Last night Paul Heyman was interviewed by Stone Cold Steve Austin on a Live Stone Cold Podcast aired after RAW on the WWE Network. Here are 6 takeaways from the interview.
1. Stone Cold Was Always A Paul Heyman Guy
Steve asks when they first met and Heyman says it was at Center Stage in WCW. Heyman says he was struck by this long-haired blonde. Heyman does a hilarious Jim Ross impression as Ross put him over to Heyman instantly. Heyman talks about Steve hitting the ropes and him never seeing anyone hit them as hard as Steve did. Heyman said they knew they scored something special when they signed him to WCW and introduced himself to Steve as “Paul E. Dangerously”. Within five weeks, Steve was put in the Dangerous Alliance at Paul’s request.
Heyman also had a big influence on Stone Cold in ECW. After Austin was fired from WCW, Heyman took Austin in ECW and let him be himself and learn to cut money promos. What we saw in ECW was the genesis of the Stone Cold gimmick.
2. Brock Enjoys Wrestling
Steve asks if Brock was really going to come back to the UFC. Heyman says that he opened a mini-training camp in January preparing to not strike the right deal with WWE. If the deal wasn’t made, he would go right into UFC ASAP. Brock didn’t care who he fought, he just wanted a fight. Heyman says Brock has had a lot of fun in WWE during this run. Ending the streak and destroying Cena over the past year gave Brock something he didn’t have in a prior run.
Heyman says that for the first time, Brock has really enjoyed being in WWE. Steve says that the limited date deal makes people question his passion, but he knows he loves the business. Heyman says he loves the business, but his kids need a father more than WWE needs Brock Lesnar. Heyman talks about every Brock appearance being special now and how his matches are now can’t miss. Heyman says that the greatest night of the year is Christmas Eve, and it’s only because how unique the day is – you couldn’t do it 365 times a year. When you say Brock is appearing, “DON’T YA DARE MISS IT, BE THERE!”
Thank the Lord that Lesnar chose WWE over UFC. If Lesnar didn’t re-sign with WWE it probably would have ruined the ending of Wrestlemania 31. More than likely there would have been no cash in. Romans Reigns would have probably walked out with the WWE title which would have left a sour taste in several fans’ mouth.
3. Future of “Paul Heyman Guys”
Steve says that Heyman’s wanted more as well, and asks if he’d take on more clients. Well, they’ve already done that several times. Heyman says it’s interesting because they have such a defined relationship on TV that mirrors their real-life relationship. Putting him with anyone else makes it “Brock Lesnar’s guy is with this guy”. He says the Punk role works and he played a different character with Punk than he did with Brock. They were like Morris Day and Jerome.
I would love Heyman to advocate for more wrestlers, but like he stated it doesn’t work for everybody. That was made clear when Heyman was paired with Curtis Axel, Ryback, and Cesaro.
4. Heyman Hustled From The Beginning
Steve says Heyman hustled Vince Sr. and we see a photo of him that Heyman himself took which earned him his 1st 50 dollars. Heyman says that he found out where Vince would take the inner circle to dinner and we see a photo of Vince Sr. and Andre that he took. We hear about Heyman lying to get his press pass and snapping photos from below, making Andre looks huge.
The next month, he had an 8×10 printed of it and made a beeline to give it to Vince Sr. as soon as he could before Security got him. They shoved him against the wall and he told them he had a press pass and he talked to Howard Finkel and gave Vince the rights to the photo and Finkel gives him $50.
5. The McMahon-Heyman Relationship
Steve asks about a 2006 plane ride from Hell between Heyman and Vince. Heyman says that, in a nutshell, it was time for him to go. He lost his passion, his purpose in wrestling, and resurrected ECW’s name. It was personal to him and he didn’t like how it was being used. It became a personal issue between he and Vince. He wanted to just take over SmackDown and maybe ECW wouldn’t suffer because of Vince holding ECW against him. Heyman says in a showdown between anyone and Vince, Vince isn’t leaving WWE.
Heyman says he lost his way, couldn’t find it at the time, and Vince was angry at him while Heyman was angry at Vince. They had an ungodly bad show and were busy cursing each other out. Vince wanted him to go home and Paul was happy to go home – it took five 1/2 year for each man to see the benefits of that.
After Heyman left in 2006 I never thought we would see him pop back up in WWE. The old say goes never say never.
6. Austin vs. Lesnar
Heyman asks if he wants to fight Brock at WrestleMania XXXII. Steve says he’d whoop his ass while Heyman hypes up the baddest SOB in WWE history against the baddest man on the planet. In Texas, you could have the Rattlesnake against the Beast. Austin says he’ll think about it, but Brock really has to think about going into 105,000 people and getting his ass kicked. Heyman says they should really negotiate this. Steve says if the stars aligned in Texas he wants a Texas Death Match with Brock.
Austin doesn’t want a scientific match, he wants a fight. He respects Brock, his accomplishments, his life, but if he stands across from Steve Austin, and you mess with him, you’re not going to like what you get.
This was definitely the highlight of this interview. An Austin/Lesnar match would very intriguing. It’s a match the fans have wanted for over 10 years and can potentially get at next year’s Wrestlemania. It will be interesting to see if Brock will have any response to Austin’s comments.
