WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque is pushing back against critics who claim that the promo that cold opened last night's debut of Monday Night Raw on Netflix gave away too many of the "secrets" of pro wrestling.
More News: Hulk Hogan Horrendously Booed in WWE Return
The three-minute, eight-second highlight reel was released a few hours before Raw officially hit the live streams on Netflix and was narrated by Triple H himself.
The promo covered a lot of nostalgic moments in the history of pro wrestling and WWE, including iconic moments like Hulk Hogan facing off against Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's first utterance of Austin 3:16, and even the notorious The Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 Survivor Series.
Many fans, however, were struck by Triple H openly using kayfabe terms like "face", "heel", "work" and "shoot." While these inside-wrestling terms have become relatively well-known in recent decades, the essentially open admission that WWE matches are scripted didn't sit well with some.
More News: Rhea Ripley Wins WWE Women's World Championship on Raw Netflix Debut
Triple H addressed these criticisms at the Netflix Raw post-show press conference, basically saying that the world has known for a long time that WWE is scripted.
"The reaction seems like we did a good job with it," Triple H explained. "That was the intent, to capture the emotion and let people know, we're not hiding what we do. I saw a lot of chatter today from people saying, 'Oh my God, they said heel and face and shoot and work in one promo.' We're not hiding what we do. That's what we do."
"To be honest, I think most of the world understands those terms and they've almost transcended our business," the former wrestler continued. "It's transcended our business. It's what it is, people know what we are. We talk about it. We're not insulting anybody's intelligence. We're an art form. Absolutely an art form that captures people's emotions. We don't take ourselves as seriously as most other people take us."
"It was all part of trying to capture that and say, 'If you've watched, watch this and hopefully we honor what you love," he concluded. "If you've never watched this, watch this, we'll explain to you what we are.' That was the attempt."
For more on WWE, head to Newsweek Sports.
English (US) ·