WWE Superstar and EVP of Global Talent Strategy & Development Triple H appeared on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast this week. The ‘Cerebral Assassin’ would discuss a plethora of topics from his illustrious 25 year career. As well as his own career, Triple H discussed some of the ‘cinematic’ bouts that took place over WrestleMania week, including the NXT match between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano.

“The funny thing is the Gargano/Ciampa cinematic ’empty arena’ match was shot prior to the Boneyard or WrestleMania” Triple H revealed. “When we realised there was going to be no Takeover, Just because of the way everything was laid out I was like; ‘man, I want to put some of these matches on TV because who knows when we’re going to get to do that.’ Nobody even knew that there was going to be shows on the other side of WrestleMania.”

Triple H elaborated further, mentioning how he wanted to have a definitive end to this feud in particular. “That was one we wanted to just kind of get it done with and be done with that storyline. So we could move everybody in their directions and make it different. The concept was come up to do something different ‘cinematic,’ so to speak, and shot with a similar team [as the Boneyard match]. But as it came closer all the options for doing it kept shutting down.”

The ‘Game’ then discussed how the plans to film the match kept getting pushed back. Mainly, because of the deadline of getting WrestleMania 36 filmed and edited. “You’re having all these changes because EVERYTHING is changing. There’s WrestleMania 36 and everything else is working backwards around that. So, it [Ciampa vs Gargano] kept getting moved down the line of the pecking order. [But] I was very happy with that match and proud of that match. The funny thing is that I think by the time we got to the Gargano vs Ciampa match everybody was already at the point of ‘these cinematic matches are getting overdone!'”

Triple H finished by revealing that the whole match was shot in one take, and that he and Shawn Michaels were extremely happy with the outcome. “I’ll tell you what those two…that was done in one shot. We just put a crew in there and they just went at it. So like they would have done in an arena, with probably like five of us sitting over here, all separated out and crew and just the two of them in the ring. They just went and they just had a match, and the fan in me just sat there was like, ‘they’re beat the crap out of each other.’ It was unbelievable. Shawn [Michaels] and I were like two little kids you know just watching it.”

With the seemingly universal praise of the ‘cinematic’ style, it’s likely that WWE will continue to film in this way whilst the pandemic causes lockdown and no fans can be in attendance.

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit After The Bell with Corey Graves with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription











