June 12, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Paul Heyman meets with ECW talent, PRIDE 9 results, more
Paul Heyman, who hadn’t appeared at an ECW event since the Hardcore Heaven PPV, surprisingly, after missing the TV taping on 6/2 in New Orleans, flew to Pensacola, FL for the house show for a lengthy ECW team meeting.
The one hour long meeting was largely a pep talk, since most of the wrestlers hadn’t even spoken to Heyman in a month, and with smaller crowds, slightly declining ratings and late checks, morale had hit a new low.
Heyman went through a story about where he saw the wrestling business in the U.S. headed. The theory he had was that WWF and USA Network would settle their lawsuit before going to trial because both have so much dirt on the other that would come out in court that both sides stock prices would drop and suffer public embarrassment. At that point he figured USA Network would get a strong settlement and WWF would go to CBS Viacom, moving Raw to TNN on Monday nights. He talked about the chance that ECW would get on USA Network or possibly FOX.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.