During the SummerSlam Night One Post Show, WWE surprised us with an unannounced Triple H press conference.
The company’s chief content officer stopped doing these after his bad answers to questions about things like his father-in-law Vince McMahon
dominated the internet following a few past premium live events, and stopped showing up at the panel Post Show that’s replaced the pressers after getting booed and heckled at a couple.Not all of the questioners at the surprise presser Sat., Aug. 1 in Minneapolis
identified themselves on camera. The first questioner has a gig with WWE Radio, Sirius XM’s old pro wrestling channel that was outsourced to WWE recently (Dave LaGreca and the Busted Open Radio team were in attendance, and introduced on the ESPN stream by Michael Cole as “our crew”). Everyone there focused on the positive for the most part. A few asked questions that Trips was ready, willing, and able to use one of them to celebrate Festivus early.
One was about the decision to open SummerSlam Saturday with Liv Morgan and IYO SKY. He answered by questioning why he wouldn’t, and said it was to open the show “with a bang”.
Then The Game had some thoughts about those of us who aren’t in the pro wrestling game having thoughts about his business:
“People that aren’t in our business look at spots and make these incredible claims about where the positioning should be like it’s an insulting thing. Brock Lesnar and Hell in a Cell with Oba Femi closed those show. How many times has Brock opened the show and been first out the shute? Are you saying he should be insulted he wasn’t the last — there’s only one last match on the card.
“I say this all the time: it’s like a concert. It doesn’t mean we always get it right, but you open with something big, take them through a ride through the thing – there moments like you’re putting things in places for a specific reason. This narrative of being insulted by placement —- I don’t see it. It’s this fantasy narrative that fans have made over time, which is wonderful in and of itself, but I don’t know if the talent thinks that way.”
His own company’s made it seem like a deal on occasion, like when women’s matches did it at WrestleMania 35 and 37. It seems to matter to guys like Seth Rollins, who wouldn’t even count Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair’s since it happened on Saturday, and CM Punk, who told us his return was driven by his need for the ‘Mania main event spot he finally got the past two years.
Earlier on the Post Show panel, Big E asked Punk asked about not closing Saturday’s card. The champ replied:
“Of course I had feelings about that. I’m not one of these guys that has it in their contract that I have to end the show. Listen ladies and gentlemen, there’s a main event, and there’s the match that goes last. It ain’t for me to decide. I’m too old for that. I’m just gonna lace my boots up and beat somebody’s ass.
“Whether I’m first, whether I’m before intermission, whether I’m in a popcorn match, CM Punk is always the main event”
A little later, Triple H fielded a question about Damian Priest recently saying he was tired of seeing the same people in top spots. Priest mentioned that’s something fans tend to agree with him on.
How did Hunter respond? You guessed it… with another rant about a “narrative”:
“We’re in a period of time where there’s a lot of top performers in top spots that, that over time have earned those spots, and that over time are selling tickets, and that over time are really popular, right? So you really have to do something.
“The narrative of like, ‘It’s my turn, I’ve been here for a while, it’s my turn.’ There are no turns in this sh*t. That’s not how it works. you earn the spot. Believe me, if somebody is getting over more than somebody else, we move that person into the spot and move the other person down.”
Before contradicting himself immediately, the CCO says something that immediately brings to mind rumors about LA Knight, who got some of the loudest reactions Saturday night in Minneapolis:
“But it’s not just, ‘Oh, they’re getting a loud crowd reaction than everyone else.’ Are they going to be good in the spot? Are they going to hold up their end of the bargain? Are they going to screw it up if we give it to them? Are they going to make a mistake that we regret giving them that spot? All those things factor in.
“And I love the fact that sometimes talent are like, ‘Well, it’s frustrating’ or whatever – great. That means work harder. Work harder. Get yourself there. Figure it out. Figure out how it gets done. You know, I’ve seen a million talent succeed because of what they do. Not because of storyline, creative, or ‘they gave them the spot’ or whatever. 99% of the time in this business, the person gets over, then gets the push. That’s how it works. That’s how it’s supposed to work. You go do your s**t, then we follow it. Because otherwise, most of the time they will choke on it if it’s not what the fans believe in.
“Big believer in if you want the spot, go take it. It’s there for everybody to take. When anyone says ‘I don’t know why I’m not in that spot’…I don’t know, are you more over than Cody? More over than Roman? More over than Punk? Are you more over than Liv? IYO? Those are the people in that spot, get there, make those crowd reactions happen.”
You don’t even have to be a Megastar superfan (YEAH!) to find several things to pick at in those quotes.
It’s clear however that “make those crowd reactions happen and WWE take care of the rest” just isn’t how it’s worked for Knight, Bron Breakker, Bayley, and several others on the current roster. More than a few who’ve lost WWE jobs in the past year or so would probably say the same.
Thank goodness press conferences are back. It’s nice having one place to go for (confusing) instructions on how to be a fan, and a successful WWE Superstar.
But those are just my late night thoughts. Now it’s your turn to react to the return of the Triple H press conference, or either of the above quotes. Do so in the comments below, or via your own post in The Feed.
