WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H has weighed in on the comparisons between WWE and UFC.
Speaking on the All-In podcast, The Game explained that while MMA is built around competition, WWE’s foundation lies in storytelling. He feels that his company is more like the Marvel Cinematic Universe than UFC.
“MMA is competitive, it’s competition, that’s what it’s based on. Though best when, I don’t wanna get too deep in their world, you have a Conor McGregor come along.
If Conor McGregor came out of retirement tomorrow and said he’s fighting in four months it would be massive. The amount of people that would gravitate towards that, the ticket sales, the viewership would be intense. When’s the last time he fought? When was the last time he won? What people are buying is that cult of personality. It’s the same in our business, we tell stories.
People within our business sometimes take this wrong. We don’t write the shows based on ‘that would be a great match’. We write based on the stories that we can create. The protagonist, the antagonist, how does that work with each other? Telling stories that can resonate with people, some kind of fantastical version of that.
There is a writer’s room, we have a large staff. There’s a show on Netflix called Unreal, and it’s, for the first time ever, a look behind the scenes at what we do. We let cameras into the writers room, we let them backstage, so you see the production of the shows. There’s months of planning that goes into stuff.
We’re looking now at WrestleMania in Vegas in April, and what those matches are going to be, and how we’re going to get there. What is the storyline arc that gets us there over time.
I would say we are much more akin to the Marvel Universe where you’re planning out long term where the movies fit and how they go with all the characters than we are direct MMA.
At then end of the day, UFC is booking matches, and the interest is that guy is really good, he’s really good, I’m not sure who is gonna win, let’s put them together. When you get the right personalities involved, then it explodes.”
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