5 days ago
'Spiritually orgasmic': How Paul Heyman invaded Studio 54 with pro-wrestling at just 19 years old
Paul Heyman is the definition of a wrestling visionary. The 59-year-old pro-wrestling lifer has found success uncovering the next idea rather than iterating on the last idea, leading him to — among other things — launch the beloved ECW promotion in the 1990s, and become the catalyst behind the Bloodline gimmick which revived WWE's business in the 2020s. Yet that ability to see the angles and advance forward began at the very start of his career, his first-ever event: Wrestle Party 1985, held at New York's legendary nightclub Studio 54.
Yes, at 19 years old, still too young to drink, Heyman found himself booking Studio 54.
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Heyman started his career as a magazine photographer and used that access — and a Pro Wrestling USA show counter-programmed against WrestleMania — as a chance to open a door.
'There was a charity event taking place at Studio 54," Heyman told Uncrowned. "And I happened to know the press agent for the event, and I called them and said, 'Listen, I have these wrestling stars off of national television. If you let me come to this event with my camera, I'll bring some of the wrestlers with me. I'll take a bunch of pictures, and I'll guarantee you at least one magazine cover, if not three,' because I was in control of three wrestling magazines that were distributed internationally on the newsstand.
"So I got in the Studio 54 that night with a bunch of the Pro Wrestling USA stars, and I was at the main bar talking to a very famous nightclub impresario named Worsham Rudd, who had been in the New York City nightclub business for decades. He was the director at Studio 54. So while this was happening, the head photographer was drunk off his ass and started throwing vodka bottles at some of the bartenders, one of whom, by the way, was Christopher Meloni, who ends up becoming this tremendous television star for many, many years. And security tackles the head photographer and throws them out the front door.'
Heyman used that melee to find an opening.
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'Where there's chaos, there's opportunity," he said. "And I turned to Worsham Rudd and said, 'Well, isn't that your house photographer?' And Rudd says, 'Well, he was.' And I said, 'Well, then you're in need of a new house photographer,' to which Rudd replied, 'Well, I am.' And I offered my services — and was hired on the spot, started the next night.
'So as this is happening, and now I'm the house photographer at Studio 54, I started getting [newspaper] placement for some of the celebrities who were coming in [the club] — the New York Post, and the Daily News, and Newsday, and the Village Voice, because I would give the pictures to all the New York newspapers instead of trying to peddle them and get paid for them.
'I got a job as not only the house photographer, but as an in-house publicist. And from that position, an opportunity opened up when there was a raid on so much of the power players at Studio by Steve Cohn, who was opening up the Palladium on 14th Street. And because of that, Friday nights became wide open, and I stepped in to promote and produce Friday Nights at Studio 54, all when I'm 19 years old.'
Though still too young to even legally enter a nightclub, Heyman suddenly found himself as one of the most powerful people in the New York nightlife industry.
'So one of the first things that I did was I called the WWF, and I asked for Hulk Hogan and/or Roddy Piper, but they were on the west coast," he recalled. "And so I ended up calling Jim Crockett Promotions and I got Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, and Magnum TA … they were going to be in Philadelphia that night, and Crockett arranged for a private jet when the show was over for Flair and Dusty and Magnum to fly to New York to get all this publicity.
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"Since I was doing that, I figured I'd also promote a match. And we presented Bam Bam Bigelow's pro-wrestling debut on the very same night'
Heyman's connection with Bigelow and the collapse of the New York City nightclub scene soon led to his next act. 'Studio 54 was caught in the insurance crunch in New York City and closed down," he said. "Bam Bam Bigelow nagged me into debuting as a manager to just try it for no other reason, but because if I could get in as a performer and establish myself as a top act, from there, I could use that platform to start giving people instructions from behind the scenes.
'So it's the old adage of an actor saying, 'But what I really want to do is direct.' I really wanted to write and direct and produce, and realized I had to perform to get the credibility in order to the other things that I'd always dreamed of.'
Heyman was such a hit as a manager that he quickly found himself in a huge money program at age 20 in the Memphis, Tennessee territory, managing Tommy Rich and Austin Idol for their legendary feud with Jerry Lawler. Bigelow rode in to team with Lawler and suggested his friend Heyman.
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It was a feud which climaxed with a hair vs. hair match between Lawler and Idol, where Heyman — aka Paul E. Dangerously — promised to refund the fans their money if Lawler beat his client. The match saw Idol, Rich and Dangerously shave Lawler's head, after Rich came out from under the ring to interfere.
'I don't know, even to this day, if the anger in the crowd was because they weren't going to get their money back, or because we had hidden Tommy Rich under the ring and blatantly screwed Jerry Lawler, the long long-time local hero, in a hair match in which his head was going to get shaved, which at the time was the ultimate insult that you could do to a professional wrestler,' Heyman said.
'What was it like? Exhilarating. 100% out of control, spiritually orgasmic exhilaration, because at 21 years old, and only a few months into performing, I knew I was part of a truly historic moment that was about to put me on the map, and I'm not even six months into the business.
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"There are people that go through the indies and the territories for 10 years before they get a break. And here I am in a history-making storyline in a moment in the Mid-South Coliseum that was absolutely going to live on for decades to come, and a genuine headline-grabbing event that I'm right in the middle of. So there are people who wait forever for their break — and here I was, smack dab in the middle of it, months into my debut.'
That feud launched Heyman, who seemingly overnight found himself on ESPN managing AWA's champions The Original Midnight Express and onto Crockett television, all before his 21st birthday.
Chaos creates opportunity, after all. And no one in wrestling has ever captured that opportunity better.
