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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Paul Heyman first broke into professional wrestling as a teenager with a press pass at Madison Square Garden in the 1970s. Even then, working behind the scenes and mixing in the oddities The world of atypical sports attracted Heyman. He struck up a relationship with Vince McMahon Sr., the former promoter of what is now WWE, and was hired for $50 as a ringside photographer.
Heyman abandoned the camera a long time ago, but he never stopped trying to tell wrestling stories through his vision. He was an advocate, a sage and a manager, and now call him a WWE Hall of Famer.
Heyman and WWE told The Associated Press that the 58-year-old lifelong wrestler will be the first member of this year’s class.
Heyman will be inducted April 5 at WWE’s ceremony at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, the city that served as the base for his former Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion in the 1990s.
Heyman’s brashness made him a prominent force in the locker room. He chatted with some of the wildest personalities of the era (“Captain” Lou Albano, Gorilla Monsoon, The Wild Samoans) and even proposed story ideas long before the curtain opened and wrestling became one of the main forms of entertainment.
“I think everyone knew even back then that I was going to find my place in this industry,” Heyman said. “I had no qualms about letting people know. Let people know that this was my ambition.”
During WrestleMania weekend, WWE will host live shows from Raw, Smackdown and its developmental show, NXT. WWE World, which includes matches, panel discussions and memorabilia displays, will be camped out for five days at the Philadelphia Convention Center.
Featured by Dwayne The Rock Johnson’ With his return to the ring, WrestleMania XL on April 6 and 7 is expected to sell out Lincoln Financial Field. Heyman will be there, accompanying WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns to the ring for a match against Cody Rhodes on night two. It is Heyman’s sixth consecutive main event at WrestleMania and seventh time overall.
On Hall of Fame night, the spotlight belongs to Heyman.
“I constantly feel like I’m just getting started and I’m just figuring this out,” Heyman said. “For me, what is an incomplete body of work, because there are still things I want to achieve, I never felt comfortable accepting that it is a reflection of an entire career.”
Heyman and the rest of the inductees, yet to be named, will be honored on the first weekend of WrestleMania without Vince McMahon. McMahon resigned in January from WWE’s parent company, the day after a former employee filed a federal lawsuit accusing him and another former executive of serious sexual misconduct, including offering a star wrestler for sex.
“It’s an extremely difficult situation to process,” Heyman said.
Heyman worked for the National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling prior to his more than 20-year career in WWE. But the time came when the creative mind behind ECW’s promotion in the ’90s revolutionized the industry.
Before Heyman formed WWE’s Bloodline group, his ECW was as bloodthirsty and violent as professional wrestling would get (think barbed wire ropes and burning tables) and many of his ideas and artists were later absorbed by WWE in the mainstream.
“The extreme in ECW represented the work ethic involved, the passion that was necessary and the extreme connection with an audience for whom we were always obsessed with under-promising and over-delivering,” Heyman said. “ECW’s legacy is firmly rooted in very simple concepts of paying attention to the cultural curve and obsessively trying to stay a few steps ahead of it.”
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