In a recent interview with Peter Rosenberg, WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H offered his insights on the return of arguably the biggest star in Hollywood, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, to WWE.
“If you’re writing this show, if this show is your responsibility and somebody says, ‘Hey, the biggest star in the world, probably one of the most recognizable people on the planet, the biggest star in Hollywood, wants to come and do this stuff and be involved in this, that’s a pretty good thing,” Triple H acknowledged. He emphasized the massive impact of The Rock’s presence, stating, “It brings so many eyeballs. It brings so much attention.”
However, Triple H also highlighted the unpredictable nature of The Rock’s involvement. “There’s a factor with him, he will say this all the time, disruptive all the time. It’s unpredictable. If Rock shows up, you don’t know if he’s just going to go out there and cut a promo that you’re like, I don’t know what he just said, but it’s cool that he was here, but I’m confused, but that’s cool, or if he’s going to get heavily involved and you’re like, well, this just threw a monkey wrench in the whole thing. You’re unsure. It’s a great place to be.” This unpredictability, according to Triple H, adds an exciting and dynamic element to WWE programming.
Triple H also connected The Rock’s return to the overall health and popularity of the wrestling business. “In these moments now where you start to have somebody like The Rock involved, and I’m not saying this from a cocky standpoint or anything else, if the business was the sh*ts, The Rock wouldn’t be making appearances for us. So when the business is hot, people want to be in it and want to be around it, and right now, we’re fortunate it’s hot. It’s our job to keep it there.”
He further illustrated this point by listing a plethora of celebrities drawn to the current WWE landscape. “Having it be that way brings The Rock. It brings Travis Scott. It brings Bad Bunny. It brings Jelly Roll. It brings Tony Hinchcliffe. It brings Andrew Schulz. It brings Tyrese Halliburton. It brings Jalen Brunson. It begins to bring all of these celebrities. It’s one of the things that we deal with. Seemingly daily, I get a call that says, ‘Hey, this person wants to come to the show. What will we do with them?’ I’m like, ‘Get them tickets.’ I can’t make the show all about them. I’m thankful they want to be involved. If I have the right idea, we’ll plug them in, but I can’t force stuff to include people, but that is the beauty of what we want to do. We’re not just having people come in because they want to, Oh, they got a show they want to promote, or something like that, which is great. People want to be in the show and be a part of the show and be a part of this. It’s a cultural movement. It’s a part of the Zeitgeist right now. It’s such a big thing that’s happening.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit WWE’s YouTube channel with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
