Paul Heyman Explains Why He ‘Violated’ His Contract With WCW To Sneak The Undertaker Into A Meeting With Vince McMahon

Paul Heyman talks about betraying WCW to get The Undertaker signed by WWE.

The Undertaker signed with WWE in October 1990, after finishing his one-year stint with WCW. Over the next few years, he would become one of wrestling’s biggest supernatural gimmicks of all time.

Speaking on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Heyman recalled his initial meeting with Undertaker in WCW.

“I met Mark in May 1990, when I went back to WCW after being fired by WCW. The person that I was paired with was Mark Calloway. The person who was in charge of the creative of WCW was an old-timer who used to own the Georgia territory when it was run on Ted Turner Superstation, TBS, named Ole Anderson, who was a notorious asshole and had fallen several years behind the times, and called Mark Calloway just some big red-headed stepchild son of a bitch that’s never going to draw any money. I could not have disagreed with him any more.”

Heyman said that he snuck Undertaker to a meeting with Vince McMahon when the latter’s contract with WWE came up in September 1990. Heyman said that he “violated” his WCW contract to do this.

“Ole didn’t believe in Mark to the point where, when Mark’s contract came up in September 1990 and they tried to lowball him, there was someone in WCW that violated their contract with Turner Broadcasting and WCW and snuck Mark into a meeting through a mutual friend, or a friend that I had in WWE that snuck him into the meeting with Vince McMahon. That meeting led to Mark being signed by WWE and becoming The Undertaker. Because he was snuck through a conduit into a meeting with Vince McMahon while he was wrapping up his WCW contract. It was a WCW person that betrayed the company to do that.”

When asked what he thought of this at that time, Heyman said, “I thought it was great because I was that person.”

Heyman then explained why he did this:

“Because WCW did not see any talent in him and I saw an enormous talent that was about to be wasted. It would have been squandering one of the greatest talents in the history of this business, let alone of that era.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Heyman said if it wasn’t for diverticulitis, Brock Lesnar would be undefeated in the UFC. You can read more about it here.

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