Paul Hayman Blogs on Dinner with Austin & Lesnar
Paul Heyman, the former WWE creative team writer and ECW owner, published a new blog on Crave Online recapping a recent dinner meeting with Steve Austin and Brock Lesnar in New York City and their respective desires to pursue opportunities beyond their WWE careers.
In classic Heyman fashion, the former ECW hypemeister said at the end of his blog that Austin, Lesnar, and he have tried to leave the wrestling business behind, but there's always a door open.
"Despite the fact all three of us, in some way, have done our best to leave it all behind, go into other ventures, pursue other dreams ... old instincts die hard.
There I was, watching Steve Austin and Brock Lesnar trade barbs, share some laughs, enjoy a dinner amongst friends. And sometime during that night, I thought to myself, "Man, what a WrestleMania main event THIS could be!!!
Oh well.
Maybe in another lifetime, right Vince?"
Austin & WWE Writers
PAUL HEYMAN has revealed just how bad relations once were between Stone Cold Steve Austin and the WWE writing team.
The legendary wrestling manager claims things got so bad in 2002 that "Steve hated the WWE writing team, and he made no bones about it", leading him to quit the federation.
The former ECW boss made the revelation following a recent night out with Austin and UFC champion Brock Lesnar.
The meeting between the trio led Heyman to recall how Stone Cold walked out of the WWE rather than lose a scheduled match to then-rising star Lesnar.
Looking back to that time, Heyman blogged: "Steve appeared on the WWE's very own internet program, Byte This, and ripped into the writing team.
"Jim Ross, then head of Talent Relations and Steve's best friend, tried to broker a peace, but the situation was spiralling too fast.
"Austin was sour on the WWE product.
"He was not happy with the lack of upward mobility afforded to the characters on Raw, therefore depriving him of new, fresh, quality opponents.
"The nWo had come in, but fizzled out quickly. Hulk Hogan, a true dream match if there ever was one, was already a babyface, and was losing steam once the standing ovations following his WrestleMania match with The Rock had worn thin.
"And the 'end all, be all,' Vince McMahon, with whom the buck always stopped, just wasn't making the same amount of time for Steve as he used to.
"Steve was one p****d off hombre.
"Vince wasn't all smiles at the time, either.
"One Friday afternoon, he tore into the Raw team as if they ate his last protein bar. Where's the new, must-see matchups?
"Where's the fresh blood in the main event? Why aren't you exploiting your resources? What's so 'raw' about Raw nowadays?
"It was a brutal ass chewing. I'm not saying the Raw didn't deserve it, but they got it, that's for sure.
"The original plan for Raw changed throughout the weekend. Vince didn't like anything [writers] Brian Gewirtz and Ed Koskey were pitching. And then, on late Sunday night, a totally revised show was sent out via email.
"The main event for Monday Night Raw, live from Atlanta, Georgia, would be the number one star on the show, Stone Cold Steve Austin, against the 2000 NCAA Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, 'The Next Big Thing' Brock Lesnar.
"The s***, as they say, was about to hit the fan.
"Steve Austin walked out of the arena in Atlanta, Georgia before Vince McMahon arrived.
"It was the greatest insult Austin could hurl at the Chairman of the Board.
"Vince loves confrontation. He got in a two second physical altercation with Bret Hart and used it as the catalyst to create the 'Mr McMahon' character. Imagine if he 'tossed furniture' with Stone Cold Steve Austin!
"Steve didn't give Vince the satisfaction of hearing 'f*** off' or 'I don't like it'.
"Steve was done. He had enough. In his mind, the company's plans for him were revealed not in the fact that Lesnar was set to win the match, but in the lack of foresight to want to do the match in the first place!
"To Steve, this was the last straw. How could he, with a clear conscience, perform on a nightly basis with a surgically repaired neck and a brutal travel schedule, when he had zero reason to believe the company he had busted his ass for was going to continue their phenomenal ride of success?
"Austin v Lesnar wasn't the issue. Austin v Lesnar, with zero build-up, placed in the main event slot of just another Monday night...a Monday night, mind you, with no competition breathing down WWE's neck any more...scheduled last minute over the weekend so the Raw writing team could get Vince off their backs.
"THAT was the issue!
"So Steve went home. Brock never took it personally.
"Truth be told, eight years later, Brock thought Austin v Lesnar with no build-up was a dumb idea, too."
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