He’s worked an NXT title program, appeared in a Royal Rumble, and had a match at WrestleMania — all as a TNA talent. It’s pretty clear there are a lot of people who are high on Joe Hendry at WWE.
But several of the company’s biggest names put him over after he was Randy Orton’s surprise opponent on Night Two of WrestleMania 41 last night (April 20). Starting with the man who gave him not one, but two RKOs in Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium.
In a WWE online exclusive, The Viper said:
“I couldn’t be more happy with who my opponent ended up being.
“Now, when I first heard the music, and I first saw who it was, I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to feel about it, but then I heard the people’s reaction to this guy — and they love him. They love him. Now, I had to hit a couple of RKOs… as per the usual, but then I did my own little version of the Hendry spin around — I don’t know what he calls it. But I’ll tell you what, I might have to steal that for next week. Maybe. Maybe, we’ll see when we get there.”
Next, it was WWE Chief Creative Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s turn. On the Night Two Post-Show, after discussing why last night was the perfect spot for the Brit…
“It allowed Randy to go from being the ‘voices in his head angry, crazy Randy Orton’ to ‘I’m going to have some fun and I’m going to make this kid and I’m going to still showcase what I do and I’m going to leave him better than he came in.’ It was the right thing, right moment, right time, in the right spot in a show that had a lot of incredible action to still get incredible action, have a ‘holy crap’ moment, and sort of take you on that rollercoaster ride of everything being up here and give me something different, something fun, something entertaining. This was the perfect spot for it.”
… the two-time WWE Hall of Famer singled out the TNA World Heavyweight champion for praise…
“I will just say: I love Joe Hendry. He’s a great talent, great entertainer, smart, respectful to what we do. Like, he’s got a bright future,” Levesque said. “And I was really, really happy that we could put him in this spot and showcase him for everybody on a bigger platform in the world. I told him, right before he walked out, I said, ‘You will be here again, so enjoy this one because the pressure gets heavy from here. This will be the easiest WrestleMania you ever do, and you will do more.’”
Last but not least, it was the man who broke WWE’s record for most World title wins on last night’s show… John Cena. Before he takes his campaign to ruin wrestling to Raw tonight offered his thoughts on The Pat McAfee Show Monday:
“I thought he was brilliant… Joe’s awesome. I got the chance to meet Joe at the Rumble face-to-face. He had a small moment at the Rumble. He was like ‘Hey, you’re good at this, how do I make this more?’
“I gave him some advice: ‘You don’t. You go out there and you be yourself, and you make your moment your moment. When you try to make your moment more than it’s given, that’s selfish. You’re a small piece of a greater show.’
“I think he’s gonna be a major player because he loves it and he gets it right.”
All this does is reinforce my belief that it won’t be too much longer until Hendry is a member of the WWE roster.
Are you a believer?
