wrestling / TV Reports

Stone Cold Podcast Recap: Heyman Talks CM Punk, Lesnar, Fights With Vince McMahon, More

June 2, 2015 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
Image Credit: WWE

-The Austin Podcast returns to the WWE Network after a few shows from Jericho that weren’t as well received. Join me here after RAW as we get the much hyped return of Austin with his special guest: Paul Heyman.

-Austin welcomes us to the podcast from San Antonio, TX and he calls Heyman one of his mentors. Austin gives a shout-out to families in Texas that have had their lives impacted by flooding in the area.

-Now we move onto Heyman and he says it is humbling to be there as he thinks it would be more appropriate if he was interviewing Austin. They talk about Heyman closing in on his 50th birthday and Austin mentions Heyman has been on his show several times. Heyman asks Austin what the capital of Nebraska is and they have a laugh before getting into the meat of the show.

-Austin quickly touches on the history between the two and asks Heyman to cover the first meeting between them. Heyman says it was in Atlanta at Center Stage, and Austin was fresh from Texas and had a knee injury. He was there with his then wife, Jeanie. Heyman knew who he was and JR said that Austin had something special in him. Heyman was going to introduce himself, but Austin disappeared and ended up in the ring. He was hitting the ropes harder than anyone Heyman had ever seen and he was so impressed he agreed with JR that they had struck gold.

-Austin jumps to the Dangerous Alliance and how he was the last piece of the group. They talk about how Austin was Heyman’s idea. The idea was to build a 4 Horsemen group around Rick Rude, and Heyman says he always wanted Austin in the group as he felt he was the next big thing in the business. He told Dusty that the group was missing one piece and that gives Heyman his chance to do his awesome Dusty impression. Austin asks if Rude was ok with Austin being brought into the group and he also puts over how great Rude was. Heyman says that Rude had no problem with Austin being in the group and Steve is happy to hear it because he respected Rick so much.

-Now we switch gears to Brock Lesnar. Austin asks when he is coming back, and Heyman says it is public knowledge that he will be back soon. Brock has been on his farm in Canada and in Minnesota and has been hunting. At the end of the day, Brock is a farmer and he spends his money on more farm land. Austin says he and Brock have been trying for years to get together on a hunting trip and Austin even invites the WWE Network along. Heyman says he is a Jew and his people aren’t hunters, so he won’t be hanging around on the Broken Skull Ranch.

-They get into a discussion about Jewish people, and Heyman says every Jewish holiday is about how people tried to kill them and they celebrate because they got out alive. They get back to Brock and talk about his choice to resign with the WWE. Austin wants to know if it was a leverage play, or if he really wanted to go back to the UFC. Heyman says Brock opened a mini training camp in Feb and was prepared to go if he didn’t get a fair deal from the WWE. He says Brock was very torn by the decision, because he enjoyed the run he had in the past year in the WWE. On the other side he is an athlete and he does view himself as the baddest dude on the planet. In his fourth fight he beat Randy Cotoure and he did it with diverticulitis. He says he even won the NCAA Title with the same condition as it was just undetected. He is now 100% healthy and they thought about what he could do in the UFC being healthy.

-Austin brings up how the IWC doesn’t think Brock loves the business because he isn’t there every week. Heyman says Brock loves the business, but he loves his children more. Seeing Brock Lesnar is a big deal because it doesn’t happen that often. That leads to Austin asking why Heyman isn’t on TV more and if he would work with anyone else. Heyman says that he and Brock have such a defined relationship on TV because it is true to their real life friendship and relationship. No matter who he is put with everyone thinks of him as Brock Lesnar’s guy and the only time it worked was when he was with CM Punk. It worked with Punk because they were also real good friends.

-Austin asks Heyman if he keeps in touch with Punk and he says he texts him on a daily basis. He asks him how he thinks Punk’s UFC career will pan out. Heyman says he doesn’t think money means anything to Punk and that he has a passion for MMA. He thinks Punk regrets not getting into the octagon 5 years earlier. He says Punk is man enough to take his chances and he knows he may get knocked out or punched out.

-Austin turns things to the business today and the state of the business. He brings up how when Jake Roberts hit people with the DDT they were out. Now he sees DDTs all over the place and guys pop up like nothing happened. Heyman says that Rocky Johnson used to win a match with a drop kick, and Harley Race won with a suplex. Heyman says he is the wrong person to ask about this thanks to his ECW booking. The discussion continues with Heyman saying that you can get things over like Henry using a headlock as long as he wins with it and nobody else uses it. He says moves will get over as long as people sell it including everyone on the roster and the announcers.

-Austin talks about RAW tonight and how he was impressed with Cena’s promo and he also mentions that he is pretty high on Kevin Owens. He then says Heyman has been laying down some of the best promos anyone has ever heard. He asks Heyman to talk about the art and science of doing promos. Heyman says it goes back to where the money is, and he remembers what Dusty used to tell him. He came up and watched guys like Dusty, Flair, Sting, The Road Warriors, and he was paired up against Jim Cornette. He had four minutes to close a show once and Heyman says he tried everything he could to get the fans’ attention so they wouldn’t dare change the channel. Dusty told him it was entertaining, but “where’s the money?” With all he did, Paul forgot to sell Starrcade. He has remembered that ever since and he goes out always trying to sell something to get the money.

-Austin talks about the different components of a promo and how a lot of people didn’t like Warrior’s promos, but he did because it was true to the character. Hell of a point there! He also says just because you have a guy that can cut a promo doesn’t mean he should cut one every week. He asks Heyman how would he change the promo system and if he works with any of the young talent. He says he doesn’t impose himself on the talent, but he will help anyone who comes up to him. He came up with his openings as a way to connect with the audience as in 3 sentences he will let people know who he is, why he is here, and what he is selling. He thinks guys are preaching to the audience at times and don’t connect with them.

-Austin now switches to Heyman and his meeting with Vince Sr. They put a picture of Vince Sr on the screen and Heyman says he took the picture. They then show a picture of Vince Sr and Andre together and Heyman says that is the picture that got him his first $50 from Vince Sr. He tells the story of how he hustled his way into getting press credentials to get into MSG for the monthly shows. It was at that first show where he took the pic of Andre and Vince Sr. As soon as Vince Sr was alone he put the picture in his hand while getting grabbed up by security. Howard Finkel pulls him aside and says Mr McMahon loves the picture and slips him a $50 via Vince Sr.

-Austin asks Heyman about the difference between the visions of Vince Sr and Jr. Heyman says it was different times as Sr had a territory and fought for it (from Maine to Washington DC). When the times started to change because of cable TV, guys starting cutting deals to be on National TV. He says Ole pioneered things first by being on The Super Station. He always wondered if Vince Sr would have honored the territory boundaries if he was 5 years younger. He thinks he would have had no choice to try it, but he doesn’t know if he would have been as aggressive with it as his son.

-They talk about Vince Jr getting death threats and Heyman says Lou Albano threatened to kill Vince nearly every month. He says nobody has been hired and fired more in the history of the WWE than Lou Albano. He says Lou hated Vince Jr because he was so loyal to Sr and hated the transition of power. Vince Sr would send someone down to get Lou sober and he would apologize and get his job back.

-Austin asks how Heyman’s relationship is with Vince now. He says it is probably better than it has ever been because he isn’t in Vince’s ear trying to tell him how to save the industry. Back in 2001 he was hired to give different opinions, and that led to a contentious relationship. He says fatherhood has mellowed him out over the years. Somehow the talk shifts to Heyman saying that even if nobody believes him, he has never done a line of cocaine in his life even if people think he is high strung. He was scared to death that even one line would blow out his heart.

-Now we move to Heyman’s time as the SmackDown head writer, and how his goal was to have SmackDown beat RAW. Austin wants to know what happened on the infamous plane flight from 2006. Heyman tiptoes as he says he doesn’t know how much Vince has talked about it, but he does say that it was at a time when he was disappointed with how the new ECW was going. It was as if one or the other had to go, and in the end Vince is going to be there, so Heyman knew he was done.

-We get some road stories now and Heyman does his best to keep the stories PG. Austin liked to say “Gosh Darn” (PG) a lot and we get Heyman’s Austin impression. He tells story of Rude having the car pulled over so he can yell at Austin for using the “fudging” Lord’s name in vain, and Austin promises to never say it again. Rude says thank you, and Austin says “you’re gosh darn (PG) welcome.” Rude lost it and couldn’t help but laugh even if he was kind of pissed. Great story!

-Now another story centered around The Samoans. Heyman starts by saying that Sting would ride around with The Steiners. Sting would drive the car with Rick and Scott in the front. Scott would hold Rick through the window by his ankles and he would open the doors of passing cars and grab various wrestlers by the legs. Damn! Heyman says that easily someone could have killed the Steiners and probably themselves. He says finally they did it once to Heyman and The Samoans. The started tossing food at their car including a watermelon. The Samoans have Heyman pull over and they load up at a supermarket. The two cars are then involved in a road war as they are tossing things back and forth at each other. Heyman says their rental car was totaled and he is still blacklisted to this day from renting a car in Charlotte, NC.

-Heyman says he wants to ask Austin a question, and he wants to know what he thinks of Cena’s Springboard Stunner. He has no problem with his using the move, but he says it isn’t effective because people keep kicking out of it. He then asks Austin if he wants to fight Lesnar at WrestleMania and Austin says he would beat his ass. Heyman says Mania is in his Texas and what better place to do it. Heyman says he will call Brock and Austin says he has Brock’s number and will call him as well. Heyman pushes to have the match and Austin says the only way the match could happen would be a Texas Death Match. He doesn’t want to get into a scientific match and he has great respect for Brock, but if you poke Stone Cold you are poking the wrong son of a bitch. Austin gets rather intense here as he switches into Stone Cold mode and it is rather fascinating to watch. He threatens to whip Heyman’s ass before wrapping things up.

-Thanks for following along.