Paul Heyman takes credit for orchestrating Lesnar-Goldberg at Survivor Series

Published Dec. 9, 2016 1:16 p.m. ET

Barry Werner

Paul Heyman is a man of words and action. And in an interview with Sporting News, the advocate for Brock Lesnar takes credit for being the driving force between Sunday's 12-years-in-the-making rematch between his client Brock Lesnar and Goldberg at Survivor Series.

From Sporting News:

PAUL HEYMAN : Yes, I orchestrated this all. This is all a manipulation by Paul Heyman so Brock Lesnar could get his win back. You can all thank me for this.

I own a viral marketing company called the Looking 4 Larry agency. We are the viral marketing company for 2K Sports. We handle the "WWE 2K17" promotion. They called me and asked me who should be in the pre-order. I was sitting next to Brock Lesnar when the phone call came in. I looked at Brock and said "Brock, who should be the pre-order?" And Brock said "Get me Goldberg. I want to beat his ass." That loss to him still burns me. So I said you guys should do Goldberg knowing that so far in the past when Brock did the game, Brock came back to WWE. When Sting did the game, Sting came back to WWE. When Ultimate Warrior did the game, Ultimate Warrior came back to WWE. The pattern was there. So I said you guys should do Goldberg. They bit on it. Goldberg was featured in the game.

We started trash talking Goldberg. Of course, Goldberg took the bait and he starts trash talking us back. Someone goes to WWE and says there's a lot of interest in this, look at what a viral sensation this is. Of course, it's a viral sensation. I'm a viral marketer by day and what happens next? Someone says we should do Brock Lesnar versus Goldberg. Really? What a novel concept. I have manipulated this since day one over a year ago because my client Brock Lesnar wants to get his win back from Goldberg and he gets it this Sunday.

Heyman also took full blame for a promo gone bad when Lesnar appeared in Minneapolis on a recent RAW. He says he should have never allowed his client to appear in the first place and that if he is supposedly the greatest promo in the wrestling world, as he believes he is, he should have been able to "take an impossible situation and make it look easy."

Lesnar and Goldberg first met at WrestleMania XX, with former WCW champion Goldberg emerging victorious in a controversial match that ended with special guest referee Stone Cold Steve Austin delivering Stunners to both wrestlers. Fans rained down boos during the match, as they knew Goldberg and Lesnar were on their way out of WWE.

Their rematch on Sunday comes amid a stacked card, with Raw and SmackDown Live squaring off in three Survivor Series-style matches: a 5-on-5 men's match, a 5-on-5 women's match, and a titanic 10-on-10 tag-team-based match. Raw's Sami Zayn will also face The Miz with SmackDown's Intercontinental Title on the line, while cruiserweight champion Brian Kendrick takes on SmackDown's Kalisto, who would bring the entire cruiserweight division to Tuesday night with a win.