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How Triple H Really Felt About Working With The Rock Again In WWE

By Lyle Kilbane • Published 18th April 2024
Triple H The Rock WWE WrestleMania

The Rock returned to WWE in a big way in early 2024 but how did Triple H deal with having to work so closely with his old rival?

Back at SummerSlam 1998, Triple H defeated The Rock in a ladder match for the Intercontinental Title as part of a rivalry that ran its course over decades in WWE.

In 2024, the prizes at stake are a lot bigger than that title with Triple H now running WWE’s wrestling operations while The Rock has joined TKO’s Board of Directors after becoming a mainstream juggernaut in Hollywood.

The Rock competed at WrestleMania 40 in an epic tag team main event where he picked up a huge win over Cody Rhodes one night before Rhodes won the biggest match of his career against Roman Reigns for the WWE Championship.

Triple H “Had A Blast” With The Rock

Speaking at the World Congress of Sports Convention, Triple H discussed what it was like working with The Rock in the build-up to WrestleMania 40 and said despite his fingers being in a lot of pies, The Final Boss was fully invested in making his WWE return a successful one:

I can only imagine what’s next for The Rock. He’s got 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, and in a meaningful way, and want to do it in a way where he’s not just like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll come in, tell me what to do, I’ll go do this.’

Like, all of his resources, all of his brain power, all of his creative, all of those things, his branding, everything. ‘I want to invest in this and make it this amazing ride for our fans.’ It doesn’t get any better than that. So 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’re 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’ll be a hell of a ride when he comes back.

Triple H touched on The Rock’s love for the wrestling business as shown by his frequent bouts of goosebumps when he makes his entrance and adds that he had a great time working creatively with his long-time on-screen rival:

[Rock] does this thing where he comes out where he gets goosebumps and he hits his arms to show the camera the goosebumps on him. And he and I have joked about that for years. There is nothing else – like, he doesn’t finish a scene making a film and get goosebumps all over him. He doesn’t watch the movie when it comes out and get goosebumps all over him, I’d highly doubt it.

When you’re standing in a ring at WrestleMania, 75,000+ fans going absolutely insane, you get goosebumps all over you. And it’s the adrenaline rush, it is in his DNA, it’s who he is as a human being. He just absolutely loves it. And 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. And it’s been – I was fortunate enough to work with him all through the 90s, the 2000s, everything. It was a blast to get back together and creatively to do this together. I had a great time.

The Rock received a staggering payday for WrestleMania 40 meaning he’s probably even more likely to return to the ring in the future.