Shane Douglas Calls Paul Heyman 'Too Lax Of A Booker' In ECW Days

Shane Douglas was "The Franchise" of ECW in the 90s — both literally and figuratively — and in the first episode of his podcast "Franchise University," Douglas answered a question posed to him about the amount of blood in the rebel promotion. The former ECW World Champion said that excess was seemingly the name of the game at the time.

"The first time Sabu broke a table — and it elicited the response it did — all of the sudden everybody and their brother was breaking a table in a match," Douglas explained. "Same thing with chairs. Mine of course was the F-bomb; suddenly everyone's F-bombing all over the microphone ... and that's where I think Paul [Heyman] was lax as a booker." Douglas explained that only a promoter like Paul Heyman, or Tod Gordon in the early days, had the power to tell wrestlers to tone it down, something Heyman would not often do. 

"I think Paul was a bit too lax as a booker," Douglas continued, noting that in other promotions he felt confined by limitations. In ECW wrestlers had carte blanche to do what they wanted — for better and for worse. "In the everyday minute-to-minute management, somebody has to be the boss and those are the types of things where ECW found a bit of its Achilles' heel."

Douglas went on to explain that Heyman did need to rein people in as UFC began to rise to prominence, as the real fighting promotion led to some, like the late Arizona Senator John McCain, to believe ECW was real as well. And that was a perspective from which Heyman wanted to dissuade the public.