Triple H On Why Fans Like Daniel Bryan, Hulk Hogan's Legacy, The Rock, John Cena's Success
Triple H recently sat down with Mike Dunsmore of NBC Sports Radio. Here are some highlights from the interview.
Why should fans be excited about SummerSlam this year: "First and foremost, it's SummerSlam and I think it's the excitement that SummerSlam always brings. It's the spectacle that the WWE always brings. It's the beauty of what we do, unlike anything else on the globe. We have the control to make it bigger than it's been the year before, or the year before, or the year before. We're always going to over deliver on our events.
"I think this year is something special in general, for me, based on the Cena/Daniel Bryan WWE Championship match which I think is a moment in time of, you know, is the torch being passed? Is this the, for lack of a better term, the Hogan/Andre moment? Is this that moment in time where fans are going to say I was there when the future changed and Daniel Bryan became the guy, like a lot of people think that he will? Or, is this the moment where John Cena continues to cement himself as the face of the WWE of this generation? It's just that moment in time and I think there's a lot of people that do believe that the change is eminent and for that reason there's a lot of hype and a lot of excitement around this event."
Why has John Cena been so successful: "I think he resonates with people. There's an honesty to John. John is what you see. Some people look at that and they think that that is a bogus, white meat good guy hero character that he puts on and it's really not. That's just John Cena. He is the guy that's out there doing almost 400 Make A Wish kids and he's very extremely passionate about it. He is the guy that came to us and said hey, we should work with Susan G. Komen.
"He's the guy that's dedicated. He's on the road every night, working somewhere in the world. To me, it's no surprise. I think because he's so honest and he's so truthful, people can resonate with him, they can kind of see something of themselves in him and if they don't buy into that, if they look at it the other way, they can see exactly what they want to hate with the world in that and that it's too good. A guy can't be that good and that nice and that true and be that good at what he does and all that stuff. They want to lash out against that and I think it's why John is one of the most polarizing figures we have. People either love him or absolutely hate him, but either way he packs arenas and they all want to see him."
Why does he think the fans have fallen in love with Daniel Bryan: "I don't know. It may be because he's something different. Again, I think with Daniel Bryan there's an honesty there. Daniel just is what he is. He's a frumpy little long haired bearded guy that doesn't really apologize for how he looks, but he's that good in the ring. It's funny to me that often times, historically, when you look back at the business, when you got past the flamboyant Hogan/Macho Man era, you had the Bret Hart technician, lot less hype and personality and charisma than those [they let their in ring talent speak for itself]. There's kind of those shifts back and forth.
"It's like they get tired with vanilla, they want to go with chocolate for a while. Maybe that's what it is? I do think that Daniel is the crossover of so many of those factors that make a superstar big. He's got charisma. He's got personality. He's different. He is his own man. There's a truth to what he says. He's not putting on a person, that just is Daniel Bryan and he's damn good and damn exciting at what he does. If you put your money on the table to see Daniel Bryan I think you know you're going to get your money's worth. I think that's exciting to people."
What Hulk Hogan brings to the industry: "I think he's one of the biggest superstars in the history of this entire industry. Hulk Hogan will forever be the face of a generation of WWE superstars. I don't know that there's a more recognizable guy. There's the Rock and there's Hogan, there's Cena and there's these recognizable characters that become household names and Hulk Hogan is one of the biggest of those of all time, a true legend in our business and no matter what, he always will have that place in the WWE Universe. Always."
If he knew the Rock would get so big: "It's funny, years and years ago I was asked to give a quick line and somebody threw names at me. When they said the Rock I said most entertaining guy I've ever met. He can morph himself into whatever is going on at the time. I remember Mick Foley and I walking into the studio for Saturday Night Live and Mick was saying I don't if Rock's going to be good at this comedy stuff because at a certain point in time he hated doing the comedy stuff in what we did. And we walked in and he was up on a table pretending he was this primate guy in this skit and we just started laughing and Mick was like alright, well I guess that's off the table now.
"He just can do anything. He has no fear of putting himself out there and letting people in and that's phenomenal and it's part of the reason for his success. He's also one of the most driven guys I know. To be on top in the WWE requires a lot of work and determination. I think that the lessons Rock learned in the WWE, he carries over and I think he has a work ethic like they've never seen before in Hollywood. He gets that from here."
You can check out the whole interview above.