Paul Heyman recently spoke to Brian Fritz of Sporting News about managing Brock Lesnar, working with Big Show and more. During the interview Heyman talked a little bit about the now infamous segment on his WWE Network podcast with Steve Austin where Paul asked Austin if he would return to the ring to face Lesnar. Heyman hyped up the magnitude of the match but said that “the match is not going to 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.” Heyman said.
He followed up by saying that if the match was going to happen, it would have happened by now and that he doesn’t want to get into fantasy booking.
“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.” Heyman added.
