Paul Heyman has been named as the first inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2024 and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has some thoughts.
The former Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) boss will be honoured over WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, which is fitting given that the hardcore promotion called the City of Brotherly Love its home in the 1990s.
Heyman will take his rightful place in the annals of history at the Hall of Fame ceremony on April 5 at the Wells Fargo Center.
Responding to the news on Instagram; Dwayne Johnson himself wrote: ‘Beautful [sic]. Iconic career. Way overdue.’
Heyman told AP: ‘I consistently feel like I’m just getting started, and I’m just figuring this out. To me, what is an incomplete body of work, because there’s still things I want to accomplish, I never felt comfortable accepting that is a reflection upon an entire career.’
‘The legacy of ECW is firmly rooted in the very simple concepts of paying attention to the cultural curve and obsessively trying to stay a few steps ahead of it.’
First getting his start in the business posing as a photographer to get backstage, Heyman would rise to fame as Paul E. Dangerously in WCW, where he led the Dangerous Alliance.
After getting released in 1993, he went onto take over ECW and turn the upstart promotion into an iconic company which changed the face of history forever.
Fans are delighted to see Heyman revealed as an inductee, with one X user writing: ‘Paul Heyman is headed to the WWE Hall of Fame, the GREATEST wrestling manager in HISTORY. Great to see Paul Heyman get his flowers while he can still smell them.’
‘Paul Heyman getting the nod for the WWE hall of fame in Philly feels very fitting,’ added a second fan, while someone else tweeted: ‘Absolutely well deserved for one of gifted talkers on the mic. Paul Heyman!’
And yet another fan wrote: ‘This is absolutely well deserved for Heyman. To be inducted on the weekend WrestleMania is in Philly was the most obvious fit. Without question one of the greatest managers of all time.’