WWE CCO Triple H Comments On Working With The Rock, Dusty Rhodes' Creative Advice

WrestleMania 40 may now be in the rearview mirror, but it appears destined to be on everyone's tongue for the near-distant future. That includes the involvement of The Rock, who took the Road to WrestleMania 40 by storm when aligning with The Bloodline to battle Cody Rhodes, including scoring a pinfall to give himself and Roman Reigns a victory over Rhodes and Seth Rollins at Night One of WrestleMania.

One day before that match, WWE CCO Triple H joined "Impaulsive" to talk about Rock's involvement. And despite many perceptions regarding Rock throwing his weight around with WWE's creative direction, Triple H indicated it had been a blast to work with his former rival.

"The one thing is [that[ he is a pro, right?" Triple H said. "So all that stuff, it's amazing, and it's amazing content and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, he's a pro. We talk this all out and go through it. It's great. If we came to him and said 'This is a problem for us. We've got to change this,' maybe he would argue back, maybe he would have a different point of view. But at the end of the day, if Nick or myself still went to him and said 'Here's what we've got to get to,' he'd say 'Okay.' 

"But when he says he's taking you on a ride, and this is the genius [of it], it's blurring the lines between fiction and reality to a place that even people that are close to it are going 'I think he's taking the piss on us here.' Calm down, he's not. You're on the ride. You've pulled the handle and you're on the rollercoaster. We're driving, he's driving. We're all driving together. We're all following the same GPS."

Delving more into his philosophy regarding WWE creative, Triple H talked about advice he received from the late Dusty Rhodes back in their time in NXT, after Rhodes saw Triple H reacting disappointedly to a show not coming off 100% as he planned. Triple H recalled Rhodes stressing that not everything would always go to plan and that if 70% of the show came off as it did on paper, it would be a grand slam.

Rhodes' advice is something Triple H continues to apply to this day in regards to putting together shows, and accepting that something can still be great, even if it doesn't play out entirely as he pictured. He also noted that Rhodes' advice serves as a reminder to take a step out of being WWE CCO and view the shows as a fan.

"Nobody out there knows what you had laid out," Triple H said. "Nobody out there knows what you had planned. So you sort of got to have your plan and your ideas, and all that stuff, and put it together, and then as it starts to take place, pull yourself out of it, sit back as a fan and watch it go down. And either enjoy it or don't.

"There are sometimes [I'm like] 'That didn't work for me. I think we're in a bad place. It just didn't work. Whatever.' But if you can pull yourself out of it and you enjoy it, then it was really good. That's what matters. It's not 'Man, would've been better if this little thing happened. It would've been so much better.' It's irrelevant."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Impaulsive" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription