During the latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, Paul Wight commented on WWE nixing the plans for a SummerSlam tag-team match featuring John Cena and Justin Bieber, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his frustration with his last appearance on RAW during WWE Legends Night: “I needed a restart. After the last Raw (Legends Night), it was absolutely horrendous. I was going through contract negotiations then, so sometimes when you’re going through contract negotiations with them, they’ll try to, for a lack of a better term, they’ll try to make things more awkward, difficult or to prove a point. It’s part of the psychology of the game. So, they wanted Randy Orton to pie-face me into a chair, which basically pushed me in the face and knocked me down and then I’m supposed to just sit there in the chair and take it. I’m like, ‘Well, he’s not going to shove me on my ass,’ no disrespect to Randy but Randy knows he couldn’t do it if I didn’t want him to. So, yeah Randy can put his hand on my chest, and I’ll sit down because I’m not going to fight Randy because he’s trying to get in my head. You can always do that story even though it’s the wrong story to tell with me. I mean Randy put his hands on me, and as a giant, I should have knocked him the hell out in the hallway. That would have been good business.
“But then to go to the ring and sit on the ramp or the stage with Hogan and Flair and Booker, a lot of Hall of Famers and Legends, they’re really trying to shove me down the road because, yeah, they want to use my notoriety to do community work, do overseas media, to do all that stuff – they’re taking my passion away from me, they were taking wrestling away from me. To sit there on the ramp and then get called a “has been” while I sit there and watch a match, it’s just – you talk so much about legends and respect for legends and respect for Hall of Famers but anytime a Hall of Famer is around, they get run into the ground. That’s one of those things where that machine is always moving forward and any blood that they can get out of whatever stone it is, they are going to get that last drop until there’s nothing left for anyone. The talent doesn’t have anything left, the fans don’t have anything left for them, and for me, that was just the icing on the cake. I was like, “I need to restart. I need to rebrand myself.”
On nixed plans for a six-man tag team match involving John Cena and Justin Bieber: “Years ago, and I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this on air – for one of the SummerSlams in L.A, I had worked out with a very good friend who was working with Scooter Braun and Justin Bieber. It was going to be John Cena, The Big Show, and Justin Bieber vs The Wyatts at SummerSlam. Bieber was on board. He was excited and wanted to work out with John and I. This was a really, really big deal. One of the people that were making decisions said, ‘I just don’t see how Justin Bieber is going to relate to our audience.’ It’s like, does anyone not see the amount of eyes that Justin Bieber would bring to that match? I think WWE offered to help promote his album or something. You’re dealing with Scooter Braun. Scooter Braun is all about cash. They tracked Scooter around for about two weeks and Scooter was like, ‘Listen, it’s not going to happen. I got the kid a million dollars to watch a soccer game and they’re flying him down in a private jet.’”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
