WWE: Triple H on Working with The Rock for WrestleMania 40 Creative, Carmelo Hayes on His NXT Legacy, Shawn Spears Working as Producer for NXT

Triple H Comments on Having a “Great Time” Working with The Rock for WrestleMania 40 Creative

A recent Sports Business Journal’s World Congress of Sport conference featured WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque as one of the speakers. One of the topics discussed included Levesque’s thoughts about working with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for the creative process for WWE’s WrestleMania 40 event.

“I can only imagine what’s next for The Rock. He has his hands in just about everything. We were thrilled to have Rock being involved. When you can have the biggest star on the globe, arguably, want to be a part of what we do in a meaningful way and want to do it in a way where he’s not just, ‘Hey, I’ll come in, tell me what to do, I’ll do this.’ All of his resources, all of his brain power, all of his creative, his branding, everything. ‘I want to invest in this and make it an amazing ride for our fans.’ It doesn’t get any better than that. His coming in, just across the board, if you would have told me in the beginning of the conversations we were going to get The Final Boss heel version of The Rock, I would have said you were crazy, but that’s his level of commitment. He goes off, makes a few movies now, but as he said a week ago, he’ll be back and it will be a hell of a ride when he comes back.

It is in his DNA, it is who he is as a human being. He absolutely loves it. You can see it in his passion for it. He might be going in a million different directions, but the second he steps into our world, he’s all in on us. I was fortunate enough to work with him all through the 90s and 2000s. It was a blast to get back together and creatively do this together. I had a great time.”

What did The Rock's return at WrestleMania mean for WWE and Chief Content Officer Paul Levesque (Triple H)?

"Game changer"

#WCOS2024 pic.twitter.com/Ra2IKpfvd5

— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) April 17, 2024

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Carmelo Hayes Comments on His NXT Career Legacy

In a recent interview with Jeff Johnson that was held prior to WWE’s NXT Stand & Deliver 2024 event earlier this month, Carmelo Hayes gave his thoughts about his NXT career and legacy.

“I mean, truthfully I’ve been able to accomplish everything I really set out to accomplish in NXT. Since I stepped foot in there, my first match was for the Cruiserweight Championship. I told Shawn [Michaels] straight-up, I said, ‘Hey, I want to be a top guy, period.’ He said, ‘I see that for you.’ I said, I see that for myself. I stayed true to my word, stayed true on his word. I was able to leave a legacy I think in NXT. More than anything, there’s a lot of guys I looked up to when I got there, and I lot of guys who you still talk about when you talk about NXT, the Coles, the Garganos, the Ciampas, and that’s just the men. So I want to be one of those guys that when they talk about NXT in five years, young dudes on NXT saying, ‘I want to be like a Carmelo Hayes.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Shawn Spears Reportedly Working as a Producer in NXT

As noted before, Shawn Spears made his official return to WWE for their NXT brand this past February.

Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan reported that his sources stated that Spears has started doing backstage producer work for NXT since his return to WWE. Brennan reported that Spears has started shadowing NXT producer Johnny Moss and helped produce both of the women’s matches at this past Tuesday’s NXT show.

In regards to Moss, Brennan reported that Moss is universally liked by NXT’s locker room for his work as a coach and producer for the brand.

Brennan also reported that it is currently not known if NXT officials have plans for Spears to eventually take on a full-time producer role in NXT.