WWE was a topic of conversation in a recent interview with Celebrity Apprentice contestant Chael Sonnen. The former UFC fighter told Channel Guide Magazine that WWE “has been hurting for stars for a while.” Sonnen, who fights Tito Ortiz on Saturday at Bellator 170 on Spike, says that now is the time for a WWE star to break through and have their “Steve Austin moment.”
“It’s going to take some courage, somebody is going to have to do it,” he said of a new superstar breaking through. “They are going to have to get a script one day and say, ‘That’s not right.’ They grab a microphone on live TV, put their job on the line and go for it. That’s how it works. It looks like creative has such control over these guys; they just don’t want to see that. But that is what it’s going to take. The time is right now. They are looking for a star, and the fans are looking for a guy they can truly get behind. Somebody needs to step up and do it.”
While going off-script on WWE television may not be the best career advice, Sonnen says now is a clear and opportune time for a new star to rise. The Bellator MMA fighter also discussed Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg’s match at Survivor Series, calling it “brilliant.”
“It was brilliant booking,” he said of Goldberg’s victory over Lesnar. “I did not see it coming. In a million years, I did not see that coming. Wrestling needed one of those ‘Oh Wow!’ moments. I thought it was great and very clever. One of the reasons I didn’t see it coming is that we were told as fans that the Goldberg appearance was a one-off. This was billed as his final appearance. So obviously he wouldn’t go over. That was the part WWE swerved us. They had him locked in for a deal further than that. I thought it was fun.”
You can read the entire interview at ChannelGuideMag.com. Sonnen can be seen on Saturday fighting Tito Ortiz on Bellator 170 on Spike TV, and on Monday evenings on Celebrity Apprentice on NBC.
