I have never written a review of any type on here, but after watching 'Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman' I couldn't help myself from getting as many wrestling fans as possible to watch this.
The documentary goes for a breath under 2 hours and will have any fan hooked from the start. I won't go in to it chapter by chapter, but this is an insight to someone who truly loves the sport and his passion for it lead his success. It's the backstage candid film that removes what people only see on TV. He is 'one of the boys'. There is a camaraderie that is a complete shock - Hugs, smiles...even warmth when he isn't performing. A good example is his relationship with interviewer Renee Young. Every time I have seen her interview him, he comes across as despising her to the point of disgust. But you are soon let in on the ruse. Beth Phoenix looks at him as an uncle, he gives the most credit to Jim Ross for teaching him how to be a 'performer'. To be honest , the only person that was gritting his teeth was Jerry Lawler.
This DVD taught me two major things. Firstly, Paul Heyman is so good at his character that it's only after you watch this you realize he is an artist at the illusion of his on screen persona. He is spoken highly of as a person, not just a talent. Most people seem to genuinely like him. Even when he is pi$$ing them off. Secondly he may be a 'mad scientist' or whatever, but he is full off down to earth wisdom and, what I call 'bastardized humility'(Watch and you will see what I mean).
I have watched about half an hour of the extra's which have been stories from the past and have been extremely (yeah yeah...) entertaining and am looking forward to the rest of DVD.
At the very end when he talks about his family, one can't help but get suckered in to liking him and having a lot of respect for what he does for others. I do believe this will be the catalyst for people to start mentioning him and the Hall of fame in the same sentence.
If I had one flaw to point out in my opinion, it would be that everything seemed subtly rushed up until the ECW years, where it stayed for a good portion of the middle of the doco. This is just me personally, but his years in ECW have been done to death and I found the earlier stuff more interesting. Still, I am complaining for the sake of it.
I doubt it will outsell the ECW DVD from 10 or so years ago, but I enjoyed this presentation more.
If you are a 'Paul Heyman guy' and always stop to listen to him on RAW or any WWE TV, and you DON'T see this then you're missing out on something truly special.
