Brian Fritz of Sporting News and the Between The Ropes podcast recently interviewed Paul Heyman in advance of this Saturday’s WWE Network special at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Heyman talks about his memories of MSG, the importance of “The Garden”, his relationship with Big Show and Brock Lesnar, the possibility of Stone Cold Steve Austin returning at why the fantasy booking talk got so big, and more. You can read a few excerpts, and listen to the interview in the player below:
Working with Big Show, his client Brock Lesnar’s MSG opponent:
I worked with Big Show in 2002 and 2003. I loved working with Big Show because at the time on Raw, he was the butt of jokes. He was sleeping on a couch having peanuts thrown at him by the nWo. We desperately needed a monster on Smackdown to take on Brock Lesnar and the choice became the Big Show. So, as I talked about on Monday, I meant what I was talking about. He was inspired. He was driven. He was motivated. And he understood he had an opportunity to change the course of his career instead of lying down on a couch and having peanuts thrown at him. He had a chance to main event and he had a chance to main event against Brock Lesnar and Edge and Rey Mysterio and Kurt Angle and have the show built around him. He exploited that opportunity. He ran with it. He jumped on it as hard as anyone I’ve seen. It’s always a thrill to work with somebody that has that ambition to go there every night and make the company never regrets giving him that chance.
Does he think Lesnar/Taker is happening too early at WWE Hell In A Cell?
No because now’s the time. This is where there’s tremendous public interest in it and it’s the right match to do. I don’t think we should hold off Hell in a Cell until WrestleMania. I think Brock Lesnar versus The Undertaker in their final conflict — in what is sure to be the final time these two ever step into the ring against each other — and I think that should happen now. I don’t think waiting until WrestleMania would be, to borrow the phrase, “best for business” and I think the heightened public interest coming off of what happened at SummerSlam and the reaction from the public after we told our story the next night on Raw, I think now’s the time to capitalize on it and to exploit the public interest and present the match now.
Thoughts on publicity from the Stone Cold Podcast; Will Austin/Lesnar Happen?
Any time you offer something new involving Brock Lesnar — especially if you even tease the fact that ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin could be involved in anything — it’s going to generate massive public interest. It’s going to go viral instantly. These are two extraordinary box office attractions. We were done. Austin had run out of questions and we had taken up some extra time. And I really wanted to get his take on a couple of things. I felt I would be remiss if I didn’t ask him what it would take for him to step into the ring with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32. I can assure you Steve did not expect the question. Nor did I expect his answer. That’s also what I think generated so much interest in that. Again, you’re talking about Stone Cold Steve Austin and he is going to be forever someone that people fantasize about stepping back into the ring because he’s Stone Cold Steve Austin. Any time you offer something new for Brock Lesnar — let alone that it would involved Steve Austin — I could sit there and say Brock Lesnar versus Mr. X and people would say “I’ve never seen that match, I can’t wait to see Brock Lesnar versus Mr. X!” It’s something new, it’s something different. We’re going to take Mr. X to Suplex City. Then again when you offer the single biggest box office attraction of the Attitude Era, it takes on an even bigger meaning. So I’m not surprised how much that took off but the match is not going to happen.
Could it still happen?
If there was a way to make this match happen, it would have happened right after that podcast. And the answer that was pretty defined was this match ain’t gonna happen. So, at that moment I knew don’t even think about it anymore because I can’t make that fantasy come true. So my thoughts to WrestleMania become what fantasies can I make true? What fantasy can I imagine and then present the audience with that compelling vision so that the audience buys into it and they salivate at the chance of being there live or subscribing to the network to see it play out in front of their very eyes that the fantasy, the dream becomes a reality at WrestleMania.
