At SummerSlam this past weekend, WWE did away with any semblance of post-show press conferences. Instead of challenging or even fawning questions from the wrestling media, the stars of the show and Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque spoke with a panel of WWE-affiliated personalities like Joe Tessitore, Big E, and Peter Rosenberg.
The timing likely wasn’t coincidental. It meant that Triple H and the talent didn’t have to field any questions they didn’t want to about situations like kayfabing
the world — inside and outside of WWE — on Seth Rollins’ injury, or bringing back Brock Lesnar without in any way addressing the accusation that he was at least aware of and possibly pursued participating in Vince McMahon’s alleged sexual trafficking of his former girlfriend Janel Grant.
But during his time on the Night Two post-show last night (Aug. 3), Haitch had to at least comment on Lesnar’s return after the main event to attack John Cena. Here’s what he said:
“My reaction was exactly what I thought it was going to be — if there had been a roof on this place, it wouldn’t be there anymore.
“The dynamic in the room changes when The Beast is here. Seeing Brock Lesnar comeback, anything you thought was happening sort of all goes out the window because the factor of Brock now just changes that dynamic. It makes it so unpredictable
“So yeah, incredible — just Incredible to have him back.”
Later in his appearance on the panel, The CCO suggested that Lesnar’s return came at the request of the retiring Cena:
“For me, this is sort of… this is John Cena’s wishlist… it’s him writing the last chapter of his book, and I think people saw a conversation with us where he said we’d have to screw it up pretty badly to ruin his career.
“But it’s not about that for me. It’s about John being able to go out the way he wants to go out, to write his chapter. I know what that’s like as a performer. I know what that’s like for everybody to feel that, and I think for John to be able to do what he wants to do.
“One of the very first things I said to him was ‘Who do you want, and how?’ and we’re working through that.”
The Game may be throwing Cena under the bus here a bit, but it doesn’t seem far fetched. Cena and Lesnar came up through WWE’s then-developmental promotion OVW at the same time, and their paths crossed many times during their years on the main roster. They’ve succeeded in different pursuits outside of pro wrestling, but Cena likely respects Lesnar’s drive and accomplishments. And we imagine John’s stance on Lesnar is similar to his oft-stated and unchanging one on McMahon.
WWE seems to be planning to run Cena and Lesnar’s latest clash at their Paris premium live event later this month, likely at least partially in hopes a European crowd will be more broadly accepting of Brock’s comeback. We’ll see what reactions he gets on the road to that, as that will likely be a big factor in his continued role in WWE (and maybe sister company UFC) going forward.
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