Steve Austin - Paul Heyman Podcast Recap: Possible Brock Lesnar Match, CM Punk, Vince McMahon, More
Welcome to our WrestlingINC.com Viewing Party for Steve Austin's live WWE Network interview with Paul Heyman. We will have live coverage of the interview while you all can chime in with your thoughts below..
Please help spread word of tonight's live recap. Twitter users, please share this page by clicking the 'Share' button below:
- We're live from backstage at RAW in San Antonio, Texas with Steve Austin and Paul Heyman. Austin sends his thoughts to the flood victims in Texas before talking to Heyman. Heyman talks about how he's honored to be interviewed by Austin and says he feels like he should be interviewing Austin.
They talk about their early days together. Heyman brings up Austin's first wife and Austin jokes not to remind him. Heyman says when he first saw Austin, he'd never seen anyone hit the ropes as hard and as ferocious as Austin did. Heyman then told Jim Ross that they scored big with Austin and eventually started managing him. Austin brings up being the last piece of The Dangerous Alliance and that was Heyman's idea. Heyman talks about how he talked Dusty Rhodes into putting Austin with the stable and sold him on Austin being from Texas. Austin doesn't want to talk about himself anymore and brings up Brock Lesnar, asking where he is and when he's coming back. Heyman says it's public knowledge that Brock is coming back soon. Heyman says Brock has been on his farm as he's a farmer and a hunter. He owns farm land in Canada and the United States. He talks about how Lesnar keeps buying farm land and always goes back to being a farmer and a hunter because that's who he is at heart. Austin wants to do some hunting with Lesnar and suggests it be filmed for the WWE Network.
Austin says Brock was playing the leverage game with UFC and asks if he really was thinking about going back and fighting for UFC. Heyman says Brock opened a mini-training camp in January and was open to a full-blown camp for a UFC return in case he couldn't sign a big deal with WWE. Heyman talks about how Lesnar is a fighter and touts his UFC win over Randy Couture while he had diverticulitis. Heyman wonders what a healthy Lesnar could have accomplished in UFC this time around. Heyman says he and Lesnar have been enjoying themselves in WWE. Austin brings up "the IWC" not believing Lesnar loves the business. Heyman says Lesnar loves the business but loves his kids more. Heyman says his kids need a father more than WWE needs a Lesnar. He talks about how Lesnar's rare appearances are can't miss. Austin via a fan asks if Heyman would take on more clients so we can see him on TV more. Heyman says it's always hard to put another talent with him because of the Lesnar dynamic. He says it did work with CM Punk because of their relationship. He says he played a different character with Punk than he did with Lesnar. He uses the analogy with Punk that they were like Morris Day and Jerome... Heyman was the guy behind Punk going "yea!" Heyman still talks to Punk but they text more than they talk. He say their friendship isn't based on the business and is outside of the business. Austin asks what Heyman thinks of Punk's UFC debut. Heyman says it's the challenge, not the money. He says Punk probably regrets not doing this 5 or 6 years earlier and has eyed it since a kid. Heyman believes Punk is very accepting of the possibility that he will shock everyone or get punched in the face and knocked out.
Austin brings up how Jake Roberts used the DDT and people stayed down from it but the DDT isn't seen that serious today. They talk about how finishers aren't used how they used to be and Austin asks if guys are out-working themselves these days. Heyman points out Rocky Johnson used to win matches with a dropkick. Heyman does some fantasy booking and talks about how he could book Mark Henry using a headlock as his finisher and get him over by having no one else but Henry use it for 30 weeks or so. Hyman believes the headlock would win Henry the World Title and it would be huge when a babyface broke out of it at WrestleMania. Austin talks about tonight's RAW and says he's high on Kevin Owens. Austin goes back to Jake Roberts and praises how good his promos were. Austin calls Heyman the promo master and days he's laid down some of the damnedest promos he's ever heard. Austin says Heyman has always had the gift of gab but has taken it to a higher level now. They talk more about promos. Heyman says old school is new school, just updated in today's environment. He says you have to ask, "where's the money in this and what am I selling?" He says some times the money for him is simply, "Broock Lesnar" in the way only he can do it. Austin talks about how people didn't like The Ultimate Warrior's promos but he did because it made Warrior truer to the Warrior, it was Warrior embracing his character. Austin says just because a guy can cut a promo, he shouldn't be given 5 minutes every Monday night unless he has someone to bounce that off because it gives the guy a verbal rope to hang himself. Austin asks how can we change the promo system. Heyman talks about how he does talk to some young talents about promos when they come to him but he doesn't impose his opinion. Heyman says he sees a disconnect today where talents automatically come into the ring and start pontificating. Austin mentions how some greener guys start talking with the microphone down by their side and just bury themselves.
Austin asks what was Vince McMahon Sr.'s vision for the business compared to what Vice McMahon has done for it. Heyman says they were different times and Vince Sr. played to the distribution of the time which was syndication TV where tapes were sent from station to station. Vince Sr. had a territory of his own carved out and fought for it. Heyman says when Vince bought the promotion from his father, we were going into a much different distribution era – the advent of true national cable TV, which would wipe out the concept of syndicated TV shows to select territories because now the territory was the whole country. Austin asks about Vince and Heyman's relationship, saying they've had their ups and downs. He asks where they are now. Heyman says they probably get along better than they ever did before because they don't interact every day and Heyman's not driving Vince crazy trying to tell him how to save the industry. Heyman says he has been mellowed out a lot by fatherhood. Heyman talks about how he's never done cocaine. Austin asks about the infamous 2006 plane ride and asks if Heyman was about to be thrown out. Heyman says in a nutshell, it was time for him to leave because he lost his passion and purpose i the industry. He say they had resurrected the ECW brand but he didn't like the way it was going. He says it became personal between he and Vince. He offered to write SmackDown and give someone else the ECW brand so maybe Vince could be less compelled to change the show on someone besides Heyman. Heyman says it was either he or Vince who had to go and that was an obvious one. Heyman says he was lost, burnt out and couldn't find his way anymore and Vince sensed it. The Network freezes and comes back to them discussing a potential Austin vs. Lesnar match at WrestleMania 32. Austin says he would open a can of whoop-ass on Lesnar. Austin says it's been great talking to Heyman tonight but Heyman wants to make the match happen. He asks if they should go talk to Vince about it. Austin says the only way that match could happen is... a Texas Death Match. Austin says that would be the match to headline WrestleMania. Austin starts cutting a promo and says he's getting a little amped up looking at Heyman's sorry ass. He threatens Heyman with an ass whooping and says Lesnar isn't here to stop it. Austin says it's been a damn good time having Heyman here tonight. Austin says he's about ready to drink a cold beer and think about everything. Austin thanks everyone for listening, says he's glad to be back on the WWE Network and wraps it up from San Antonio.