Paul Heyman spoke with Chad Dukes of ChadDukesWrestling.com and 1067 The Fan to promote WrestleMania 29. Here are some highlights:
The Paul Bearer angle:
“I mean leave it to a Jew to portray a resurrection the day after Easter Sunday. That was part of how offensive it was supposed to be! Of course, it was designed to offend! It was designed to be controversial! It was designed to piss people off and I wish it went even further than it did.”
The possibility of a CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar match:
“Listen if they happen to come to blows, I have both sides of a main event, that’s not bad. Isn’t that conventional thinking, I’d have to choose one side? Listen, tell ya my theory of life. I have a hot girlfriend. I have another hot girlfriend, on the side. Now, I can sit there and lie to them both and say, “Honey, you’re the one,” and then go to the other one, “Baby, you’re the one.” Or I can get them together and have the best of all worlds. Now you tell me, do you wanna live the double life, or do you sit there and say, can’t we all get along? So, why can’t I have both sides of the main event?”
A Steve Austin vs. CM Punk match:
“I’m very intrigued by what could possibly happen if those two could step into the ring with each other. The chemistry with each other, and around each other, there’s a real combustible element there. You just know it. They have so much respect and admiration for each other, but man you look into each others eyes going, “man I’d really like to tangle with this dude.”
“Let’s say Austin comes back for WrestleMania XXX, let’s say he comes back against CM Punk. Is that a $200 million dollar weekend in revenue? Is that a $200 million dollar gross revenue weekend and is the catalyst for that figure going from 150 to 200, Stone Cold Steve Austin? Now if that intrigues Steve, it intrigues me but I’m not Steve, I think Steve would be back.”
On MMA & Wrestling worlds colliding:
The moment you incorporate the concept of sports entertainment, once the bell rings into MMA, the desire from the MMA fan to look at everything involved and say it’s 100% legitimate is then compromised. Which would kill MMA here in this country, immediately. Plus, while there’s a desire from WWE Fans to see something 100% legitimate in terms of competition once the bell rings, there is no desire for the opposite, for the UFC, for the Bellator, or for the Invicta fan …
From what I understand the buyrate for Nick Diaz versus Georges St.-Pierre was through the roof and it doesn’t surprise me. Because it hada very sports entertainment style build, whether Diaz wanted it to be that way or not is a whole ‘nother story. That’s just him, he’s just being himself. But I think the lessons of pro wrestling certainly apply to MMA up until the time they say, “Let’s fight.”
