Paul Heyman
Paul Heyman was born on September 11, 1965, in Westchester County, New York, the son of Sulamita ("née" Szarf; 1928–2009) and Richard S. Heyman (1926–2013), a prominent personal injury attorney and World War II veteran. He is of Jewish descent; his mother was a Holocaust survivor who suffered through experiences in Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and the Łódź Ghetto. By age 11, he was running a mail order business selling celebrity and sports memorabilia from his home. While still a teenager, he fast-talked his way backstage at a World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) event at Madison Square Garden as a photojournalist. He was paid by the company for several of his photographs. He graduated from Edgemont High School. He attended SUNY Purchase and worked on-air as an opinionated, controversial host at SUNY's radio station and the WARY-FM New York radio station for Westchester Community College; in 1985, at the age of 19, he became a photographer, then a producer and promoter for the New York City nightclub Studio 54.
Paul Heyman
At this time, Eddie Gilbert was a booker for a Philadelphia-based promotion, National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s Eastern Championship Wrestling, which he did under the ownership of a local pawn shop owner named Tod Gordon. Heyman came in to help Gilbert teach the younger wrestlers how to perform on interviews, but Gilbert's erratic behavior became too much for Gordon, who had a major falling out with Gilbert right before the "Ultra Clash" event on September 18, 1993. From that point forward, Heyman was in charge of the creative direction of the company. As Paul E. Dangerously, he managed a few wrestlers, including Sabu and 911.