Kevin Sullivan On Booking Brock Lesnar, Bray Wyatt Beating Lesnar, Steve Austin - Pillman Gun Angle
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently spoke with Kevin Sullivan for a two-part interview on The Ross Report. On the podcast, Sullivan talked about how he would book Brock Lesnar in WWE and whether there would be a 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin with 'The Loose Cannon' Brian Pillman.
As for whether there would be a 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin without Brian Pillman, Sullivan said that Pillman had an "ingenious mind" and that he "sparked Austin to be 'Stone Cold'".
"And this is not taking anything away from Steve Austin. The sad point is, besides the [professional] wrestling business losing a great talent, it lost a great mind. We always talk about great feuds. There would have been no feud that would have come as close as Austin and Pillman to draw money, in my head." Sullivan continued, "and the thing they did that Brian was very good at, you'd give him a line and he'd go 20 yards passed that line. Okay, the next time, you'd give him ten more yards and he'd go 20 more yards [and] before you knew it, he'd march down to the end zone and he started at the eight yard line."
In regards to the Pillman gun incident, Sullivan is not of the opinion that the angle went too far.
"I remember when everybody was saying about the gun incident [that] it was horrible. 'It was horrible!' And they said, 'oh, it slipped out of Brian's mouth,' the f-bomb. Like hell it did. Brian had that all in his head. And people that were saying 'they went too far, they went too far!' That's what everybody was talking about! They got both of themselves over in one night!"
On the subject of how Sullivan would book Lesnar, Sullivan said that WWE needs a shocking upset akin to Buster Douglas defeating Mike Tyson for the undisputed world heavyweight championship in 1990.
"As good as Brock is, there isn't anybody for him to beat that's new." Sullivan added, "[WWE] need a fresh match. I mean, how many more times can Brock wrestle John [Cena] or Randy [Orton] or even the Taker or Triple H? How many more times? I think they need to go back, let this guy be the monster that he is, and have the fight in Tokyo [Japan], Tyson and Buster Douglas! I think they need that."
Sullivan suggested that a babyface Lesnar should get beaten by a heel in NXT. As an example, Sullivan said that Lesnar could have faced Bray Wyatt while Wyatt was still on the NXT roster.
"Suppose Wyatt came from NXT [to WWE's main roster] now, not that he [has] had two years of exposure and they stopped and started his push, and Brock had a hell of a match with this kid, and did a legitimate finish where maybe he went to tackle the kid, the old bulls–t, the kid moves out of the corner [and] he hits the post like only Brock can. I saw him have that three-way match where he hit those stairs. I mean, the stairs are still ringing. [Lesnar] goes down and the kid from NXT beats him and the kid from NXT is a heel and he gets over. The people are going to be shocked because they're not going to think anybody from NXT is going to beat Brock, but you have to do it the right way. You just can't throw it out there."
In addition to these topics, Sullivan talked about booking in WCW and the Chris Benoit tragedy. Click here to listen to the podcast. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Ross Report with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Ross Report