Matt Camp talks WWE press conferences.
Since late 2022, WWE has hosted post-show press conferences after most premium live events, allowing reporters to ask wrestlers questions after they appeared or competed on the show. Triple H will often also take questions during these press conferences.
As of late, there has been much criticism surrounding these press conferences, as Lucas Charpiot recently claimed that he was criticized by WWE PR for asking Triple H about Drew Gulak's release at the Backlash press conference.
On the debut episode of The Wrestling Matt, former WWE personality Matt Camp talked about how the company considers press conferences to be a part of the show and how they want softball questions.
“I know that these post show press conferences have been quite the lightning rod of conversation. When they were brought back for WarGames 2022, Survivor Series in Boston. I had done a show there, Kayla and I had done The Bump. Micheal Cole called me and said, hey, if you’re still available, can you do the kickoff? Sure, I’m there. When I was there, I knew about the press conferences. I went to the head of WWE digital and said, ‘Hey, I know you’re doing the press conference, I would like to be part of the press conference as media.’ I put media in quotes because you guys know where I worked, I worked in WWE. I said, ‘Listen, I just want to cover the show as a credentialed press member.’ Obviously, none of that is real or anything, it’s a scripted show, everything about it is scripted, they just wanted to have this post show press conference. I said, ‘Can I just go in there and ask a question?’ I talked to name that has come up in the wrestling world a lot more, I talked to Chris Legentil, who is now very important in WWE in PR. He kind of gave the heads up, ‘Hey, you can go ahead and do this. We’d love to have you ask a question.’ You know why, because I was a reliable person to ask a question. I wasn’t gonna say anything crazy, I worked there. Nothing crazy was going on at the time, not like as it’s been in the last few months where Triple H has fumbled and stumbled at some of these questions about a lawsuit or Drew Gulak. This was a pretty quiet time all things considered. I just wanted to ask about the show, I remember asking Herman a question and asking Sami a question, I’m sure you can go back and watch this footage. So, I’m just asking a question, I wanted it to be part of something we put on The Bump, but we never ended up putting any of this stuff on The Bump, take that for what you will. I wanted to just be part of the show, that’s all I looked at this as. It’s a press conference about something that is scripted. We’re gonna ask questions for the most part, for the media that was there, because you’re talking about how’d you feel about this. There’s a gray area of Kayfabe and what’s real and what’s story, and you were getting some real emotions out of people like Sami Zayn. Paul kept it very on the level, Paul has always been good at finding that gray area and bringing that reality to a scripted program. That’s how it started, I remember the media that was in there. Just to give you an idea of why I think we see the media members get criticized — after I was done, one of the media members came up to me and asked me for a picture. Happy to do so, but I don’t think you’re giving off the right message to WWE — or maybe you are, because that’s exactly what they want. They want fans in there. They want people that want to be part of the show and that don’t want to mess with their part of the show. The press conference is part of the show. Does Triple H come out at the end and [talk about] setting all these records, yeah sure, that’s the real part. But, they want this to just be an addendum. We wrap things up, we let people speak a little bit. For the most part, they want softballs, right? That’s why there has been criticism with some of these questions. I did that a few times, probably five or six times.”
Camp went on to criticize journalists for not taking the opportunity seriously, noting that many of them have lost credibility at this point.
“The Royal rumble one last year where Cody wins and he drinks the Mountain Dew and says that’s excellent because he’s a fantastic politician that way, we all laughed at that. At that very same press conference though, as I was sitting there, a pretty well known sports entertainment wrestling reporter is talking to Cody and like literally plugs his website and the price of his website. Right there, I think your credibility goes out the window. WWE is gonna laugh at that and go, yeah sure, he’s just playing along. You don’t see somebody at the NBA playoffs plugging — they identify where they’re from, but they’re not going, ‘Well, it costs $9.99 to listen to what I do.’ No. I’ve heard people at press conferences for WWE and AEW use their stage name or their nickname. You’re killing your credibility doing that kind of stuff. Then you are playing into everything they want. Now listen, if WWE wants to have these press conferences and they’re going to invite press in, I’m state media. I’m trying to ask good questions to create good content. I work there. I know other people went there for that and they were high fiving each other for covering it. There is a phrase that I have lived by for a very long time in my life, act as if. Act as if you’ve been there before, it’s from a movie called Boiler Room, it’s a great movie. You have to present yourself in a certain way. If you’re gonna come in there talking about your nickname or trying to be buddy buddy or making jokes, that’s not what the media does. If you want to just be part of the show, be part of the show, because that’s what WWE wants when they get those questions at those shows. They want you to be part of it. They don’t want you to push. I think they could do a better job at prepping Triple H on these so he’s not like, ‘Well I didn’t read the lawsuit’ or this guy’s not credible, he rips Fightful and Mike Johnson for not being credible. Then, everybody is getting cheese from Fairfield and Greenwich, Connecticut. If he’s prepped better, that stuff doesn’t happen. But to me, I went in there going, I’m part of a show. I work here. I want my question to be good. I want to, as always, further storylines and put people over. I remember asking about Gunther after Cody won the Rumble, going an hour and eleven minutes and starting at number one. I was trying to put Gunther over, I was trying to give Triple H a chance to talk about how great one of his up and coming stars was. Other people can ask questions similar to that, I have no problem with that. But if you’re gonna be goofy about it and you’re gonna talk about having nicknames and trying to plug your website in a way that’s not natural and you try to be your own personality, you’re not a good media member. I have been very appreciative, now that I’m on the outside looking in, at those who have asked tough questions. Because WWE doesn’t tell you anything. You’re calling for a mic, you’re trying to get a question. Yeah, they’re not gonna be happy if something is tough but if they’re gonna open the doors to the media, then everybody that sits up there should be prepared to answer the questions.”
In compltely unrelated and totally coincidental news, fans can subscribe to Fightful Select today for just five dollars! That might be our best plug yet.
In other WWE news, check out Fightful's recap of the May 20 edition of Raw by clicking here.
If you use the above quotes, please credit the original source and link back to Fightful with an h/t for the transcription.
