Triple H Says It Was His Idea To Shoot Boneyard Match In Cinematic Style, Discusses His Talks With Vince McMahon About The Match

– On the latest edition of After the Bell with Corey Graves, Triple H discussed his involvement with the Boneyard Match at WrestleMania 36, saying Vince McMahon tasked him with making the match “good” and that it was his idea to shoot the match in a cinematic style, something “most everybody” was against. Highlights are below.

On how Vince McMahon tasked him with making the Boneyard Match “good”: “As we started coming down the pike towards Mania, obviously Mania was taking place prior to WrestleMania, so at that point in time, a lot of things were taking place at the same time. So, when we got done shooting NXT television, I then went to Vince and said, ‘I feel like there’s something that I can take and run with it, that would probably the most helpful because everybody’s going to be running in different directions, and what do you think needs the most for me to look at,’ I guess is the way of saying it. And he was like, ‘The Boneyard Match.’ And I was like, ‘OK, great. So what is the Boneyard Match?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know.’ And he was like, ‘Graveyard. It’s in a graveyard.’ He’s like, ‘They got this huge field and they turn it into a graveyard, and it’s in the middle of nowhere.’ So I said, ‘What do you want it to be?’ He’s like, ‘I dunno. Just make it good.’ So, I was like, ‘Do you want me to take that?’ He was like, ‘Yes, please.’ I don’t remember what day it was.”

On how he worked on the match with Michael Hayes: “Michael Hayes and I — I went to Michael Hayes, who was also an agent on that, I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to grab this Boneyard Match with you.’ So we drove over to this giant field in the middle of nowhere, which I guess was 30-40 miles outside of Orlando, and the giant field in the middle of nowhere ended up being a one-acre lot behind this barn at the end of a residential neighborhood with this house across the street. Like we got out of the car and were like, ‘Where’s the big field?’ They were like, ‘No. Right here. This area right here to the street right here.’ And I was like, ‘You have to be kidding me.’ And Mike was like, ‘Trip. This ain’t gonna work. We can’t do this. We gotta call Vince right now and tell him. We gotta put this in a studio or find another location. Shoot. This ain’t gonna work.’ I was like, ‘Michael. This is it. This is the hand we have. This is the cards we’ve been dealt. We just gotta figure out how to make this work now.'”

On how WWE only gave him one camera to shoot the match originally: “So, we lay out all this stuff, come up with this concept and ideas, and finally get to a place of, ‘Some of this stuff could work.’ You know, this might be good. We’ve got this design team that’s going to build out this little set. And I get to our tech people, and I’m like, ‘How many people do I have in a crew for this? A camera crew?’ And they were like, ‘Right now, I got your one camera, and I’m trying to get you a second one.’ And I was like, ‘Well, that don’t work.’ So, I called up higher than that and was told, ‘Yeah, no, look. We’re shooting WrestleMania right now. I can get you one. I’m trying to get you a second.'”

On how he ended up using seven digital cameras from NXT and how “most everybody” was against shooting it cinematic style: “So, I then went to Vince. I pitched him the concept and idea, and he’s like, ‘I love it. That sounds awesome.’ And I said, ‘Well the problem is, right now, I have one camera.’ He said, ‘Well, we can’t do it with one camera.’ I’m like, ‘I know, so I have a solution on it, but I don’t know if anybody else is going to be in favor of this,’ but my solution was to use the digital team from NXT; Jeremy Borash and we have a team of digital shooters that we use there. Different format. I said, ‘We can shoot with them, and we can do it cinematic style. I can bring a bunch of cameras, and I can shoot all at once. I’ll shoot it like a film. I’ll shoot it in a different format, and I believe we can shoot something special with this.’ I think most everybody else was against it. Vince was like, ‘I don’t see as we have much choice, so that’s what we’re gonna do.’ So, we gathered everybody up, and we started laying it out together and then set it up like a movie and went and shot it. And we had seven cameras and used a couple of drones in the process.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit After the Bell with Corey Graves with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.