For years now, Adam Cole and The Undisputed ERA have been the cornerstone of NXT and Triple H feels that the reason they have so much success is because of their genuine bond with one another.
Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O'Reilly have been running strong as a foursome since 2018 and currently, they are in the middle of morality shift on television as they prepare for their third four-on-four WarGames Match this Sunday against Pat McAfee, Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch, and Pete Dunne.
Speaking with Ryan Satin, Triple H equated their babyface turn to the likeability and staying power of Darth Vader from the Star Wars franchise.
“It’s funny that you say they’re in there as babyfaces this time. I don’t know, like even as bad guys sometimes they were getting cheered as much as the good guys, right? Darth Vader was a bad guy, but they loved the character and I think that always resonates within our business."
"But, how you handle that transition of, ‘Yeah, but now I’m supposed to be a good guy.’ Or, ‘Yeah, but now I’m supposed to be a bad guy,’ so you wholesale shift. That’s why it’s bad to tell somebody, ‘Hey, we’re going to turn you here.’ Because then they get it in their heads, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be a bad guy,’ and now they just start doing different stuff and you’re like, ‘None of this is working now.’ There’s that shift.”
Triple H would go on to compare the genuine friendship between all four Undisputed ERA boys to the genuine relationship he had with D-Generation X in the 90s.
“The realness of it. That unit is that unit. They get along. We shoot stuff with them at a restaurant, where they’re doing toasts and all this stuff and it’s kind of like, well, you just put cameras there and let them go do their thing because they just go be them.
“In a way, I always feel like that stuff resonates the most when you can see a bunch of people that are on some level legitimately have that connection to where as a viewer watching, you think to yourself, ‘Man. I’d just want to hang out with those dudes. I’d like to be at that dinner and just have dinner with them and hang out with them because it looks like it’s so much fun.’ “
Hunter continued, “So, that to me is the magic of it. When that magic is there, it’s next level. They have that magic. It’s real to them. There’s no show. I think that’s what worked with DX. It wasn’t a show. We were just us. We all got along in that manner. When it’s magic like that, it really works.”
Triple H recently participated in a media call where he discussed the trajectory of Rhea Ripley's career, Pat Patterson's legacy, and more. You can hear the full media call at this link.
