CM Punk & Paul Heyman Interview About WWE13 With New York Post

All credits to New York Post:

Earlier this week The Post Game Report had a chance to sit down with WWE Champion and WWE ’13 cover athlete CM Punk and Paul Heyman to discuss all things gaming and wrestling related.
The self-proclaimed Best In The World and reigning WWE Champion dishes on his impressions of the game, the Attitude Era and his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

How much time have you had with the game? What are your first impressions?

Punk: I haven’t had too much time with the game but certainly the time I have had with it is ten-fold of what anybody else has had. I can’t say enough about it. Not just because I am on the cover, it’s a fun game. Every year they pull out all of the stops and come up with new ways to get you to buy it and this year is definitely the case.

Heyman: I’m far from being an expert gamer, but I have two children at home who are 8 and 10, who are the litmus test for me. I got a preview copy of the game and I put them in the room with it for two hours and I knew if the game sucked they could come and tell me it that way. When I came back two hours later, they were still playing it and they loved it. If my kids will endorse it, I will be happy to vouch for the game myself.

You both have had bigger roles with this year’s game, Punk , you being on the cover and Paul you doing the writing for the game. What was it like working more closely with the team?

Punk: To me, when I was a kid, and this is kind of the stock answer but it’s true, I wanted to be in a video game and I wanted to be an action figure. The only thing cooler than being in the video game, which I’ve done for half a decade now, is to be on the cover. To me that’s a goal I don’t think I set early on, but I reached it nonetheless.

Heyman: To me, it’s a blast. I have a marketing firm in New York and we were handling the marketing for this game and THQ came to me before I came to WWE, kind of covertly and asked me to write the storyline. Only when I went back to WWE, did they gain that knowledge. I was in to do it either way when I found out CM Punk was going to be on the cover, I knew that this was his year to be on the cover. This was something I wanted to be involved in because we’ve seen from Randy Orton, to Stone Cold Steve Austin to HHH to Shawn Michaels, you’ve seen all of the guys in the past ten years be on the cover. I’ve known since day one WWE does not consider CM Punk to be the poster boy for this company so this decision was made by THQ against WWE’s wishes to put CM Punk on the cover. I wanted to do as much for this game as possible.


Everyone is talking about the video that surfaced earlier this month between you and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Were you guys in character or was there genuine disagreement between you guys?

Punk: I am a character, I don’t play a character, and the same can be said for Steve. I think there is a mutual respect, I’m not positive we get along in the world we’re in. Texas Rattlesnake, beer-drinking son of a gun and I’m the straight edge kid from Chicago. We just come from two different worlds. For all of our differences, we’re very similar. I don’t think he’s backing down from anything, and I’m not, so you put the two of us in the room [and that’s what you get]. I think that was the first time the world has seen what it’s like when CM Punk and Stone Cold Steve Austin are in a room together.


The big selling point of this game is the inclusion of the Attitude Era. Do you think that it is disrespectful to today’s superstars, including Punk?

Heyman: I do think it’s disrespectful, and here’s why. As with anything else in life, you have to constantly re-invent yourself. I don’t think it’s any secret that the Attitude Era was spawned from the ECW days, and as the architect of the ECW experience, I can tell you that the 1990s are dead. That means that the extreme concept, the Attitude Era has run its course. The reason why it is in this game today is so that people can compare the modern era to the Attitude experience. The WWE can continue to look on the Attitude Era as its glory days and ignore the magnificent performances that are being delivered every week by their current reigning, defending WWE Champion who proclaims himself to be the best in the world and with good reason, because he is. These people who are hanging onto the past need to understand that by doing that they are not allowing the audience to sink into the future.



Can you talk more about the similarities between yourself and Stone Cold? Do you view yourself as a modern-day Stone Cold Steve Austin?

Punk: I prefer to say that Stone Cold Steve Austin was the Attitude Era’s version of CM Punk. Our similarities, and I’ve already talked about it. We both work extremely hard, we both love, respect and are passionate about this business. I don’t think that when he laced up his boots that there is anybody that worked harder than him and now there is not a single person today that can lace up their boots and work harder than me.



I’m not sure how familiar you are with the Madden Curse, but are you at all nervous about that type of thing affecting you because you are on the cover?

Punk: No, not at all. When we were at the Izod Center and I had to wrestle World Champion Sheamus in a champion versus champion lumberjack match and prior to heading to the ring I was walking backstage and was going from catering to head to find Paul and the title and go to the ring. There was a giant ladder set up and everyone is walking around it even though the quickest route from Point A to Point B was to walk directly under it and I was tickled by the looks on everyone’s faces. They were aghast and were like ‘Oh my god.’ I couldn’t believe people were going out of their way to walk around this ladder. I’m not superstitious at all.