You don’t break kayfabe, Chael. But this is the new ‘reality era,’ as Gary LaPlante said. So now, Chael can kind of talk openly about storylines and the heel/face turn without fear of reprisal from Mr. McMahon. In fact, it’s this semi-real storyline that’s enrapturing us on Fight Pass. What’s real, what isn’t? Was this fight real? Did Chael just take a hard bump? Is he the new Brian Pillman?
I dunno.
Here’s what he told MMAFighting though:
“It ended up being a two-on-one, and in that aspect, that was the most unfortunate part,” said Sonnen. “The whole thing is regrettable. It never should have happened. That’s one of the deals with reality TV. If you have a bad moment, you’re caught. Everyone may have a bad moment. They go in their car, you yell, turn on the radio in you car and yell. In reality TV, if you have a bad moment, you’re busted.
“And then what happened was the other knucklehead jumped in, that was a crime.
That’s what it was. That was straight up illegal.”
“[Wanderlei] is very difficult. I can tell you, working alongside him on The Ultimate Fighter was really the most I ever go to know him, and it was tough on a day-to-day basis. It was really tough. He really followed a gang mentality. The more people on his side, the tougher he got.”
“I had to explain to him, `I’m the bad guy, you’re supposed to be the good guy. But when you attempt to jump me, that’s going to turn the people against you and for me, and I don’t want to be the good guy. I had to drop the fourth curtain and explain this to him, and it didn’t register.”
“They kept us apart in the back,” he said. “We never saw each other. We were at different hotels, the whole bit. He’s in the actual gym. I’m in the actual gym. I walk through the doors and I walk right up to him. He puts his hand out, he says to me, `You have no problem with Brazil, you just have a problem with me, let’s have a good show,’ that type of deal. That kind of set the tone. I was thinking, `Well, good, that’s what we’re here for.’ It wasn’t two hours later, he was cursing, he quit the show, he shoved me, pretty much right off the bat.”
“He quit and the Brazil thing on the show was fake. It couldn’t have been more fake. He said, `I’m gonna quit if you don’t apologize,’ never once thinking, if I didn’t apologize, he would have painted himself into a corner where he had to quit, which, of course, you can’t do.”