10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About WrestleMania 39

4. Triple H's Press Conference

John Cena WrestleMania
WWE Network

Triple H told one demonstrable lie in his post-WrestleMania press conference: he continued the WWE tradition of inflating the actual WrestleMania attendance in order to make it seem even bigger than it actually was.

This isn't something they feel they can walk back now; if they start telling the "Universe" that that the number was closer to 65,000 than 80,000, WrestleMania will feel like an event in decline.

From that Vinceism, Triple H - the same unreliable narrator that his father-in-law is - proved himself untrustworthy...

...so how can he be trusted with anything else he said?

Before he was even asked the question, he knew what to expect. He tried to get ahead of the story and claimed that the Cody Rhodes story was unfinished, and that you should wait patiently to watch it unfold. It was a very defensive performance from Triple H, who really should have been ecstatic if the show truly went as well as he said it did from an artistic standpoint. Contrast the Triple H at the post-TakeOver: New York Hall of Fame ceremony in 2019 with the Triple H at Sunday night's presser. That tells its own story.

It is implausible to think that WWE actually has the next Undisputed WWE Universal champion in mind, and if it is Cody, they've blown it. They don't want to tell the best story; they want to tell the story that accumulates the most revenue over time.

Triple H, when patronising the fans, said that in WWE, the story is never finished. He all but said, unwittingly stepping on the Twitter ants, that WWE is not "cinema".

It is pure non-stop soap opera that cannot reach those highs.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!