Heyman stepped into a performing role in 1986 as Paul E. Dangerously, managing Austin Idol and Tommy Rich in the American Wrestling Association and feuded with the legendary Jerry "The King" Lawler. Dangerously began managing several tag teams including the original Midnight Express in the AWA and NWA and the Samoan Swat Team in the NWA, feuding with Jim Cornette's Midnight Express team of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane which lead to a Tuxedo Match between Cornette and Dangerously which Cornette, as the fan favourite, won. Dangerously began working as a broadcaster on World Championship Wrestling broadcasts and, in storyline terms, was banned from the role, sending him back into full time managing. At WCW Halloween Havoc 1991, Dangerously debuted the WCW Halloween Phantom, who turned out to be Ravishing Rick Rude, and also joined forces with Madusa Miceli, thus establishing the awesome Dangerous Alliance stable that would include Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyszko and others. Dangerously would end up losing his stable and feuded with Madusa, leading to Dangerously's exit from WCW.

    Dangerously bounced around the independents and rumours persisted that he would debut for the World Wrestling Federation, though this never came to pass. He finally took a job working for a little indy organization in Philladelphia known as Eastern Championship Wrestling and soon replaced Eddie Gilbert as the organizations head booker while also appearing as a manager. In 1996, Paul purchased ECW from Todd Gordon and took it to new heights. ECW's top draw was Shane Douglas at the time and the National Wrestling Alliance decided to give Douglas a run as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion. In a history making moment, Douglas threw down the NWA World Title and officially began the era of EXTREME with ECW becoming Extreme Championship Wrestling. On camera, Dangerously worked with Sabu, 911, Taz, and other ECW headliners and in 1996 he made a history making talent exchange agreement with the World Wrestling Federation, bringing ECW superstars to WWF events, first in the crowd and then in the ring. Jerry Lawler began working ECW dates as well including the ECW's first pay-per-view, Barely Legal, in April of 1997.

    In the summer of 1999, Heyman brought ECW to national syndication for the very first time on TNN. The show was mildly successful but served to elevate ECW talents more than ECW as a whole and many quickly jumped ship to the WCW and WWF, including the sitting ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mike Awesome who would drop the title to WWF superstar, and former ECW talent, Taz on ECW television. ECW was noticeably on life support with the bulk of its talent jumping ship for job security and in 2001, ECW officially closed and was purchased by Vince McMahon, who only really wanted the ECW name, trademarks and video library.

    In March of 2001, Jerry Lawler's exit from the WWF left an opening on RAW and Smackdown broadcasts and Vince McMahon signed Paul Heyman to take the job alongside Jim Ross and allowed Paul Heyman to appear on his very first Wrestlemania as well. In the summer of 2001, with WCW recently dead, Heyman returned to his roots, leading the ECW faction in the WCW/ECW invasion storyline. Heyman quickly joined forces with Shane and Stephanie McMahon and put together a huge stable including the Dudley Boys, Rob VanDam, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, and Tazz from ECW fame as well as Booker T, Kanyon, Billy Kidman, Dallas Page, and a host of others from WCW. The group, collectively called the Alliance, began feuding with WWF talents, culminating in a winner take all match at Survivor Series 2001 which was won by Team WWF. Paul Heyman was re-hired one night later by Vince McMahon but was quickly fired in favour of the returning Jerry "The King" Lawler. It was just a storyline, though, and Heyman began working behind the scenes as a booker for the WWF.

    In March of 2002, Paul Heyman returned to WWF programming alongside the man he called "The Next Big Thing", Brock Lesnar. Lesnar and Heyman quickly became the biggest attraction in the World Wrestling Federation. Lesnar won the 2002 King of the Ring tournament, last beating Rob VanDam, and then at Summer Slam 2002 defeated the Rock to become the new Undisputed WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Lesnar was a fan favourite heel and soon the WWE saw the need to make the transformation official as Paul Heyman screwed Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series 2002, helping the Big Show become WWE Champion. Shortly thereafter, Heyman also double-crossed the Big Show to take on Kurt Angle, leading up to the Wrestlemania match between Lesnar and Angle. Heyman left WWF television just before Wrestlemania after being beaten in a Steel Cage match against Lesnar and stayed off WWE programming for several months.

    Heyman returned in October of 2003 as the new General Manager for Smackdown, which was interesting because Eric Bischoff was also General Manager of RAW allowing for some interesting photo ops during WWF pay per views and other special events with Heyman, Bischoff and McMahon all together after years of competition when the three were leading ECW, WCW and the WWF respectively. Heyman reunited with a heel Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Nathan Jones and Matt Morgan to feud with John Cena, Chris Benoit, Edge, Rhyno, and other Smackdown fan favourites. Heyman's tenure as General Manager ended in March of 2004 when he was drafted to RAW and promptly quit. He would return in April to help Kurt Angle in his feud with Big Show and then also the Dudleys in their feud with Rob VanDam and Eddie Guerrero. In a strange turn of events, Heyman united the Dudleys with the Undertaker and was party to the Undertaker's on-air burial of Paul Bearer inside a concrete crpyt. Heyman took the role as the Undertaker's manager of sorts but the union went sour, forcing Heyman to bring in John Heidenreich to feud with the Undertaker. Heyman's last appearance with Heidenreich saw him being locked in a casket by the Undertaker.

    Paul Heyman continued to work behind the scenes for the WWE and, with the support of Rob VanDam, was given the go ahead to put on a special ECW reunion pay per view called One Night Stand. The show was a rousing success and was built up by having Heyman feud with RAW GM Eric Bischoff and other WWE talents. The show went live on pay-per-view on June 12, 2005 from the old ECW Arena with Heyman delivering an emotional promo in the ring before shooting on the invading WWE wrestlers. The success of the show resulted in Heyman being assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling as the creative director. He didn't last long with OVW, despite great success there, due to a souring working relationship with Stephanie McMahon. Heyman did make a comeback to help the WWE re-launch ECW and was the head booker for the ECW program, though backstage politics and Heyman's rocky relationship with the McMahons ended his run there as well and in December of 2006, Heyman made his final appearance on ECW programming after the failure of the first ECW pay per view of the new era which did not include very many ECW alumni.

    Paul Heyman is currently working on a reality television show and is writing screen plays, though many wrestling fans are still hoping to see Heyman get involved in the sport of kings once more. Paul Heyman not only deserves this honour for his work as an on air talent, but because he was instrumental in bringing the Extreme wrestling revolution to North America. On a shoe-string budget, Heyman took a rag-tag group of independent wrestlers and brought it into competition with the WWF and WCW in a time when competition in wrestling was fierce. Paul Heyman deserves all the credit in the world for his work in professional wrestling and we recognize him here. Congratulations, Paul, you earned it!