Bill Apter: Why I admit to being "A Paul Heyman Guy!"

I have known Paul Heyman since he was a teenager. There is quite a bit of history between us and it's always been highly interesting!

Originally, I had written this column several years ago for a wrestling magazine I was working for. As I do at times during the year, I look back at my magazine days and wonder if a lot of fans never saw a particular column. I was very happy about the one I bring you now (it's the original copy -- unedited).

Please enjoy reading the reasons why I have always been a Paul Heyman Guy!

Paul Heyman was a totally unassuming, smiling, energetic kid with a full head of curly black hair back in the early seventies. He was a rabid wrestling fan and endeared himself to three of WWWF's iconic managers -- The Grand Wizard, "Classy" Freddie Blassie and "Captain" Lou Albano.

My first interaction with Paul Heyman was at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York. The three managers were having Paul run out for coffee and snacks a few hours before a show. In return, they would stand and pose for him in order to get photos for his self-published wrestling newsletter.

I was also there shooting photos for The Wrestler and Inside Wrestling magazines. Wizard, real name Ernie Roth, introduced me to him and told him I would be the key to getting his photos into the wrestling periodicals. He had a contagious personality one couldn't resist -- just a great kid looking to get ahead in the wrestling business.

While photographing the matches that same night, he stayed close to my side. He wasn't intimidated, but it was a good way to get us to know each other better between shots. I recall writing down my contact information to him and an address where he could send me photos for possible use in the magazines. He was very grateful I told him that anyone recommended by Ernie, who was a dear friend not only to me but to my mentor Stanley Weston as well, was immediately trusted by me.

At the end of the night, as the wrestlers left through a side-entrance, he stopped to pose me with several of them. When those photos arrived a week later, they were accompanied by a really nice, polite, typewritten letter thanking me and a copy of his bulletin -- Wrestling Times.

Over the next few years, Paul Heyman sold photos to WWWF, to our magazines and other periodicals. He was giving photos to wrestlers that posed for him and becoming a recognizable figure even at Madison Square Garden. Not only was he taking photos backstage, but now he was rubbing elbows -- literally -- with me, photographers George Napolitano, Frank Amato -- the regulars.

On the DVD the WWE put out, and it's on the WWE Network, I said Paul Heyman was a "pain in the butt at ringside" but I didn't mean it in a negative way. What I meant was that he was sometimes so overly aggressive at ringside, he would elbow us out of the way to get the perfect photo.

Wrestling photography as you know phased out for him but his love of the business kept developing. He matured through mentors like Dusty Rhodes and other icons. I saw a change in him, a very positive one. We spoke in many dressing rooms and after-match restaurants throughout the years. He wasn't that "kid" any longer but a wrestling businessman. I was so impressed.

From his days as a manager and the name change to Paul E. Dangerously, we maintained contact. When he took over the reins of ECW, he reached a pinnacle I could never forsee. He has currently taken everything he learned from the photography days to ECW in order to become one of the regular, most iconic faces in all facets of WWE.

When I see him a few times a year, we hug warmly and talk about our families and always make time to chat about the "good old days."

It's hard to sum up everything I have seen throughout the years in this column, but rest assured that Bill Apter is HIS advocate!

Acknowlege him.