Joey Styles will interview Paul Heyman on “ECW Exposed” this coming Monday night when it airs on the WWE Network. Styles is best known as the play-by-play commentator for ECW and former professional in the field of advertising sales. He works for WWE now as Vice President of Digital Media Content.
WWE has been featuring archived footage of the Attitude Era in network subscriber only specials. ECW has some of the best archived footage, and certainly some of the most exciting so specials surrounding it could expose what most consider to be the most innovative wrestling program of all time to a new generation of fans.
The name of the show is “ECW Exposed” and it will feature the man behind the curtain, the puppet master for ECW. Ladies and gentlemen, his name is Paul Heyman. Heyman was the leader of the brash, energetic group of upstarts that started making WWE, and WCW very nervous until Heyman declared bankruptcy in 2001. WWE finally purchased ECW and ran it as a brand from June 2006 until February 2010.
Stone Cold transformed from a cocky heel to an angry rattlesnake during his tenure there. Some of the other talents found success in the bigger organizations such as Rob Van Dam and Taz, and some fell flat like Shane Douglas and Jerry Lynn. There is no argument about ECW’s place in history and the legacy of the often violent, risky matches it produced.
In preparation for the ECW Exposed program on Monday, current TNA announcer Taz tweeted a message to Styles and Heyman.
ECW Original and current TNA announcer Taz tweeted the following about ECW Week on the Network:
“@HeymanHustle @JoeyStyles @WWENetwork I guess for a movement/company that SO MANY bashed, ripped & laughed at…still is relevant. 2 Funny.”
Heyman responded:
“@OfficialTAZ HUGE difference between “relevant” and “exploited,” which I’ll be happy to explain Monday night. @JoeyStyles @WWENetwork @WWE”
Heyman has never been one to shy away from sharing his thoughts. The question is whether or not WWE will allow Paul to unleash them on their WWE Network. Public opinion for WWE is slowly trending downward, but WWE has done a good job of making the most of what they have available to counteract it. I guess we will have to wait until Monday to see how far they let him take it.