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WWE's Paul "Triple H" Levesque appeared on WFAN this morning in NYC, discussing Summerslam and more with Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata.
On why WWE expanded Summerslam to two nights, Levesque said, "Look, it has been successful for us on the WrestleMania side for sure—the two-night WrestleManias are destination weekends. People plan their year, their vacation around it. A lot of folks come in on Thursday, they're going to the World, seeing all the memorabilia, getting autographs, coming to SmackDown on Friday night, then the Saturday-Sunday events. NXT in the afternoon sometimes on Saturdays, all the way through to Monday night. This time, we’ll be at Barclays Center. If you're a fan, there's nothing like it. It's going to Disney for pro wrestling. It's worked for us at WrestleMania. It'll work for us at SummerSlam. It's going incredibly well. The business is there—so let's take it.”
While discussing WWE Unreal, Levesque explained why it's more challenging than ever before to produce WWE content. "I think the Internet....you could do things at that moment in time when you go back and you talk about Hulk Hogan, right? People didn't know. they didn't know the ins and the outs. They didn't know what was going on behind the scenes. They maybe talked about a little bit. Now, you can't, if you're bringing in a new talent, like you gotta hide him at a different airport. You can't let him be seen at the building because the second you do. It's everywhere. People want to report on everything, and it's the funny thing that you talk about on real, like people that are fans of our business are just as fascinated with the behind the scenes of what we do as they are seeing it take place in the entertainment that it provides in real time. and all the things that goes into it. And there, as you said with the show, there's so much that goes into the creation of this, but fans are fascinated with it. The people that are complaining about us lifting that curtain and showing people behind the scenes are mostly the people that are already talking about it anyways. They're on podcasts, they're debating it with their friends. They're already there talking about all of it. We're just giving you a look into what really goes on and what happens behind the scenes. I think much like Drive to Survive did for F1, I think this opens up the doors to a lot of people that aren't necessarily fans, but that can watch this and appreciate all that goes into it and say man, these people seem fascinating. They approach what they do with such an incredible passion. I want to see what the final product is that they put out, and hopefully that leads to them becoming WWE fans for life."
On trying to make sure the creative keeps clicking, Levesque said, "We do Raw, SmackDown, NXT every single week—52 weeks a year. The story never ends,” he noted. “You cannot name another entertainment source—whether television, scripted or otherwise, music—anything that has that run of consistency. It’s a huge team. Anybody that says, ‘Oh, this one person, the creative goes through them’—people say that a lot about me—it’s a massive team. When I’m dry, hopefully somebody else has a great idea. And when you hear a good one, you know it. The ideas are coming from talent, our writing team, our producers—from everywhere. It doesn’t matter where it comes from. We’re always looking for what the best is.”
In comparing today's WWE creative to Vincent J. McMahon and Vince McMahon, Levesque noted, "Back in the [Vince Sr.] days, there was a lot less overall storytelling. It was a lot more about matches and the promotion to get to those matches. Vince Jr. took it in a different direction, So I think talent had input on what they did creatively in-ring. where the end result was up to the promotion and up to Vince Sr. Vince Junior, it went all over the place from his idea to do it this way, to, the right talent having a lot of creative input. I like to work directly with talent, and, Vince did as well. Don't get me wrong. That was his strong suit. I worked with him for many years. It's how we created a creative, partnership. But I love to work with talent. I love to hear their point of view. They know their characters. Let's get all those points of view together and then determine the best route for it, right? And as long as everybody is open to, 'Hey, we want to do this, but that might not be the best idea on the table. Somebody might have something better.' I don't care whose idea it is, where it comes from. Let's take it, run with it. If we can make fans happy or make them intrigued or make, sometimes make them mad, at what we're doing. That's what it's all about. Silence is the enemy. Loud reactions is, where we're at. It doesn't matter where the idea comes from. We'll run with it."
You can listed to the entire interview by clicking here.
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