THE REALITY ERA
Triple H: “People will say all the time that we don’t listen. There was such a large period of time where half the people were booing John Cena, and half the people were cheering him, but he was packing arenas. He was selling more merchandise, he was more popular than ever; everything that we did, John was so far ahead of everyone else it doesn’t matter that half the people hate him. It’s difficult now to find the one that every single person likes.”
-Hunter talks about the Attitude Era and how it was geared towards one demographic. But now, they try to appeal to the 8-year-old in the audience, the teenager with all his friends, the parents, the grandparents and all races and religions.
Triple H: “When we don’t tell the story well – whether that’s bad writing, bad execution, whatever – people don’t buy it. Especially when they know the reality of it. When you look at what we did from a storyline aspect: Daniel Bryan’s eliminated early, Roman Reigns goes to the end of the Rumble and he ends up winning. Years ago you just follow that storyline – he must be good, he won at the end. The ‘Reality Era’ says ‘no, they’re pushing Roman Reigns. I don’t want them to push him.’ We were holding back Daniel Bryan, because whatever reason we’re holding back Daniel Bryan.”
-Austin notes that Roman had a good night at RAW, and thought the spear on Big Show helped him. Triple H talks about how fans say Roman Reigns isn’t ready to be “the guy”, but says that nobody is ever ready to be in that spot for the first time, because you don’t know how things change, and what kind of pressure gets put on you. He claims he would have failed if WWE put the title on him in 1996 and that Austin was ready when they went with him instead.
