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Came across this the other day and thought it was one of the most interesting wrestling related material i've ever read...Triple H is a brutal motherfcuker.
Triple H: The Man, The Pro, The Ego
In World Wrestling Entertainment, detail is crucial: it’s so important,
in fact, that the McMahon family’s fingerprints can be found on
virtually everything emblazoned with a WWE logo. A micromanager,
supreme leader Vince McMahon works 80 hours per week, and obsesses over
every aspect of WWE’s output. It is a work ethic he has handed down to
his top lieutenant, the Executive Vice President, Creative Wrestling,
Talent Relations & Live Events (could her job title be any longer?)
Stephanie McMahon-Levesque. In WWE creative team meetings, Vince likes
to brag what separates WWE from it’s competition, past (WCW) and
present (TNA), is quality control. We’re talking McMahon family pride
and consistency here: that’s what they personally bring to WWE’s
product. To Vince and Stephanie, WWE is the commercial embodiment of
the McMahon family, and that means WWE has to be just as perfect as
what the egotistical father and daughter see in the mirror each day.
Whether it’s RAW announcer Michael Cole’s tone of voice or the way
Vladimir Kozlov sells or the ring entrances which are tailor-made for
each star performer, WWE fans can rest assured that they are seeing and
hearing exactly what the McMahon’s want.
Since all the facets of WWE’s image are meticulously planned and
stage-managed from the top, insiders know that everything is done for a
reason. Each detail contains valuable clues about the McMahon brain
trust’s plans for WWE’s future. That’s why it should come as no
surprise that a memo distributed to the media in August by THQ,
publishers of WWE’s forthcoming SmackDown Vs RAW 2009 video game, has
been the source of so much buzz and controversy in wrestling circles.
As reported in last month’s issue, THQ laid down the ground rules for
screenshots from the new game, the most scandalous of which will haunt
Paul Levesque forever: “Refrain from showing Triple H in a
losing/defeated/defenceless position.” The absurdity of this request
bears repeating: WWE was so protective of Triple H that it requested no
magazines publish photographs of the animated version of him appearing
vulnerable. In a normally shambolic wrestling company like WCW or TNA,
this would have been regarded as a fluke P.R. mishap, a quirky
bureaucratic miscommunication or an isolated incident of vanity run
amuck – not necessarily a part of some grand plan dictated from the
top. Since this was a WWE directive, however, wrestling fans and
insiders saw this memo as one more meaningful piece of evidence
corroborating the near-decade-long conspiracy to shove Triple H down
the throats of the fan base ahead of his co-workers.
The backlash online was predictable: words to the effect of “HHH is now
holding down wrestlers in video games” were posted on websites and
forums. The folks in Stamford, Connecticut certainly asked for it.
WWE/THQ did not forbid journals from publishing screenshots of any
other WWE performer “in a losing/defeated/defenceless position”:
magazines can run a dozen images of Batista, Shawn Michaels, John Cena,
Randy Orton or The Undertaker getting beaten up, if they wish. The
stipulation in the press release was just an extension of the
preferential treatment that HHH has received, really since his
memorable wedding angle with Stephanie McMahon, whom he had drugged and
married against her will at a drive-through wedding chapel in Las Vegas
the night before she was supposed to marry Test on the November 29,
1999 RAW (that, more than his first WWF title win on the
post-Summerslam 1999 RAW, was the turning point for HHH: once he was
linked with Steph and embroiled in a deeply personal feud with Vince
McMahon, he had it made) Triple H’s win over Vince in the main event of
Armageddon on December 12, 1999 – following which, reluctant bridge
Stephanie decided that she enjoyed being married to HHH after all – set
the ball rolling for ‘The Game’ after a rocky few months in which he
had won, lost, regained and dropped the WWF title. On January 3, 2000,
he captured the WWF title for a third time from Big Show and then
scored back-to-back victories over Mick ‘Cactus Jack’ Foley at the very
successful Royal Rumble (in a stellar Street Fight) and No Way Out
events (where he supposedly ended Foley’s career in the Hell in a
Cell), and bagged an unprecedented heel victory in the Fatal Four Way
main event of WrestleMania 2000, then the biggest money-making PPV in
wrestling history. HHH, who would deservedly be ranked number one in
the 2000 PS 50 after working further blinders with The Rock, Chris
Jericho and others had an incredible year commercially as well: the WWF
made a massive profit of $68.9 million between April 2000 and April
2001, if the company hadn’t launched the disastrous XFL in Steve
Austin’s absence (November 1999-September 2000), HHH was one of the top
two names in the company (with The Rock) a position which he clearly
warranted. But as good and successful as he was, many were growing to
resent him . . .
In September 2000, Stephanie McMahon replaced the late Chris Kreski as
the WWF’s head writer, and soon entered into a real-life relationship
with her on-screen husband, while he was still going out with Joanie
‘Chyna’ Laurer (Levesque and Laurer split when Laurer learned of the
Levesque/Steph affair) It is worth noting that even before the
Levesque/Stephanie relationship began, HHH had ingratiated himself with
the McMahons and obtained booking influence in the company. With head
writer Steph as his new girlfriend, that influence inevitably
increased. Before long, the gossip that ‘The Game’ was harnessing
Stephanie’s creative power to hinder or torpedo his enemies’ careers
while promoting himself to the detriment of the company’s best
interests because accepted as common fact throughout the industry. Was
it fact or simply a vicious rumour, triggered by jealously of his
seven-figure-per-annum main event spot in the promotion? In a business
filled with hypocrisy, lies, distrust and fluctuating allegiances, how
seriously should fans take the reports about Triple H’s reign of terror
backstage? What exactly has he done to earn this fearsome reputation?
Seeking inside opinion, your writer quizzed several WWE employees, past
and present about Triple H and his impact on WWE booking. The answers
may surprise you. For a laugh, I contacted one WWE writer whom I hoped
would be willing to contribute to this article but expected to
declined, for reasons I cannot divulge. To my surprise, the subject of
Triple H’s escapades backstage so deeply affected him that he sent me a
lengthy reply in which he detailed Levesque’s standing in the company.
Here is a reproduction of one section of his e-mail that I thought
would particularly interest Power Slam readers. It is, as I’m sure
you’ll agree, a revealing view of the WWE backstage workplace . . .
“When I first started working as a writer in the WWE, this is the
creative format that was used: we all pitched ideas to our respective
show’s head writer and then they would e-mail a draft of the show to
the full writing staff, Vince and Stephanie on Friday night. This would
allow all of us to read the shows before the marathon Saturday
conference calls that would begin at 9am and continue, on some days as
late as 5am. But there was one additional person, who would receive the
shows: HHH. His position as a member of WWE creative was never
established, yet he had to get a copy of the show, lest we incur both
his and Stephanie’s wrath. Curiously enough, HHH would never
participate in any of the conference calls. His changes would be passed
on to Stephanie. She would declare in a firm voice on the Saturday
conference calls, ‘Hunter doesn’t like that idea, and this is what he
wants to change it to.’ Then Vince would always say in a nice, soft
tone, which was unusual for him: ‘Hmmmmm. What do you all think of
that?” Brian Gewirtz, the notorious Stephanie and HHH lackey, would
always be the first to reply, without a moment’s hesitation, ‘I think
that’s a brilliant idea, Steph!’ in his Eddie Munster voice. Then every
other writer, with the exception of one or two, would chime in saying
variants of ‘I agree’ and ‘good idea’, etc. Then Vince would say,
‘Well, if there’s no disagreement, make the changes, Brian.’ Same
routine, over and over, whenever it involved a change suggested by HHH.
It seemed like a work to me: Stephanie firmly declares HHH’s idea,
Vince acts neutral towards it and asks for our opinions, and then
Gewirtz quickly kisses Stephanie’s ass, prompting everyone else to
agree. (SMH)
“This routine would never change, except those weeks when we had a
triple-header work marathon (Sunday PPV, RAW on Monday, Tuesday taping
of SmackDown): we would work on the RAW scripts during the day of the
Sunday PPV. In those instances we wouldn’t e-mail the scripts to HHH
--- we would hand-deliver them to him. Normally, the head writer of the
show would give it to him, but occasionally that job fell to me. I
remember being nervous the first time I delivered the script to the
McMahon dressing room where HHH would dress (he would never use the
locker rooms with the rest of the boys). When HHH answered I told him
the RAW script was ready for his review. On the first occasion, he
grabbed the script, flipped through it but did not read it, and asked
me point-blank: ‘Am I f—king going over?’ This first time that I
delivered the script to him, he did indeed win his match, so I said
yes. Then he politely gave the script back to me without reading it and
said, ‘That’s all I needed to know,’ and walked back into the McMahon
locker room. A few months later when Gewirtz had another weekend off, I
delivered another RAW script to him on a PPV Sunday. And it was the
same routine. He nonchalantly flipped through it and said, ‘Am I f—king
going over?’ This time, however, he was to lose his match via
disqualification. He would keep his title. I said to him, ‘Well, sort
of.’ Then HHH froze. He said, ‘What do you f—king mean, sort of?’ I
said, ‘You lose the match via DQ, so you still keep the title.’, ‘What
page?’ he growled. After I told HHH the page number this occurred on,
he ripped that page out, threw the rest of the script to the floor in a
rage, and slammed the door in my face. Needless to say, the next day
during the agents’ meeting, the script had somehow changed and now HHH
won his match – cleanly. This was hardly an isolated incident. (WTF?!)
“Ultimately, it’s not HHH’s fault or even Stephanie’s fault, really.
WWE is Vince’s company: no one challenges him or what he says must
happen. I spent a lot of time with both HHH and Vince together --- in
some cases, five hours a day, especially when we had to take Vince’s
Challenger Jet from Connecticut to somewhere on the West Coast. And the
fact is that Vince has no objectivity when it comes to HHH. When any of
us writers come up with an idea, Vince would say things like: ‘That’s
great! Why am I even paying these guys?’ and then laugh, while pointing
at all of us strikers. In stark contrast, when Shane McMahon would sit
in on some agent meetings, his ideas would be shot down by Vince. Vince
was at his most human when interacting with Shame, in that he would
yell at Shane like any dad yells at his son, but the yelling was always
to try and make Shane better. With HHH, though, Vince would never
publicly disagree with him. And with Stephanie by his side, he would
accept whatever trash HHH spewed. After all, Vince would do anything
for his baby girl. She would incessantly whine to him about putting HHH
over, so Vince would do that for her . . .”
As incredible as this writer’s account of the backstage environment in
the company might seem, his story is remarkably similar to others I was
told in interviews I conducted with various WWE writers, producers,
agents and backstage personalities for this article and for my book,
Ring of Hell. That, to no surprise, leads us to the conclusion that the
gossip about Triple H’s domineering influence backstage appears to be
fundamentally true. In Ring of Hell, I quoted former WWE writer Dr.
Ranjan Chhibber as saying that HHH once summoned him to a one-on-one
meeting to personally advise him to abandon his friendly with then-WWE
writer Paul Heyman, so he could instead form a new working relationship
with HHH’s buddy Gewirtz (who had a long-running feud with Heyman). A
WWE official interviewed for this article told me that HHH’s power is
so indomitable backstage that, “If HHH tells a joke, everyone has to
laugh. If you don’t laugh, you will be noticed and called out. It
happened to me once, and Stephanie said, ‘What’s the matter: don’t you
have a sense of humour?’ “ Let’s be frank: it hardly takes insider
testimony to determine that Triple H has continually benefited from the
sympathetic booking. While others are presented as vulnerable and
occasionally silly, WWE for nearly nine years has ensured that the HHH
character is always strong, dominated and smart, even when he plays
heel. There are so many examples, stretching from the month Stephanie
was appointed head writer in 2000, that it’s easy to come up with a
list of incidents:
2000: Triple H pins Kurt Angle at Unforgiven to abruptly end the extremely over HHH/Stephanie/Angle love triangle storyline.
2001: Steve Austin, the wrestler who did more to make Vince McMahon a
billionaire than any other, is demoted to the position of HHH’s heel
associate in April and May. ‘Stone Cold’ and ‘The Game’ had never been
close: this only drives the wedge deeper. Meanwhile, ‘The Game’
squashes rising star Jeff Hardy to remind everyone of his overwhelming
superiority.
2002: Undisputed champion Chris Jericho plays the demeaning role of
Stephanie’s poop-scooping butler and Triple H’s punching bag on road to
WrestleMania X8, after ‘The Cerebral Assassin’ vetoes the original plan
that Jericho and Stephanie are to have an affair behind his back.
Jericho predictably loses the Undisputed title to HHH in a ‘Mania match
which could not hope to follow The Rock Vs Hollywood Hogan, but is
placed in the main event spot at Hunter’s request, so the image of him
holding both title belts closes the show. At Unforgiven in September,
HHH pins Rob Van Dam, another rising star. Sharp as a tack, RVD already
knows what HHH’s game is.
2003: Triple H denies underdog Booker T a victory at WrestleMania XIX
after degrading him with racist innuendo for weeks. In their match,
heel HHH hits the Pedigree and waits 23 seconds before making the
winning pin on Booker. Add ‘The Book’ to the list of people who resent
Triple H.
2004: New World Champion Randy Orton is portrayed as a cowardly
babyface, who dumps the title to heel Triple H at Unforgiven, just four
weeks after winning it.
2005: HHH triumphs in the Elimination Chamber match at New Year’s
Revolution, winning the title from --- yes! --- HHH, who had vacated it
in November, so he could regain it and pad his own title record. (This
is his fifth World title, by the way.)
2006: HHH and Shawn Michaels smash five careers with their senseless
slaughter of The Spirit Squad. Meanwhile, HHH decides that no younger
talent, who might potentially benefit from the association, are allowed
to join him and Michaels in the reformed DX.
2007: HHH is pinned by Jeff Hardy at Armageddon in a textbook example
of how to technically lose a match while burying your opponent . . .
My sources also confirm the widely held belief that Levesque uses his
influence to impede or sabotage careers of wrestlers he’s not even
facing. Two WWE writers whom I spoke to for this feature --- who
naturally insisted on anonymity before they would talk honestly about
Triple --- offered specific examples. The first writer claimed that
Tripper’s venomous attacks contributed to the exit of Mick Foley and
Billy Kidman from the WWE roster. He told us HHH disparaged Foley
whenever he appeared for the company, and diminished his value in the
eyes of the McMahon family. “Foley is an out-of-shape nobody,” HHH was
reported as saying “Funaki puts more asses in seats than Foley does. He
should pay us for coming on our shows.” Meanwhile, HHH’s derogatory
appraisal of Billy Kidman at an agents’ meeting resulted in Kidman’s
relegation to former broadcast Velocity and eventual release from his
contract in July 2005 (Kidman was later rehired as a trainer in Florida
Championship Wrestling.) The second writer sagely noted that fans can
learn much about the real HHH from the few televised moments when he
has let his guard down. “Triple H is on tape in the Bret Hart
do*****entary claiming he knew nothing about the Montreal double-cross
that was planned against Bret.” Said this WWE writer. “He looked right
into Bret’s wife’s eyes and says he knew nothing about it, yet many
times since he has bragged about knowing what was going to happen
beforehand. Something of a character flaw, don’t you think? All you
have to do is listen to some of the promos he cuts on other wrestlers
he does not like or feels intimidated by, such as the promo he cut on
Chris Masters on RAW in October 2006 (in which he mocked the
steroid-free Masters’ dramatic muscle mass loss) . . . He also once cut
a promo on John Morrison (then Johnny Nitro) by calling him something
to the effect of ‘Johnny Oversell’ --- not exactly the way to ‘put
over’ your fellow wrestlers to help build the business!”
As touched upon earlier, this blatantly disrespectful conduct has
raised the ire of many former and current co-workers of Triple H.
(Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson had a long-running backstage rivalry with
HHH, which was alluded to at the Hall of Fame ceremony this year.) In
Issue 170 of Power Slam, the ever-candid Randy Orton revealed that
Umaga’s initial response to his trade to Smackdown in the 2008 draft
was, “Man, you know what? At least I haven’t got to deal with Triple H
no more.” When HHH was also transferred to SmackDown from RAW later in
the draft, RAW roster survivor Orton reported his response as: “Yes!
Oh, my God, yes, yes, yes!” while punching the air. “I went right up to
Umaga,” Orton continued, “and I was, like, ‘You’ve got to deal with him
now!’ It was my favourite draft pick, to be honest with you.” That’s
the voice of experience talking. At a June press conference to promote
a WWE event in Chile, Carlito said: “My opinion is that (marrying
Stephanie) was a smart move by (HHH). I think that’s why he’s the
champion now and has been champion in the past; it’s easier to him. We,
the real wrestlers, don’t depend on people in the business . . . Others
are given champions (on) a plate of gold or platinum, (though) I’m
happy for him.”
(Since Carlito is the son of Carlos Colon, Puerto Rico’s most famous
ever wrestler, and was pushed immediately following his debut in his
father’s WWC promotion on the island in 1999, those comments irked some
in the profession. Nevertheless, Carlito does not receive special
treatment in WWE.) Naturally, wrestlers who are no longer with WWE and
don’t have to fear HHH’s reprisals are free to denounce the
“son-in-law” in far more graphic terms. “He’s like Kevin Federline of
professional wrestling,” said Scott Steiner in an interview with the
Stranglehold radio show in May. “Being married to the boss’ daughter
brings a lot of protection. These are guys up there right now who want
to beat the hell out of him, but you know, they know they’d lose their
jobs, so they don’t.” Steiner continued his assault on HHH in two
interviews with The Baltimore Sun that same month. In the latter, on
May 28, he told one famous story about an attempt by HHH to thwart Kurt
Angle’s progress in the WWF which actually failed. Scott Steiner: “It’s
no secret what Kurt Angle thought of Triple H . . . Here’s one story I
got from Kurt: Triple H was trying to block Kurt from winning the WWF
title, he said in a meeting, ‘I think Kurt Angle’s too small.’ And
Gerry Brisco stood up and said, ‘Well, what do you think would happen
if you guys fought for real?’ and HHH sat down, shut his mouth and they
ran with it. Even Triple H’s former friend Monty ‘Billy Gunn/KipJames’
Sopp, for whom HHH engineered several pushes in the WWF/WWE, blasted
Levesque in a shoot interview (his comments are unprintable in this
magazine). The list of active wrestlers I’ve spoken with who have
knocked HHH, off the record, goes on and on . . .
So, if everything unpleasant that’s said about Triple H is generally
true, the question becomes: why? If the evidence for HHH’s behaviour is
clear, the explanations for it are anything but. Paul Michael Levesque
has every conceivable reason to be a shining, self-assured role model
for good, selfless action backstage in WWE. Professionally, his
position is untouchable: as Stephanie’s husband (they were married in
October 2003) and father of two of Vince’s grandchildren, Triple H will
have the booking committee in his corner for the rest of his career.
With his stardom and political dominance so thoroughly established,
Levesque should understand that there’s nothing undercutting another
wrestler’s career can do to benefit his position or losing a feud can
do to damage his character. The worst of HHH’s abuses make even less
sense when reviewed in the context of the outstanding work he has done
on occasion over the past few years. There could not have been a more
selfless or effective way to elevate Batista than the manner in which
Triple H repeatedly put ‘The Animal’ over in their excellent break-up
storyline and later in their matches in the first half of 2005. The
next year, Triple H lost to John Cena by submission in the Main Event
of Wrestlemania 22. After the promos in the run-up to the match, in
which HHH had unnecessarily belittled Cena’s wrestling ability, few
expected that result on the big show.
Even Triple H’s burial of Jeff Hardy in December 2007 has been redemmed
by his giving performance in the Elimination Chamber match at No Way
Out 2008 and at No Mercy earlier this month. In these bouts, Triple H
manifested some of the professional generosity and maturity that made
his idol, Ric Flair, the ultimate “oversell and selflessly put over the
other guy.” NWA World Champion in the 1980s. Furthermore, as a
multi-millionaire and 39-year old father of two, one would have
imagined that Levesque would have outgrown that juvenile impulse to
flaunt his clout, just because he can. As a future inheritor of the WWE
empire, eventually earmarked for his children, Levesque should be less
concerned with beating wrestlers than using his own backstage and
in-ring muscle to build new acts to safegyard the long-term
profitability of what is his own family business. With this in mind,
Triple H’s demolition of many of his most lucrative potential opponents
over the years (Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, etc.)
cannot even be called selfish, since it conflicts with his own
personal, financial and familial best interests. Such self-destructive,
illogical behaviour on Levesque’s part must ultimately be the result of
some inherent character flaw: after all, there is no rational
explanation for HHH’s record of power trips. One popular explanation is
that, despite his amazing success in the business, Triple H harbours
insecurity – that is, doubts he fully deserved the push he has received
throughout this decade. It is a trait common among beneficiaries of
nepotism.
A number of wrestlers, Kurt Angle and Scott Steiner among them, have
claimed that HHH underminede their careers because he was secretly
jealous they were tougher, stronger and more credible wrestlers than he
could ever hope to be. If the true source of Levesque’s behaviour is
dissatisfaction with himself that he redirects outwords, then he should
be pitied: any wrestler who remains personally discontent after the
prosperity Triple H has enjoyed will always be miserable, self-loathing
man. “I don’t think HHH’s problem is so much insecurity as much as that
when you get that much power, you use it to protect yourself,”
continued Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer. “I think
it’s what he was taught be (Kevin) Nash and Michaels.” As longtime fans
know, they were both infamous in the 1990s for their backstage
machinations when they were on top in the WWF and later, in Nash’s
case, WCW. There is one more explanation for Triple H’s abuse of power,
and it may be the most likely answer: Levesque is simply a
disrespectful, power-hungry jerk, who does what he wants, when he wants
and doesn’t care what other people think. Perhaps that’s why father in
law Vince – a man whose on-screen character is essentially inseparable
from his real-life personality – likes him so much. If that’s true and
Levesque is playing the scheming ‘Cerebral Assassin.’ On-screen and
off, then Triple H’s current and future co-workers will have to watch
their backs, as Paul and Stephanie take over the family business. WWE’s
future may or may not be bright --- but it will certainly be bloody
with Triple H at the helm
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