Diego Serrano · CC BY 2.0

Paul Heyman bought the struggling Philadelphia promotion Eastern Championship Wrestling in 1995 and rebuilt it as Extreme Championship Wrestling, an aggressive, reality-inflected style that reshaped how major wrestling companies present their product. After ECW folded, he became WWE's most consistent on-screen manager, guiding Brock Lesnar's career for years and later CM Punk and Roman Reigns, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2024.