Heyman & Goldman Talk About Anti-Semitism In WWE

This week former WWE creative team member Ranjan Chibbe wrote an article for SLAM! Sports detailing Paul Heyman's recent visit to the United Nations building in New York City for the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Heyman, who is Jewish, told Chibbe that anti-Semitism is sadly still a part of the pro wrestling industry.

Heyman recalled the first time he met Bill Watts, who will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this weekend in Houston. "I'd never met Watts before," Heyman recalled. "The first time I met him was when he became the head of WCW. We weren't two minutes into our conversation when he asked me where my beanie was [referring in an offensive way to a yarmulke]. He then started comparing me to a manager back in the day called Izzy Slapowitz." Heyman half-laughed, "I could see we were really going to get along just great!"

Heyman said that after television ratings came in for a WCW show he had appeared on, Watts was livid. "This was during the storyline with Maduca Miceli. Our segment was the highest rated segment of that program ... and Watts says — in front of a room full of people — how pissed off it makes him that a Jew and a c*nt drew the highest rating of the show. He felt it was the downfall of the wrestling business."

Scotty Goldman, who was recently released from WWE and is now back in Ring of Honor wrestling as Colt Cabana, was also quoted in the article. Cabana tells a story of a WWE trainer referred who to him as "Kike Cabana" while he was in the developmental system. "When I was in OVW, one of my WWE trainers called me 'Kike Cabana,' in front of everybody!," Cabana said. I looked at him like he was some kind of moron. It was one of the most ignorant things anyone could ever do. I'll never forget that."

He continues, "The WWE is part of corporate America, and for [one of their employees] to call me 'Kike Cabana' in front of everybody was one of the most anti-Semitic things I've ever experienced."

You can read the article over at Slam.Canoe.ca.