Triple H Talks "Once-In-A-Lifetime" Brock Lesnar's UFC 200 Win
"They benefit from it, we benefit from it..."
It's hard to second guess exactly how WWE will have reacted to Brock Lesnar's powerful display and victory at UFC 200 over Mark Hunt away from the public. In one way, it's good for business, particularly if they put a belt on the Beast or at least book him prominently around SummerSlam and beyond.
On the other, it's bound to lead to him wanting to fight in the Octagon more. Long-term, with the threat of injury and the drop in availability, that could be seen as harmful. There's a reason there's a clause in their superstars' contracts about leaving to compete in MMA... The sense of competition remains even as they share hands and congratulate each other across Lesnar's broad shoulders.
On a conference call to unveil the new NXT Collector's Edition of WWE 2K17, Triple H was asked about how the victory reinforces Lesnar's position within WWE and how great it is for WWE and the game that he won:
"Oh, I mean, it's huge. I think anytime that you could have a WWE performer that can cross over into something else and have that kind of a night or of a performance, whatever that is, whether that's going out and making a movie or a television show or competing in something like the UFC, that's huge."
Pretty sure Lesnar's UFC run did more for the company than The Miz's performance in Santa's Little Helper...
Triple H went on to praise Lesnar himself, echoing the sentiment Paul Heyman always rings out about his uniqueness and the improbability of anyone achieving what he has in crossing the mediums...
"To me it speaks to the amazing athlete that Brock Lesnar is. And I know I said this to ESPN, but, to be able to come back at such an elite level after a fairly long period of time doing something different... and just put on that kind of performance and be dominant like that is amazing to me....We've said it a million times about Brock, but, I think it's worth repeating that he is a once-in-a-lifetime athlete that comes along that is just--you can see it when you look at him, you know?Guys don't come along that big, that fast, that aggressive, [with] that mentality. You know, he's a once-in-a-lifetime combat athlete and certainly helps everybody. You know, UFC banking on Brock Lesnar's name and in the very beginning of him becoming a UFC star and then him showing his dominance with it, and now same thing, you know, it's a great back and forth.They benefit from it. We benefit from it. It's been great, and my hat's off to Brock. He's amazing, amazing athlete."
You can smell the diplomacy, but there's nothing in there that's wrong.