WWE veteran says he lost a lot of respect for Paul Heyman (Exclusive)

Paul Heyman lost the respect of former WWE writer Vince Russo following an alleged conversation with Vince McMahon in the 1990s.

Heyman's former promotion, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), often exchanged talent with McMahon's WWE. According to Russo, McMahon once asked if The Dudley Boyz wanted to join his company from ECW. Speaking on their behalf, Heyman said the legendary tag team were uninterested.

Russo worked as WWE's head writer in the late 1990s. On Sportskeeda Wrestling's Writing With Russo, he said Heyman behaved selfishly because he wanted The Dudley Boyz to remain in ECW:

"These guys would now have an opportunity to make 10 times the amount of money in the WWE, and he was trying to prevent that from happening so he could keep them," Russo said. "That really p****d me off because you're gonna keep these guys from making money that they never made before in the wrestling business because you wanna keep them at ECW? At that point in time, man, I really, really lost a lot of respect for Paul because it was very selfish." [3:26 – 4:05]

In the video above, Russo also discussed two ECW wrestlers that he wanted to join WWE.

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Vince Russo on Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon's agreement

Lower-to-mid-card WWE Superstars sometimes appeared in ECW if Vince McMahon could not find a spot for them on television. As part of the agreement, Paul Heyman occasionally sent ECW talent to work for WWE.

Vince Russo watched the ECW product and gave feedback to McMahon about possible future WWE stars:

"The understanding was if we had talent, like underneath talent that wasn't getting a lot of TV time and stuff like that, we would send them to ECW. In turn, when we wanted somebody, Paul E. [Heyman] would send them to the WWE. Vince McMahon couldn't name three people on the ECW roster, so I kept my eye on them and there were some acts that I really liked." [1:19 – 1:54]

More than two decades on, Heyman still plays a vital role on WWE programming as an on-screen character. The 57-year-old serves as special counsel to Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.

Do you think Paul Heyman was selfish? Or was he simply making a business decision? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Please credit Sportskeeda Wrestling's Writing With Russo and embed the video if you use quotes from this article.