AOL Moviefone had the chance to sit down with the manand ask him some of those questions:
Moviefone: How do you think WWE and pro wrestling needs to evolve as UFC and MMA grows in popularity?
Triple H: I don't think we have to evolve. It's two totally different things. I think now especially there's this thing like, "oh it's very similar."
I don't see us needing to evolve to what UFC does because quite frankly sometimes the fights are long and boring, guys lying around and sometimes the fights are fast and over in five seconds. I've always thought one of the things about us, if you look at us solely from a sports standpoint, is that we always give you a good show. We're never going to give you a crap game.
I think if anybody needs to evolve, it's them. Give more of an entertainment standpoint. Give more form; they just have fighters who walk in in T-shirts and shorts and just stand there and then they fight and then they win and then they go "thanks, I'd like to thank my sponsors" and then they leave. The whole world was up in arms when Brock was flipping people off and was cussing at the beer company because they didn't give him any money and everyone thought, "oh my god, he's disrespectful," -- the whole world was talking about it. They couldn't wait to see him get beat up. And then he did well, and he beat some guys and then people jump on his bandwagon going "Brock's the greatest." I'm good friends with Floyd Mayweather and Floyd would be the first to tell ya, "I make the most money in boxing and I have the biggest buyers because I have the biggest mouth." He'd be the first guy to tell you that. That's what it's about. Sports is entertainment.
There is both truth and dishonesty in Triple H's statements. It is much easier to guarantee a specific type of event geared to a certain level of entertainment when you have control over the length and actual content of the action. That control, however, does not guarantee entertainment as proven by thousands upon thousands of wrestlers who are near impossible to watch "work" without being bored to tears or made sick by a horrible ability to do their job.Triple H: I don't think we have to evolve. It's two totally different things. I think now especially there's this thing like, "oh it's very similar."
I don't see us needing to evolve to what UFC does because quite frankly sometimes the fights are long and boring, guys lying around and sometimes the fights are fast and over in five seconds. I've always thought one of the things about us, if you look at us solely from a sports standpoint, is that we always give you a good show. We're never going to give you a crap game.
I think if anybody needs to evolve, it's them. Give more of an entertainment standpoint. Give more form; they just have fighters who walk in in T-shirts and shorts and just stand there and then they fight and then they win and then they go "thanks, I'd like to thank my sponsors" and then they leave. The whole world was up in arms when Brock was flipping people off and was cussing at the beer company because they didn't give him any money and everyone thought, "oh my god, he's disrespectful," -- the whole world was talking about it. They couldn't wait to see him get beat up. And then he did well, and he beat some guys and then people jump on his bandwagon going "Brock's the greatest." I'm good friends with Floyd Mayweather and Floyd would be the first to tell ya, "I make the most money in boxing and I have the biggest buyers because I have the biggest mouth." He'd be the first guy to tell you that. That's what it's about. Sports is entertainment.
Sports absolutely is entertainment, but for many fans, the real entertainment value is in an unpredictable, legitimate environment.