Credit: Mike Johnson of Pwinsider.com
Austin welcome everyone to the Podcast and said that before they get underway, he wanted to send his best wishes to those dealing with the flooding in Texas. We send the same wishes.
Austin welcomed Paul Heyman Heyman said he feels humbled to be there but feels like he should be the one interviewing Austin. He said it’s disconcerting to be asked questions because with everything he’s done, Austin should be the one being asked questions.
Austin noted that Heyman hustled his way into the business when he was 14 years old so there’s a lot of stuff to discuss. He noted Heyman has been on the show before. Austin reviewed their personal history together working in WCW and ECW. He credited Heyman with teaching him how to “cut a promo.”
Austin said he didn’t remember when they just met. Heyman said they met at Center Stage (where WCW taped TV) and Austin was sitting on a crate with his then-wife with a big knee brace on. Jim Ross and Heyman were going over the show and Heyman kept noticing this “striking blonde” meaning Austin. Ross said Austin and Rod Price were a hell of a tag team but said Austin has something special. Heyman was going to say hello but Austin had gone to get into his gear. He saw Austin hit the ropes and never saw anyone hit the ropes as frantically as Austin did. Heyman thought he was going to fall through the ropes or break the ring and felt that if Austin had that much ferocity, he knew Austin was something special. Ross said they just scored by hiring him. Heyman introduced himselfto Austin and five weeks later, they were together.
Austin said they always got along but when The Dangerous Alliance was put together, Austin was the final member and Heyman’s suggestion. Heyman was suspended by Jim Herd for “BS reasons” but Jim Crockett got him back in via a power play. They were going to build a new Four Horsmen style group based around Rick Rude. Heyman called Dusty Rhodes and said this was going to blow away The Horsement but they were missing one piece. Dusty loved the group but asked who – Heyman said Austin. Dusty said he’s a good kid but who why him? Heyman said Austin was from Texas and reminded Paul of Dusty. Dusty said he knew the next big star was going to be from Texas and gave his blessing.
Heyman went and told Rick Rude that Austin was going to be in the group and Rude quipped “Good for Steve Austin” but Heyman noted that Rude was OK with Austin being added to the group. Austin said that means a lot to him because he had so much respect for Rude. Heyman said that Austin had a buzz coming out of Texas. He said that the way that Austin hit the ropes and locked up with people, there was an intensity to it and it looked like a fight where so many guys looked too smooth.
Austin said he didn’t want to keep talking about himself and asked when Brock Lesnar was going to come back. Heyman said he thinks it’s public knowledge Brock is coming back very soon. Lesnar has been on his farm and owns property in Canada and The United States. He said Brock is the son of a dairy farmer and with all the money he’s made in WWE and UFC, he goes back and buys more farmland and goes back to being a farmer and a hunter because that’s who he is, in his heart.
Austin said they have been trying to go hunting together and asked Heyman to line it up. Heyman said that he can try to line it up but he can’t join it. Heyman said he’s a Jew and his people aren’t hunters but are furriers. They began talking about people of Jewish Faith. Heyman joked his own people screwed up the Middle East because they are fighting over the one piece of land that doesn’t have oil under it.
Austin asked if Brock was really planning to return to UFC or was he just leveraging things with WWE. Heyman said Brock opened up a mini-training camp in January in the event that he didn’t make a new deal with WWE in advance of doing a full training camp. Heyman said he never got so far mentally as to wonder who his first opponent was going to be, but had the mindset of crushing anyone he fought. Heyman said that Brock’s last run was so fun and they had a run in the last year that they enjoyed but the deal was coming up. He is an athlete, a hunter and a predator who views himself as the baddest man on the planet. In his fourth fight, he beat the hell out of Randy Couture to the point the fight was stopped in the second round and did all that with diveticulitus. He wondered what he could do now that he was completely healthy, even at 37. He was enjoying WWE for the first time because he’s never had the chance to really sit back and reflect and enjoy it.
Austin said some people paint that Lesnar doesn’t enjoy the business. Heyman said that Lesnar loves the business but he loves his childen more. When Brock appears, it’s special. The most wonderful night of the year is Christmas Eve, but if it happened every night, it would lose the meaning.
Heyman was asked if he’d be willing to do more outside of working with Brock Lesnar. Heyman said he is really Lesnar’s advocate and it means he’s Brock’s guy with someone else. The only person it worked with was CM Punk because of their friendship and said that he played two different characters.
Austin asked if he’s spoken to CM Punk. Heyman said they text every day and they have a friendship based outside of the business so they talk all the time. Austin asked what he thought of Punk’s UFC chances. Heyman said money isn’t the motivating factor in Punk’s life but the challenge to do it and accomplish something. He thinks Punk regrets not doing it five years earlier but now is the time to do it. He’s either going to go in and shock everyone or he’s going to get KO’d or tapped out and is man enough to walk in there and take his chances and be OK with whatever happens.
Austin talked about the state of the business and “selling.” He talked about the DDT and how when Jake Roberts nailed it, you knew the other guy was staying down. He said he sees guys doing DDTs all night and asked about the state of the business. Austin said the guys today are better athletes than he was, but you also have to work extremely hard and extremely smart. Heyman said The Rock’s father used to win with a dropkick. Austin pointed out Heyman booked all the craziness in ECW. Austin asked if guys need to sell more. Heyman said if they gave Mark Henry the headlock and he made guys tap by squeezing it and no one else was allowed to use it, in 30 weeks, it would be over as a hell of a finisher. The wrestlers and announcers have to protect the move in order for it to work but it can happen.
Austin said they had a damn good Raw and there were some good promos tonight, pointing out Kevin Owens and John Cena. He talked about the art of the promo. Heyman said that you have to ask where the money is. He told a story about working his first Starrcade and his promo got switched and Heyman had to close the show and do a promo with no time other than “we’ll give you a 5 second countdown.” He did this long, crazy promo and thought he did a great job but Dusty told him it was entertaining but it wasn’t going to draw money. Heyman said that he never forgot that. Old school is new school with a different twist. You have to ask where the money is in something.
Austin talked about different factors work for different performers, bringing up The Ultimate Warrior. He said that just because you have someone who can cut a promo doesn’t mean he should always get five minutes to talk unless it makes sense. Heyman said if you don’t, you give someone enough rope to hang themselves. Heyman said he will talk to any young talents that want to speak to him but he doesn’t force his opinions on anyone. He said he believes there’s a disconnect with people coming out every week and pontificating by saying, “Last week here on Raw….” so he came up with his “My Name Is Paul Heyman” stuff to engage the audience and introduce himself to anyone who doesn’t know his role. Austin said if the message isn’t heartfelt it won’t resonate.
Austin said he hates when two guys have mics and one responds while one is talking without holding up the mic and speaking his mind. Austin said that’s a guy burying himself.
Austin talked about Heyman meeting Vincent J. McMahon and making his first $50 from him. They showed a photo of Vince and Heyman said he took that photo. Heyman said he figured out where Vince Sr. took people to eat after shows, so Heyman called and said he met Sr. at the restaurant and was told to call for a press pass. He talked himself past everyone until he got to Sr. and got the pass. He went to the office to get his pass and made his way to MSG into the photographer’s room. He knew he needed to get to ringside and if he did, he needed to be hidden. He got a photo of Andre the Giant and Vince Sr. in the hallway and the next month, he waited until Vince Sr. was alone and gave him the photo. Security tried to pull him away but Heyman said he had a press pass. Howard Finkel asked him if he took the photo and Heyman said, yes, he can have it. He was given $50 “for his troubles” and was told them to come every month and take pictures for the program and every month, they would give him $50.
Austin asked about the differences between TV syndication then and now. Heyman said they would bicycle the tapes from station to station and if someone came into the territory, you fought them off. When cable TV came about, Joe Blanchard was the first person to cut a deal on the USA Network. Ole Anderson had been looking at expanding into Ohio with Superstation TBS. He said that when Vince McMahon bought the promotion rom his father, it was different distribution era due to true national cable TV. That wiped out the local TV.
Austin asked if Vince Sr. was loyal to the territory system. Heyman asked if Vince Sr. was five years younger, would he have honored the territory boundaries or would he have done it himself? He noted Jim Crockett, Jim Barnett and Bill Watts all had designs. McMahon, if he was younger, would have had to do it. Heyman said he didn’t know Sr. well enough to know whether he could be aggressive enough to do it.
Austin asked Heyman about people hating Vince. Heyman told stories of Albano drinking all day before the MSG shows and didn’t like the the transition and would start ragging on Jr. and would get fired. Someone would track Lou down, sober him up and he’d be rehired. This would happen all the time.
Heyman was asked about the relationship with Vince McMahon. Heyman said they get along better now that he’s not trying to “save the industry.” Heyman said when he was hired in 2001, he was hired to give the contrarian opinion and always gave one, leading to his opinion getting smacked down until he was sick of it. Heyman admitted fatherhood has mellowed him out. Heyman said Austin used to know how he was and said he’d never done one line of cocaine because he had fear it would blow up his heart and he was fearful of his father standing over his grave saying, “You threw your life away for this?” Heyman said he used to live and die by every segment of TV.
Austin said he was scripting Smackdown and wanted to beat Raw and he did. Heyman said that he probably went to fat when he had the announcers calling Raw the B show. Austin asked about an infamous plane ride with Heyman and Vince in 2006. Heyman said he was fighting so hard for ECW when it was resurrected and he had lost his passion. He asked Vince to give him Smackdown because maybe Vince would be less likely to change the writing of someone else on ECW. Heyman said he was burnt out, tired and couldn’t “find his way anymore.” They had a really, really bad show (December to Dismember 2006) and Heyman and Vince had it out. Heyman looked at it like, “Look what you did to my brand” and Vince looked at it like, “Look what you did to my investment?” By the end of the ride, Vince wanted Heyman to go home and Heyman really happy to do so. It took five and half years before they both realized it was a lesson they learned from.
They told some funny road stories.
They closed with Heyman pushing Austin to wrestle Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania since it was in Texas. Austin said he would whip Lesnar’s ass but it would have to be a Texas Death Match and said they would have to have all the stars align to make it work. He put over Lesnar’s ability but then began going into “Stone Cold” promo mode, acting as if he was angry, saying he was here on his show asking questions but if people want to start poking him, he’s going to get riled up. He told Heyman that his man wasn’t here to protect him and told Heyman he needed to leave. Austin said he needed to go drink a beer and think about some stuff. Austin signed off and said he was happy to be back on the WWE Network. Nice tease for Mania 32, even if it doesn’t happen.
NOTE FROM RYAN CLARK: If you watched that podcast and know how the business works, you should be able to see what happened at the end of the show. Austin clearly went into full “promo mode” and hyped the sh*t out of a match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32 – nearly a year in advance. Think about it guys – Dallas, Texas …. Austin’s hometown … ‘Taker’s final match …Rousey/Steph/Rock .. Hogan’s final match?, Sting? …. and the fact that Vince McMahon is dead set on selling 105,000 seats at AT&T stadium … that seemed all pre-planned. It sure didn’t seem like a coincidence that a Steve Austin “promo” on Brock Lesnar ended the podcast. What do you guys think?! Let us know in the comments section below!
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