Joe Hendry Talks Match with Randy Orton, John Cena’s Advice, Triple H – TNA star Joe Hendry appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, where he discussed his surprising WWE debut match against Randy Orton at WrestleMania 41, his interactions with John Cena and Triple H, and what the future may hold for him on the grand stage of professional wrestling.
On becoming Randy Orton’s WrestleMania opponent:
“So I heard Triple H say recently, and I don’t want to misquote, but this is what I heard him say. I heard him say that revealing things before they happen is ruining the surprise, saying how it was done afterwards is almost like just the intrigue of how that happened. So with respect for that, he’s talked about conversations we’ve had. So I will say I found out about a week before and Triple H called me personally. And I thought, because I was at WWE World. That’s one of the reasons it was so well hidden, because I was already booked for WWE World. So there was no shock or surprise with me being around the company. I thought I was going to be getting a promo there, maybe presenting a Slammy, something like that. And so he said, ‘Can you talk?’ Phone goes, and very quickly we got to, ‘So I’m sure you’re aware that Randy needs an opponent…’ And I’m in the airport, I did not think that’s what the call was going to be, and I said yes immediately.”
On working with Randy Orton:
“So I don’t how far I want to pull back the curtain on that one, for a couple of reasons, but this is what I’ll say. Randy was unbelievable to work with, unbelievable. WWE has been unbelievable. TNA has been unbelievable. The way I’ve been treated, I could not have asked for better. Randy was just the coolest guy when it came to this and we clicked immediately. Because I don’t want to speak for him, but I felt like I understood the assignment, and I just really strongly felt that that visual of putting our two characters together, the spin and the RKO combining, to me, was the viral moment. So I think I was in the mindset of having a bit more experience, going back to John Cena’s advice, I wasn’t thinking so much about my moment. I was thinking about the moment for the show and for the business, and I think John giving me that advice at the Rumble helped me to have a bit of a shift there.”
What was the specific advice?
“So I remember going up to John and again, this is how cool John is. So I said, ‘Hey, it’s great to ask your advice sometime.’ This is Rumble, he’s got a huge spot here. He’s like, ‘Well, why don’t we go talk right now, and you can ask me anything you ever wanted to ask me.’ I was like, all right. So I was like, ‘I’m in there with Roman. How do I take what I’ve got and make the most of it? How do I make it more?’ John said this on Pat McAfee, so you know I’m not kind of peeling back the curtain here, beyond what’s out there. He said, ‘You don’t.’ He paused, and he explained to me, and he was 100% correct. The viral moment at the Rumble for me was the entrance, looking around, coming in and hitting my moves on Miz and then being eliminated by a Roman. After Roman comes in, that’s his moment. So it’s like, what John was trying to say is it’s like your moment is coming out there, and now you’re a cog in a bigger machine. It’s not about you getting what you can out of this moment with Roman; it’s like, how do you prop up Roman’s moment? That kind of taught me to think, instead of [being] selfish about these moments. If I hadn’t had that conversation with John, I don’t know that I’d have been thinking about the best way to do the RKO. It’s like that got me thinking about it from that perspective. I really feel like me and Randy were just on this same page. He was awesome. I can’t tell you how thankful I am to have all the moments that I’ve had.”
How did they sneak you into the building?
“So we got me in a car at WWE World, I had to change in the car, not into my wrestling gear, we did that at the building. But I had to change in the car. I got the most generic hoodie possible. So it was like, Las Vegas hoodie or whatever. I had a COVID mask, I had sunglasses, I looked ridiculous. It was covered head to toe. Honestly, I wasn’t even in the betting odds. There was an “other” category where you would have to manually put in Joe Hendry; that’s how secretive this was. It was not one of the standard options. There were about 10 options, and I was in “other.””
On Triple H saying Joe Hendry would be at many more WrestleManias:
“He did say that to me backstage, exactly as he said it in the press conference, is what he said to me. This is what I really like about my interactions with Triple H. He’s an awesome guy, he’s just a cool guy, and for him to take that moment to come over when he’s producing WrestleMania, to come over, because that moment is for me, is for nobody else, for him to give me that moment, very busy, to go, ‘Hey, listen, you’ll be here again, but this is the fun one.’ He knows what he’s doing, and in a way, him telling me that takes all the nerves away, doesn’t it? It allows you to go out there and be free and enjoy the moment. He did that at Rumble as well, because it could be an overwhelming moment for people. I have no idea why I was so calm at WrestleMania. I do suspect it’s because I ran it through so many times in my head over the last year, and part of that is because he took the time to have that conversation with me.”
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Joe Hendry Talks Match with Randy Orton, John Cena’s Advice, Triple H
