Review for Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name is Paul Heyman

Paul Heyman is either a wrestling genius or shady charlatan. It seems that people either feel one way or another about the man who brought ECW from the small Bingo halls to PPV and worldwide infamy. This DVD goes through his entire career and it is a fascinating look at just what he was able to achieve.

Starting as a photographer, he was able to hustle into wrestling events for the WWWF and take shots that they would use in their programs. He moved around the territories in AWA, NWA and finally there he went on to have a huge success as Paul E. Dangerously, leader of The Dangerous Alliance. This group featured established stars Rick Rude and Arn Anderson, but also a young up-and-comer by the name of Steve Austin. Can't think what happened to him?

Following issues with WCW, he went to Eastern Championship Wrestling, which he later developed into Extreme Championship Wrestling. It is really here where the documentary takes off with stories about his booking style, his motivational speeches and his business deals. Heyman claims that he did not take a penny off WWE, yet continually talks about taking money off them for this and that and a loan to keep them going in 2000. I understand that what he means is 'I didn't take his money and put it directly in my pocket', but it is a bit like splitting hairs.

With the closing of ECW his move over the WWE is discussed. This includes his original role as announcer, manager of Brock Lesnar and then his move to writing for Smackdown. It was here that he had one of his many issues with WWE (or Stephanie McMahon to be exact) and then was moved to their developmental in OVW. Leaving WWE, he created The Heyman Hustle and returned to the WWE years later to manage the likes of CM Punk, Cesaro and Brock Lesnar who you may not know broke the Undertaker's streak?

This documentary is fabulous. It leaves no stone unturned and though I do wish they had gone into more detail about his ECW days, the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD should fill all the gaps. It seems that everyone is spoken to, apart from Vince McMahon, including Jerry Lawler, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Stephanie McMahon, Bill Apter, CM Punk and even original ECW owner Todd Gordon. My only issue with this documentary is that the sound was very low on some of the people speaking and with no subtitles option you had to turn the sound up to eleven to hear what was being said. This only minor and doesn't take away from the amazing documentary being told.

The other two disks are filled to the brim with promos and if you ever wanted proof of just how great Heyman was on the mic, then this is it. We get promos from AWA, NWA/WCW, ECW and WWE. It also includes some of his more infamous promos such as his 'shoot' on the network from ECW and the 'pipebomb' from WWE about CM Punk leaving.

Oddly, only three matches are included. There is a great rare NWA match between Heyman's New Midnight Express against Jim Cornette's Original Midnight Express. This is a great old skool match and really showed how great both Heyman and Cornette were as managers. Him and Brock Lesnar against The Hardy Boyz from Judgment Day 2002 was a great match and really showed just what a monster Brock was (and still is) and his No DQ Elimination match between him with Curtis Axel against CM Punk, which should have been so much better.

Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name is Paul Heyman is a great DVD. The documentary is fabulous and the wealth of promos are all very entertaining. I do wish they had included more rare behind the scenes footage from ECW, but that's just me being greedy. If you want to know why some people think he is a genius and some think he is a conman and some think he is both, then this is a great DVD to watch.