As noted over the weekend, CW Anderson recently appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast and was critical of his former ECW boss Paul Heyman. For quotes from Anderson during that interview click here.
Heyman then responded to Anderson’s remarks on Twitter, clarifying when and where the movie remake “Rollerball” was filmed, and at one point labeling Anderson a “lower level stooge”. To read Heyman’s entire comments on Twitter click here.
CW Anderson has posted a new blog on Facebook responding to Heyman, and you can read it below:
Recently I did an interview that didn’t set to well with my former boss Paul Heyman. He went on a rant and said some pretty nasty things about me and my time at ECW. If you haven’t read go to @HeymanHustle and check em out. Instead of firing back immediately I took a day. Here is my response to his rant
So, it seems I have made my former boss mad enough that he went on a social media rant about what I stated in a recent interview. At the same time, many of you (who obviously have no true idea about the situation, but find humor in Paul Heyman “shooting on me”) decided to comment. So, I am going to address this once and for all and then go back to my life.
If anyone out there, Paul included, have ever heard any of my audio or video interviews over the years and there’s been a lot of them, I have basically said the same thing about Paul, the company and my stories about that time period in every interview since ECW closed. For some reason, this past weekend, that particular interview seems to have pissed Paul off, for reasons I can’t explain nor try to.
I have never spoken hateful or spoken disrespectfully about Paul in any interview I have ever done over the years. I have done nothing but put him over for giving me my job and taking a chance on me when WCW told me I didn’t have what it took to become a superstar in this business. I have always also included Tommy Dreamer in my praise because it was just as much his decision to give me my push and give me the rub that “made me” towards the end of ECW. I challenge anyone reading this and that includes Paul, to go back, listen to any interviews where I spoke about Paul and see if my story has ever changed in how I’ve described Paul, because it won’t.
My guess is no one will bother because it’s not something that’s gives you that “shock moment” and I want to make it clear that after this is posted, don’t go expecting a Twitter war between myself and Paul. I’ll leave that silliness to young kids with nothing to do and I want to make it clear, that’s not why I’m writing this and after it’s posted, I am done.
Let’s make this crystal clear – even after the things he said this weekend, I still respect Paul and I could never repay him enough for giving me a chance to prove to everyone that I belonged at ECW. After the interview clips were making the rounds, someone advised me that I should have just said thank you and left it at that. I did! I have done that in every interview ever, but when I do these interviews, I get asked questions that you fans want answered. I am not the one bringing up the topics but if someone asks me about that time period, what else am I supposed to do? Lie?
I answer any question I am given to the best of what I know to be the truth and what I personally witnessed and was told the time I was there in ECW. Everyone else who was actually there was told and saw these exact same things. I will get to a few points from Paul’s rant but before you go off believing Paul on his version or even me on mine, if you really care this much, seek out and ask others from that time period of ECW and see which version – Paul or mine – is closer to the version they tell. It’s been 16 years since the last PPV and it doesn’t matter, because nothing will change the past. The reality is I have been nothing but loyal and respectful my entire career and it still has not changed.
So, let’s address Paul’s points.
1 – Regarding me making $75 a night “on paper”, that’s what I made, PERIOD. At no point, was I ever under a signed contract at ECW. It was always a nightly basis. In the beginning, we had events four nights a week and most of the time during that period, I only wrestled one of those 4 nights. For those of you with math degrees, that meant I was paid for one date and the other three, I was present, I traveled, I was backstage and I was paid zero. I’m not explaining this to bitch, but to explain hat happened. I was driving by myself from North Carolina every week, whether it was to Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, Chicago, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Ohio, Georgia, Alabama or anywhere else ECW ran. Google those distances and remember, I was doing this alone and being paid $75, but only if I wrestled. Road expenses, including hotel expenses were out of my pocket. Out of the goodness of the ring crew’s heart I crashed on their floor perhaps one time. One night I was able to stay with a group in a hotel and they let me sleep on the floor, where used my clothes for a pillow, had no blanket and still got charged my percentage for the room. That was what I was doing because I wanted to be loyal to ECW. It wasn’t until I met with Paul in Boston that he bumped me up to $200 a night, but I was still driving and putting all that mileage and time in and if I wasn’t working a show, it was still zero at the end of the day. Eight months into my tenure with ECW, I started to be flown to shows, but at the end of the day, the money for me wasn’t glamorous like some of you out there might assume.
Let’s also not forget that there were still weeks where we weren’t getting paid because of financial issues the company was enduring, so whether my pay per night was the $75 I started with or the $200 Paul bumped me up to, it really didn’t matter, especially if we weren’t getting paid for weeks at a time. I can offer to pay you $5 million and if the money isn’t being paid, it’s still zero. None of this is news to anyone. It’s not anything that wasn’t reported before. There’s a reason talents were owed money when the company went bankrupt, but again, I was loyal and so was the rest of that locker room. No one wanted to see ECW close and we all made sacrifices, because we believed in Paul. I was loyal enough that I signed paperwork stating I would not expect royalties from the Acclaim video games that ECW had or else I wouldn’t be included in the games. So what did I do? I signed the bottom line because I wanted to be in the game and I was loyal to the company. Guess what? I wasn’t alone in doing that, because most, if not all of us, were loyal to Paul and ECW.
2 – Paul closed his rant by referring to me as a “low level stooge to Tommy Dreamer.” Really? What exactly was I stooging to him about? What did I have to tell? That’s the one thing I would so like to know. I was the guy in the locker room who at that point in my life, was too scared to death to say anything for fear of losing the position I was trying to earn, so what did I do? I sat in the corner and kept my mouth shut until months went by. In my entire career, it’s amazing but this is the 1st time I’ve ever been remotely called a stooge. So if that’s what Paul thought of me, why was it after my match with Dreamer at The Massacre on 34th Street PPV did he beg me not to leave him and go to WCW based on a baseless rumor he had heard? That night, my response was, “Paul you gave me my job. I am loyal to you and am happy being here at ECW. I will never leave you.” I fought with Paul and others in the streets of California at the Heatwave 2000 PPV because an indy promotion tried to disrupt our PPV. That night, Heyman pulled me to the side before the show and told me that no matter what, to get myself over in that match, because it was my time. I was loyal to Paul, just like everyone else in that locker room was. We would have gone to war with anyone and followed Paul into hell if you’d ask. Some might say we did. That’s how much we believed in you, Paul Heyman, and ECW. I laugh at the idea that Paul cared enough to pull some “low level stooge” aside at a WWE/ECW show in South Carolina to tell me you were going to start pushing me again. Of course, I also remember that night you sat the entire locker room down in New Orleans and called me the best “heel” in professional wrestling. Those are a lot of things to do and say about a “low level stooge.”
3 – Regarding my comment about Paul off filming Rollerball instead of actually trying to save us, do you, Paul, or anyone else think I am the first person to state this? Does Paul think I started the rumor? I don’t know and I don’t care but it’s been said publicly and privately since ECW closed and it came from people far more important than I ever was in the ECW locker-room. It’s something that was put out there by others. I certainly wasn’t the only who heard it or has repeated it in interviews but yet Paul chose to wait 16 years to respond to something. It was something said by myself and many others, in many interviews, when asked about that situation. So why comment now? Whether it’s true or not, it’s what we were told, just like we were told by Paul that he was out trying to save ECW. At the end of the day, Paul, it was your company and your choice to close it if you chose to. But, in the end, you let us down with all your actions and non-communication with us regarding what we were hearing about ECW folding.
To everyone else reading this, want know how we found out ECW was closing and was no more? Did Paul Heyman call his employees or show up to the final Alabama loop (the last time we were all together) to inform us that ECW was to be no more? No. Instead, we saw Paul show up on Raw as a commentator and the world as we knew it at that point fell apart. After that, did we get a phone call? No, we received a bankruptcy letter in the mail.
That went to show in the end what you, Paul Heyman, really thought of all us in that locker room. Even after all that, the money I lost, that was rightfully owed to me and others, I still never, ever ran you down. I simply was honest about the situation when someone asked me about it recently.
You, however, were the one who used your far larger platform on social media and decided to resort to name calling, trying to run my name and reputation down to people who really don’t know what went on, and will go on just what you are saying because you are “Paul Heyman.” I suppose that what I said must have been somewhat accurate in order to warrant this kind of response from you, right?
Let’s make this clear in black and white for the entire world to see: Thank you Paul, for giving me my chance at ECW and letting me shine. Because of you and Tommy, I am still wrestling and doing what I love. I am an ECW Original – and nothing anyone says can take that badge of honor from me, because I earned it, like so many others did. What we didn’t earn was the way you treated us in 2001 and nothing you or anyone else says takes that away from you or excuses your behavior in that time period. Nothing.
At the end of the day, ECW is long gone, and despite the picture Paul painted of me, I have been long at peace with that. My life is a wonderful, happy one. Anyone who cares to know me already knows that.
What is truly sad in this situation is to know exactly what Paul, really thought of me after all these years, after how hard I worked for him, but that’s life.
Now, I’ve said my piece. This matter is over.
Chris Wright pka CW Anderson.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
