Paul Heyman wanted to sign 11-time WWE Tag-Team Champion but Vince McMahon had already signed him

AEW star Matt Hardy talked about Paul Heyman wanting to book him and his brother Jeff Hardy on ECW, but they had already joined WWE.

He had a Hall of Fame worthy run in WWE, both alongside his brother Jeff Hardy as well as a singles star. Hardy has held Tag-Team gold in WWE eleven times as well as the US title, European Championship and others.

On the latest episode of his podcast, The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the wrestling legend was asked about when he first met Paul Heyman. Matt Hardy revealed that he only met Heyman in person after ECW shut down and the latter came to work for WWE.

Hardy also had an interesting tidbit about Heyman wanting to book him and his brother Jeff Hardy on ECW, but the duo had already signed their WWE developmental deals by then. Hardy said:

The first time I officially remember meeting Paul Heyman was after he came to work in WWE, after ECW shut down. So we didn't meet him before, although he was familiar with us because apparently Hack [Meyers] or Sandman did show him those tapes and he was into it. There was a point where we were still... his international tour didn't work out, that Sandman was doing and there was a point where he was talking about booking us at ECW but by the time he officially got around and he got permission to get us to be booked and be at ECW, we'd already signed a development deal with WWE. [25:28 to 26:10]

Matt Hardy praised WWE's Paul Heyman as the 'ultimate motivator'

Matt Hardy was also asked about his own personal thoughts on Paul Heyman. Hardy immediately praised Heyman as the 'ultimate motivator' before going on to praise how savvy a booker he was back in ECW, getting acts like 911 and the Sandman over with the fans:

Paul Heyman is the ultimate motivator. That's how I'd describe him and you can see why he got his guys to do what they did, you know and he was really good at highlighting people's strengths like... to get an act like 911 over as much as he got 911 over, literally come and chokeslam people. He got Sandman over. Obviously he wasn't the greatest athlete or the greatest worker in the world but he understood how make this entrance work and milk it for all it was worth. He was able to get acts over. to [26:30 to 27:10]

As @WWERomanReigns celebrates two years as champion, look back at every title defense since The Tribal Chief won the Universal Championship.

👉 youtu.be/_EkZqA0GMj0 https://t.co/YGOd16vdm7

Paul Heyman is currently off WWE television after Brock Lesnar took him out with a F5 at SummerSlam. Heyman has been present backstage at SmackDown and other events, but WWE are reportedly waiting for the right moment to bring him back so it can have the biggest impact.

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