Triple H responded to a question about Vince McMahon’s recent “blood and guts” comments during last night’s media call following the WWE NXT “Takeover: Toronto 2019” event.
Triple H was asked by Mike Johnson of PWInsider how they teased going in the direction of “blood and guts” with the 2 of 3 Falls main event between Johnny Gargano and NXT Champion Adam Cole, which ended in a Steel Cage match that was filled with weapons. Johnson mentioned seeing some blood “but no heavy blood loss” in the match, and Triple H quickly corrected him.
“When you say there was very little blood, you mean none. There was no blood,” Triple H responded.
Johnson recalled seeing a small bit of blood on Cole’s back when the match was over.
“Honest to God, you’re going to call me out on that? When he gets scraped on a table… [Inaudible] No, no, honest to God, you’re digging deep reaching for this one,” Triple H fired back.
Triple H continued, “I gotta tell you guys, there was nothing in that cage, except for the barbed wire at the top, which didn’t get used. Did not get used. There was nothing in the cage that you haven’t been seeing on TV in WWE consistently, so to say this is some kind of… man, you guys gotta get off your conspiracy theories and stuff, you’re digging here but you’re making yourself look stupid. You’re digging hard for something that ain’t there.”
Johnson said his point was that Vince just said the company wouldn’t be going a certain route, and commented on how they “go left and NXT goes a little right” instead. Triple H fired back again.
“What did he say? Blood and guts. Blood – did you see blood? Intentional blood. I’m asking the question… right, you just answered the question. You just answered the question. There wasn’t any, so what you’re digging for isn’t there. The ridiculous thing of this is that there was nothing in there that you have not seen. Barbed wire as a deterrent from people leaving the cage, did not get used. Nobody intentionally bled. There was on blood anywhere. There were chairs, there were kendo sticks, it’s all stuff that… different pliers, they weren’t needle nosed, but if you want to go there maybe those were different. What else was different? What was the gore and the guts that we went to, that’s making you say this is a different turn?,” Triple H responded.
Johnson continued and asked how you rectify the idea of not going the direction Vince said they would not be going in, and then tease that with the Takeover main event. Johnson reiterated that he was talking more about the tease, not the actual physicality, and asked if there’s a conversation or a point where they say they can’t go any further than they did with the Takeover cage match.
“Yeah, we didn’t go any further,” Triple H said. “Like, a tease? We didn’t, man. I’m just going to leave it at that. You’re digging for something that’s not there.”
The call then suffered from audio technical difficulties that led to the two speaking over each other as others on the call laughed in the background. The call fell apart due to the technical difficulties and that’s when Triple H moved on to the next question.
Johnson was referring to comments made by Vince during the recent WWE 2019 Q2 earnings call with investors. Vince was asked if WWE would be getting edgier with the storylines now that Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff were hired as the Executive Directors for RAW and SmackDown.
Vince responded, “We’re going to be a bit edgier but still remain in the PG environment. We’ve just come anywhere close actually to go into another level. So that will be something will do in terms of direction of content, more controversy, better storylines, etc. But at the same time, we’re not going to go back to the bold attitude era and we’re not going to do blood and guts and things of that nature such as being done on perhaps a new potential competitor. We’re just not going to go back to that gory that we graduated from. And again, a more sophisticated product. Again attracting much better writers and attracting better management things of that nature. So again, I feel really good about it,” Vince said of the ongoing creative changes. (H/T to SeekingAlpha for the transcript.)
Vince later made another reference to “blood and guts” when talking about competition from AEW, and others in the entertainment world. This is where the WWE Chairman said he can’t speak for TNT, but he can’t see the network putting up with the “blood and guts” type of content from AEW.
Vince said, “As far as competition is concerned, competition is good for everyone. I think that’s generally the case. Although again, we’re hoping that to the extent that they are competition that they don’t continue on blood and guts and gory things that they have been doing. And I can’t imagine, I can’t speak for TNT but I can’t imagine they would put up with that.”
