Paul Heyman recently appeared as a guest on Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling and WWE.
During the discussion, "The Wise Man" of The Bloodline reflected back on the CM Punk vs. Undertaker rivalry from WrestleMania 29.
“I thought when we were going with Punk versus Undertaker, and Paul Bearer had just passed away, and we had done the out of the box and way over the line story on television that we laid out the Undertaker, and then we poured the ashes of Paul Bearer out of the Undertaker’s urn onto the Undertaker, which was just the heaviest thing we could think of doing," Heyman said. "I was like, ‘Okay, if there’s a guy that could be anointed as a top tier star, if there’s someone that could become equal to Cena at this point in time, the Macho Man to Hogan, The Rock to Steve Austin, a clear 1 and 1A, that if we give Punk this victory, we’ve established someone for the next 20 years as a star.’"
Heyman continued, "I thought the case could be made for that. CM Punk was ready to beat The Undertaker. In Vince’s mind, and a lot of other people’s minds, and most likely in Taker’s mind, Phil Brooks was not going to get that victory. CM Punk, yes. Phil Brooks, no. That was their decision. That was their judgment. But Brock Lesnar going against the streak. The moment Vince came to us and said, ‘Hey, here’s what I have in mind for Mania. When he said Brock versus Undertaker, first thing in my mind was, ‘Oh, my God, we’re getting the streak.’ I didn’t see it any other way. I couldn’t fathom it any other way.”
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.
