Triple H addressed the media after WWE WrestleMania 41 (Night One) on Saturday and was asked about WWE’s acquisition of AAA, the creative process for WrestleMania 41, and the rise of Jey Uso, among other topics.
You can check out some highlights from the post-show media scrum below:
On when he started seeing Jey Uso as someone who could be a world champion: “It’s a process, it’s not a moment, I don’t think, ever. Might be a moment where we were all like, something’s happening here, but it’s usually not a particular moment because it’s things over time. I think everybody saw something different in Jey over the last couple of years in that Bloodline story and the way he handled himself and the emotion, but I think a lot of people thought it was this cast of characters making this great ensemble piece that worked and that when he goes off on his own, it’s gonna be different, doesn’t have all these other people to play off of, doesn’t have this story. Then he goes out there and there is a different connection with people. It’s funny because sometimes I see people talk about Jey and they are like, the yeet guy is doing his yeet thing. What he’s doing is he sees something that is truly him, that resonated with people and caught on.”
On the creative process for WrestleMania 41 Night One: “It’s impossible to tell anybody the process because there are so many cogs in it. As you begin to put this event together, as the event begins to grow, as it becomes bigger, as it gets closer, every little thing that happens changes some piece of it. So it’s like having a giant set of dominos, you set it all up, and if one falls, a lot of them go down, and you begin to have to change things and tweak things around. This build was also a lot longer, so it was a different kind of build. I often think of individual matches like individual songs. For anybody who downloads, it’s maybe a different thing, but for anybody who grew up with vinyls, or cassette or even a CD era, the individual songs are great, but you saw so many bands talk over the years about the album, the album tells a story. All these songs, each individual match, comes together to make an album. So it’s a lot of factors that go into making that album.”
On what WWE’s intent is with their acquisition of AAA: “Very exciting time for us. Very exciting opportunity, I think, for us to continue to grow Lucha Libre. It’s woven into the fabric of the culture. It resonates with everybody. It’s impressive to see. We want to make sure that not only exists, but continues to thrive and continues to grow. I’m a big fan of lucha as a style. I think having all styles is incredibly valuable. Obviously, we have a particular one that we like to do with WWE, but that does not mean we’re looking to massively revamp anything. I’m looking to keep traditional Lucha Libre as traditional Lucha Libre within that world and just help it to grow, and help the athletes who grew up fans of it in those markets to realize their dream, just like we’re helping to do in the US. That will be our goal globally. To have the best of the best from around the world, and we will continue to do that. Very excited about that.
The intent is to grow it and grow Lucha Libre. It has such a cultural impact in South American, Central America, Mexico. Then, you come into the United States, there was a New York Times article where they talked about the power of Lucha Libre and what it means, especially in markets in the US like [Los Angeles]. The intent is to grow it, to grow that brand. NXT started [small] and over time it became massive. When done right. Shawn [Michaels] mentioned it last night; when you look at WrestleMania now, most of it came directly out of NXT. A large percentage of it. That’s the success of it. Mexico, AAA, Lucha Libre, it opens up the door for those athletes as well to not only grow to be the biggest thing in lucha, but if their desires are to go beyond that.
You can call it what you want, sport, sports entertainment, what we do is the greatest form of that entertainment in the world. It’s a global thing. There are places in the world where it is culturally significant to them. We’re not looking to take away from that culturally significant product, we’re looking to enhance it, to grow it, to make it bigger. To give opportunities for talent to grow beyond that and become worldwide celebrities as opposed to, not that there is anything wrong with it, but as opposed to a certain genre of something. There is room for everybody. As people grow through their careers, they don’t have to stay in one place. From a learning standpoint, to learn different styles and techniques, it’s important and it’s powerful for us to be in those markets and to be able to grow our talent in that manner.”
During an appearance on “The Flagrant” podcast ahead of WWE WrestleMania 41, Triple H discussed the objectives for athletes in the WWE NIL program, noting that some are interested in competing in both the UFC and WWE.
Triple H highlighted that the possibility of pursuing careers in both promotions is now more feasible, as they are both owned by TKO. He said,
“It’s one of those things where it just depends on who is an entertainer. There is always a possibility. Brock Lesnar, Ronda [Rousey], there is always that possibility. We’re always wide open to it. I think there are also possibilities, as we are recruiting now D1 athletes coming out of colleges in our NIL program, there are people coming into us that want to do WWE style entertainment for a living but are like, ‘I’d dip my toe into the water of taking a shot at UFC if I could.’ Whether that is realistic or not, some of those guys have massive amateur backgrounds and have trained in that stuff, but are looking to do what we do, but would also throw their hat in that ring. I would say never say never on that.”
During a recent appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin reacted to John Cena’s heel turn and compared it to his own at WrestleMania X-7. Austin said,
“John’s had of a hell of a damn run…To see what John’s doing and where he’s going right now, I love it. To see him as a heel is breath of fresh air to me. I tried to turn heel. That was something that didn’t need to happen. We tried to force that and it didn’t fit. I think the way John did it, I think it fits.”
