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Paul “Triple H” Levesque recently spoke with Anthony Sulla-Heffinger of Yahoo Sports regarding a number of current topics including the #SpeakingOut movement, the company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the possibility of reviving other classic events.
When asked about what WWE is doing to ensure the safety of its performers in light of the recent company outbreak, he spoke on the company’s mandatory mask policy, and testing everyone in advance of shows.
Look, this is a difficult experience and a learning experience for everybody, especially for us. Everything that we are doing, health and safety-wise has evolved at the Performance Center. As we learn more about it and as this changes, we’re going to continue to evolve. I feel like every day you’re getting different information.
Right now, we’re testing all talent, production crew, employees, everybody in advance of the television production and will continue that for the foreseeable future. We have a mandatory mask policy now for all performers and staff when not on camera. All of this has changed. The testing procedures, as they became more available at an accurate level — there were a lot of people saying they were testing at the beginning and doing rapid testing with some questionable accuracy. We were doing what the guidelines, what the CDC, what our medical staff were telling us were the most beneficial procedures for the health and well-being of our talent, staff and crew at that time. As the technology has advanced and the ability to test people has improved, we have stayed on top of that as well.
When asked about adopting a bubble strategy to try and curb spread of the virus, Triple H felt they cannot force talent to only be in contact with each other, due to them having personal lives.
He also reiterated WWE’s use of “pandemic-level” cleaning before and after every event.
As far as a bubble strategy, everybody has a different take on this. My feeling is, yes, it’s increasing everywhere, but our testing is increasing as well. I think we have been very successful in that, prior to this recent wave, what we were doing was working, we didn’t have a massive outbreak. As things increased, what we have been able to do, in my opinion, has been to protect the people that come in and participate with us in the performances.
When you see there are positives, that is the system working. That’s people coming from where they live, where they’re from, whatever exposure they have had, that’s us stopping it before it gets into — I don’t want to say bubble because I don’t believe you can do that to people and have them only around each other — our building. Everybody is going to be around others, their families, things they do in their personal lives. If they have had contact, are at risk or are putting others at risk, we are preventing them from coming in. Everytime that we go to the Performance Center and leave, it is pandemic-level cleaned. We’re doing everything we possibly can.
Triple H spoke on the recent #SpeakingOut movement, where a number of wrestling talent and personalities were accused of serious allegations. He spoke on WWE’s zero-tolerance policy, stating that if anyone is arrested in connection with allegations they are immediately suspended. If anyone is convicted they are immediately terminated from the company.
As we have said in the beginning, this is terrible. You don’t ever want to see somebody be in situations that you have heard about in the #SpeakingOut movement. You have to listen to people. We have always been open to listening to everybody’s point of view, everyone’s side of the story.
We’ve stated that as far as this movement goes, individuals are responsible for their own actions, but we also have a zero-tolerance policy for domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual assault. If someone is arrested for that, they are immediately suspended. If they are convicted, they are immediately terminated. There’s no leeway or wiggle room. That is what it is. We also have the ability to fine, suspend or terminate for anything that has evidence of illegal misconduct or what we deem to be enough evidence to have the right to terminate.
We’re there for our talent, we have an open door, certainly I do, for all talent to be able to come and tell us what is working for them, what is not working for them, if something is wrong and we help to make it right. That’s really what I think in this situation is all you can do, hear people out and then make the appropriate decision from there.
When asked if WWE plans on reviving other classic event names like The Great American Bash and In Your House, Triple H feels that people are looking for more fun due to all the “heavy stuff” going on in the world right now.
It’s funny because “Great American Bash” had so many more years and exposure as something in WWE and the end years of WCW, but when you put it out there, because of the way NXT is seen as a brand, it feels more like a throwback.
“In Your House” definitely was a throwback, but when we got the ability to do that “TakeOver,” it was just screaming at us: “In Your House, well, everybody is stuck in their house.” You had no choice but to book that one. It’s funny because if you flip the clock back six months ago and look at how people viewed the business and how they view it today, there are a lot of things going on today that are just a lot of fun.
I think it’s a little bit of what people need right now. You have to be a little careful with how heavy you get with the storylines because there’s so much heavy stuff going on in the world right now, I think people want to tune it out, tune into WWE and just have some fun for a little bit. It’s easy to lose that perspective, but what we do, what WWE is, above and beyond anything else is supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be escapism. You saw superhero movies shift and morph over the years, look at the last Thor, it seemed to have a bit more fun to it compared to years ago. You follow the trends, keep your finger on the pulse of it and do what you can do. Whether or not we can continue that down the road, do more throwback stuff, continue to reinvent ourselves, we’ll see. It’s all in what we think will be best for the fans.
You can read the full Triple H interview here.