In a new interview with Chris Yandek of CYInterview.com, Triple H responds to his wrestling critics who believe he has received preferential treatment and greater opportunities on WWE TV, because he is married to Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie. There have been claims that he held wrestlers down, keeping them from achieving more success in the WWE and receiving more opportunities to shine on the company’s television programs. Now working in creative and behind the scenes, he responds to the question if believes working in talent development is his chance to show he wants to see other guys get over.
“I know what I accomplished in this business. I know why I accomplished it. I don’t. Critics and what people say about this or that or my marriage [to Stephanie McMahon] or any of that stuff is crap. It’s mostly started by people that are either jealous or angry that they failed where other people succeeded. I mean, that’s a common, I was told it when I started in the business.
It’s a common saying in this business, you can make friends or you can make money. You can have buddies or you can get over. Which one do you want? You know, and they don’t come together. And I think, I don’t, I never look at it that way. I don’t have anything to prove to anybody. I’ll put my body of work up against anybody in the business. I’ll put my drawing power up against anybody in the business. That’s irrelevant. It’s people’s opinions.”
Triple H follows up by stating what he believes the WWE Product lacks today with the newer wrestlers in the company. He explains what these guys need to be successful.
“We’re a victim of our own success. There’s no place for guys to go and figure out how to do this. We have to teach them kind of and get them up to speed to speak. Even when you get guys off the independent scene, they are very much independent wrestlers and then the independent scene will, so these guys are the greatest guys in the world and you bring them up and they flounder on the big stage. They can’t. They can’t. It’s a completely different animal and a completely different world and you have to, it’s relearning and re-teaching. That’s the biggest, I think, struggle we have is getting these guys there.
But listen, at the end of the day, you just have to find guys with the right charisma and they have to be the ones to put that charisma out there. Nobody told The Rock how to be The Rock…Work rate is important, guy’s skill in the ring is important, but at the end of the day it’s about charisma. It’s the ability to draw fans to arenas and the guy that draws the most fans to the arena for whatever reason, positive or negative, he’s the top guy.”
He does believe the WWE product could be bigger than the 7.0 ratings that were put up during the WWE Attitude Era:
“Do I think it can ever get that big again? History can repeat. I say without a doubt. I think it can be even bigger…What tomorrow brings, no one knows.”
Finally, Hunter talks about winning the majority of vintage wrestling auctions from his mentor “Killer” Kowalski. He says they are working on a real WWE Hall of Fame for people to see all the historic wrestling items.
“I think I was gone on the road for SummerSlam, but I had somebody at the office bid online and I got I think like 99 percent of everything wrestling-wise, which I’m glad I did. I just didn’t want that to go to somebody that just hid it away somewhere. I wanted the world to be able to see how great he really was. And do I think they’ll ever be a hall of fame? Yes. I think they’ll be a physical hall of fame. That’s something we’re working on. It’s definitely in the works. It’s just a matter of when, where. Is it a traveling hall of fame? Is it a permanent place? There’s a lot of questions and thoughts on it and we’re in the process of collecting things to put in there. But the Kowalski stuff for me was as much a legend in this business was also a very personal thing for me.”
Triple H also talks about his movie role in Inside Out out this weekend and many other wrestling topics including his favorite memory. You can read a write up and listen to the entire interview at the link:
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
