WWE manager/executive Paul Heyman recently appeared on the Battlegrounds podcast to discuss all things pro-wrestling, including his argument for why ECW legends Sabu and Joey Styles should be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Highlights are below.
Talks ECW’s influence to the wrestling world:
“I don’t think it should limit them to just CZW and everybody else. I think you should incorporate the Monday Night Wars, and even modern-day WWE, and certainly AEW. Which seems to follow the ECW format on a WCW budget, which is what the owner said was going to be their concept over a year ago. I think the extreme influence on this industry is exactly what we were shooting for back in the 1990s and into the new millennium. We were the disruptors in the industry, we were what was needed for the industry to propel itself.”
Thinks Sabu and Joey Styles should be in the WWE Hall of Fame:
“I would say Sabu definitely belongs in the WWE Hall Of Fame. Because I think the concepts that Sabu was introducing, were 20 years ahead of its time. And I don’t just mean the breaking of the tables. I mean just the manner in which he performed in the ring was so far ahead of its time that he never got the credit he deserved.”
Why he thinks Joey Styles should be in the Hall of Fame as well:
“I would say Joey Styles was a very progressive announcer that no one understood just how valuable he was to the ECW brand. Because here you had these criminals, and these gangsters and these barroom brawlers and these misfits. Yet you also had these supreme, elite, exquisite technicians. Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio, Psychosis, Juventud Guerrera, that came over from Japan or Mexico. We scoured the world for the greatest talent. And no American announcer had ever called the moves for what they were, Joey Styles did. Joey Styles ushered out the era of, ‘wow that looked great, here’s a replay,’ and started calling the moves by the names that were associated with the moves. And he was completely different than any other announcer because he did his job solo for so many years. So I would say Joey Styles, absolutely.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)