Michelle Beadle On If She Knew About Brock Lesnar's Announcement, ESPN-WWE Affiliation, CM Punk
ESPN personality and huge wrestling fan Michelle Beadle appeared on The Danny Picard Show and discussed her breaking-news interview with Brock Lesnar. Beadle talks about what she knew leading into the interview Tuesday.
Beadle spoke about enjoying the WWE involvement on SportsNation, and not having any idea about what the announcement was. She said that she tried to figure it out from both Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman, but the two wouldn't budge.
"It was one of those days I forgot I was 39 and felt like I was 9," Beadle said. "I love Paul Heyman, I think he's the most talented speaker. I come into work knowing that we have Roman Reigns and the surprise is that Paul Heyman is coming out. Then that surprise Brock Lesnar stuff happened. Nobody knew it was going to happen, nobody knew what the announcement was going to be, nobody had any clues. Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out from these two other guys and they don't have any clue what's going on. It was the clashing of all the worlds together. It was an awesome day. "
In addition to not knowing about the Brock Lesnar announcement, Beadle says she wasn't told until the last minute that Paul Heyman would be showing up on SportsNation. Heyman appeared on the program to confront and interview Roman Reigns.
"I knew last minute. I've been wearing different wrestling shirts all week and I wondered aloud when I should wear my Paul Heyman shirts, and one of our producers (on Monday) said I should wear it tomorrow. I was like 'wait a minute.' I don't think he does a lot of these things. It was the closest I'll get to being a superstar," Beadle said.
Beadle also said that despite ESPN being a huge corporation, even her producers didn't know what Lesnar's announcement would be.
"He called us," said Beadle. "He showed up with just one guy, I tried to get a clue, he wouldn't give us one. He was messing with us and he enjoyed it. I was in there like 'When's the last time you talked to Dana (White)?' He said that he had breakfast with him and I'm like 'Oh, when was that?' I knew the contract was up Monday night, and the last I heard nothing had happened. The reasons he gave all made sense. He's got a family, the beating your body takes is significantly less than UFC. I thought he was retiring from everything because of a health problem we didn't know about."
Beadle was asked about CM Punk's move to the UFC, as well. Beadle was involved in a highly publicized altercation with Punk and future wife AJ Lee in late 2013.
"It may end up being an ass beating, but we'll all be watching," Beadle said. She also commended him leaving when people wanted more and taking that interest to the UFC. Regarding a possible CM Punk contract, she simply said that "money talks."
Beadle says she doesn't know if there's more to the connection between WWE and ESPN, but she has suspected it of late. ESPN's Jon Gruden also was involved in a promo package where he previewed WrestleMania's Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.