evaluation. He was able to not only revolutionize the industry with ECW, but turned SmackDown into must-see TV when he had the pencil. Creatively, he turns everything to gold.
3. Mic Skills - You give him the stick and he will make you feel however he wants you to feel.
   
4. ECW - Heyman went up against two giants (WCW and WWE) and forced both companies to alter the way the product was presented despite two drastically different styles. ECW! ECW! ECW!
5. Longevity - He's been in the business for almost 30 years, and has made an impact in WCW, ECW, and WWE, respectively.

My favorite comment goes to BrassCitySaint:

"Love: He is both ground-breaking and old school. Seems like a bit of a paradox, but it’s true. Paul’s creative run during his time in the original ECW, Smackdown!, and OVW was nothing short of revolutionary. He always found the best ways to augment his talents’ attributes, allowed for great wrestlers to just wrestle, and pushed the envelope well before "Attitude" was even a glimmer in Vince McMahon’s eye. And yet, in his current role as the outspoken mouthpiece for Brock Lesnar, he is the last of a dying breed where managers are concerned. The traditional wrestling manager is often regarded as archaic by modern standards, but Heyman illustrates how the role is still relevant. He exists somewhere between Bobby Heenan and Paul Ellering, and that makes him a welcome throwback."

________________________________________________________________

What you loathed:

1. Accounting Skills - Towards the end of ECW's run, Paul was known to bounce a check or two...or three. Unfortunately, it was a sinking ship he wasn't able to save financially. I guess he can't be amazing at everything. This was by far the top complaint.
2. Extreme Booking - A couple of you felt he let things go too far when it came to his booking of matches. This impacted not only how WWE/WCW did business during that era, but the eventual creation of CZW and other hardcore wrestling companies. That's not to put the blame completely on him, but he didn't exactly slow things down either.
   
3. TV Time - He only has Brock Lesnar to work with at the moment. CM Punk is gone and Heyman is no longer managing that other guy...what's his name? Oh yeah...
4. Curtis Axel - How could you take up Heyman's precious TV time?!? Many of you felt if Heyman can't get a wrestler over, there's basically no hope. Also, how many times is Curtis going to show up in other people's loathe section?

My favorite comment belongs to bensix:

"I share the love for his talents as a performer, but if no one else is going to flesh out the 'loathe' category I have to say that his booking could be atrocious: from an artistic perspective and an ethical one. A man who cared for the health and, indeed, the lives of his employees would never have accepted the extremes that his performers went to. How much of the ECW roster has died? Given stuff like the Danbury fall and the Mass Transit incident it’s startling that isn’t more. The garbage wrestling also inspired the unpleasantness of XPW, CZW and so on – and young guys are still dying, their brains have been rattled so much. It fascinates me as a social phenomenon but, still, a fair few people would have their fathers or sons alive if it had never existed so an intelligent man should have said 'hey – too far' earlier on."

On to the poll! With 361 votes, Mr. Heyman's average score is 4.8 (rounded up slightly). That's good enough for third best in the series.

Thanks, Cagesiders! Tomorrow's pick comes out of NXT.

Until then!