One thing that the modern era of professional wrestling struggles with is the Internet leaking plans in advance. WWE CCO Triple H recently opened up about the fact that everyone is now a critic.
While speaking in an interview with Pete Rosenberg, The Game shared that he hopes people stop watching the product as a critic, but rather watch the show as a fan.
“This will sound offensive. Every critic that is out there. I wish I could tell people, f*** off being a critic. Be a fan. Go watch this and be a fan. If I tell you, ‘Go to the movies and watch this movie. I saw it. It’s f***ing really good.’ And you just go to the movie as a fan. You watch the movie, you have one opinion. If I tell you, ‘Hey, go see this movie. But can you give me a one-page f***ing detailed like things on the… What you liked, what you didn’t like? And if it worked for you or didn’t work for you.’ You watch it totally differently. Right? You watch the product totally differently. It ruins it for people.”
Triple H: The world was so much better when nobody knew and you just watched it
The WWE CCO also shared that he felt things were a lot better when fans did not know what was going to happen and were genuinely surprised about the outcomes. He feels that the fact that things are getting leaked nowadays ruins the fun to a huge degree.
“The world was so much better when nobody knew and you just watched it. And now, you go out and they try to ruin the surprise and I get it, that’s their business. And they try to tell you the s**t that’s going on. You just f***ing just ruin it for people. The business that feeds you, you are now ruining it for people. And lessening their enjoyment of it to a large degree. Because you are telling them all this s**t. Right or wrong that is going to happen.”
“The biggest thing I see right now on the internet is people thinking, ‘Oh, and then they are going to do this.’ Yeah, no, we are not. ‘And then The Rock’s going to show up and he’s gonna do this and he’s going to have the greatest match with this guy of all time.’ Well, except for his f***ing movie schedule, which doesn’t permit him from doing anything in this timeframe.”
Triple H on how frustrated he gets when plans get leaked
The Game also shared that his team does work hard to try to prevent stuff from getting leaked. Despite that, some plans still end up getting leaked and thus ruining the surprise.
“Yeah. We try [to not leak stuff]. And there’s still s**t where I’m like… We talk about something and the next day I see it. I’m like, ‘What the f***?’ How? Who? Like, I want to smack someone. Like, ‘How did this get out today?’ There are some s**t that I see, that I realize, ‘Okay, that’s accurate, but they are just guessing.’ Right? There’s five different ways they could have gone, and by next week, it will be something else.’ The memo that came out that said Drew McIntyre was gonna win the Elimination Chamber and now everybody believes that. That’s like, ‘Okay, great.’
“Yeah, but setting yourself up for unbelievable expectations. I think about it when Darth Vader said, ‘I’m your father.’ Right? Like, ‘Holy s**t!’ Imagine if that, a month before had leaked out and was like, ‘No, he’s really is his dad.’ And that ruins the whole concept of the f***ing movie for you. And it’s so difficult to keep that stuff tight in the information age with the internet… So, the Cena turn. The fact that nobody was saying and then John Cena turns heel was…”
Triple H on wrestling documentaries that talk about all the behind the scenes stuff
“Here’s the thing, ruining it happens before. Telling me after, doesn’t ruin it; it tells me how it was made, right? There needs to be some distance, right? I don’t wanna see the blooper reel playing. And we’ve had challenges with this, even here. There’s some things like, they put an ad in the show, and I’m like, ‘Okay, take that ad out of the show.’ You can’t show me that in the show. Don’t show me how the wires are f***ed… Not during the show, not the second it ends.
“You want to show me next week, next month? Go ahead. You want to show me a couple of months down the line? Go ahead. I had no problem last year when all the machinations of WrestleMania happened. And then the documentary version was gonna come out, and it was going to come out slightly after WrestleMania. No problem. But then it was all the alternative versions of what actually happened and what didn’t happen. So, it took a lot longer to come out than it really did. So, truth is, when that comes out, now people will have the argument, ‘Is that really what happened? Or is that everybody’s version of what happened?’ Right? Like, they’ll make up their own.. So, one thing about our business, it’s all believably unbelievable.
“So, they will make up their own bulls**t versions of everything that happens, what happens on a daily basis. ‘A memo came out that said this. In the meeting, Triple H said that.’ Or, ‘In this, this person said this. This is where they are going.’ They just make up their own s**t. They make up their own s**t after. When you tell them, it’s like we used to say this back in the day. Like, our business is set up where if you’re a fan, there’s no explanation needed. If you’re not a fan, there’s no explanation that will do, right? You can’t explain it to somebody that’s not a fan. They have to watch it and go, ‘I like that.’ Because if you explain it to them, it just doesn’t sit. So, it’s the challenge. I believe that we can tell them these things.”
Triple H shoots on wrestling veterans, exposing the business via their podcasts
During the same interview, The Game shared that he finds it ironic that wrestling veterans expose the business through their own podcasts but by doing so, they complain that the new generation is not protecting it enough.
“It always makes me laugh in this current day and age that old timers will do podcasts. Where they’re giving everything away from their generation of the business and saying how terrible it is that these kids don’t kayfabe today. So, let me get this straight, you’re on a podcast telling everybody all the non-kayfabe stuff. And then complaining that there’s no kayfabe today? Genius,” Triple H said.
What are your thoughts on the future wrestling plans getting reported way far in advance?
