WrestleMania 41 will be held in Las Vegas, NV this weekend as the two-night spectacle looks to shatter records in terms of viewership and revenue, with a roster of their top superstars performing in front of sold-out crowds at Allegiant Stadium. As a result, excitement is building throughout the wrestling world. With this week being dubbed “WrestleMania Week,” many of the top superstars and WWE management are making the media rounds, discussing all the different aspects of the program and their business model, which has morphed over time.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque is the chief content officer for the WWE and will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this weekend in Las Vegas. Recently, he sat down for a lengthy interview with WWE commentator and ESPN New York host Peter Rosenberg for the WWE’s YouTube channel. During the conversation, he discussed how the WWE has blurred the lines of what fans see on screen in real time versus the behind-the-scenes reveals after the fact, in order to provide access to new fans by explaining the why of the business.
“One thing about our business, it’s all believably unbelievable,” said Levesque. “We used to say this back in day. 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. It’s the challenge. I believe that we can tell them these things.”
Furthermore, the WWE Hall of Famer went on to talk about how the act of kayfabe, or the practice of maintaining an illusion that matches a storyline or character, is dependent on the WWE superstar and how much each is willing to reveal without giving up valuable real estate for story. Levesque said that he likes where the line is currently with his character and role within the company.
“I have to blend the line of every now and then. I’m a sort of a character but every now and then, I don’t want to tell you what the reality of it because I want to keep you in that guessing game of not sure where all this is going same point time,” Levesque noted. “I’m the guy that’s got to go out there and say the attendance was this, the gate was that, we set a record for this, or we didn’t for that, or whatever that is, right? So I have to give you the real and then I have to give you somewhat of the storyline stuff.”
In addition, Levesque says that he’s entertained by the older generation of WWE superstars appearing on podcasts and sharing stories and critiques of the current generation of stars about how they don’t honor the act of kayfabe. Ironically, as Levesque noted, the mere action of doing so on a podcast is exactly what the older generation of superstars are complaining about.
“I think 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,” said Levesque. “I had no problem last year when all the machinations of WrestleMania happened, and then the documentary version was going to come out. 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. The truth is, when that comes out now people have the argument, is that really what happened? Or is that everybody’s version of what happened.”
Finally, WrestleMania 41 is this weekend, airing domestically via streaming on Peacock and outside the United States on Netflix.
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