Triple H Interview
Over the past three years, it's become evident that Triple H has few peers in terms of pure excellence in the world of sports-entertainment. Yet, through all the glory (headlining pay-per-view, winning multiple World Wrestling Federation Championships) as well as the misfortune (the devastating quadriceps injury he suffered this past May), he's managed to maintain the refreshing candor that makes him one of the most interesting interviews in the business.
We asked Triple H his thoughts and views on many topics: his injury and comeback, his place in the Federation and in the history of sports-entertainment, and how he is perceived among fans and critics. Sometimes blunt, often funny and always insightful, Triple H opened up and revealed a clear view of the man behind "the Game."
WWF: You were in the middle of the best run of your career when your quad ruptured. Not that there's ever a good time for a thing like that, but could there have been a worse time for you to get injured?
HHH: There's never a good time for that to happen. When would be a good time? You don't want it to happen before you get a good run, you don't want it to happen after or during--there's no good time. Was I right in the middle of something major? Sure. But then again, I've been pushing myself and my body extremely hard for quite a few years. The guys in the WWF--or in any sport--are like sports cars. The engine is designed for performance; you can push the red line on the engine, but only for so long. I'd been red-lining for a long time. I guess it was just a matter of time before something made me stop for a while, and I guess that was it.
WWF: Has this changed your outlook on things, like raising doubts about yourself that hadn't been there before, or making you savor what you now have even more?
HHH: I think it's made me savor what I
have; it won't necessarily raise doubts. Will I be
concerned about my left when I first get back in there? Of
course--I'd be an idiot not to me. But I have one gear in
the ring, and that's 100 percent. I don't have a 50 percent
gear. Either I'm going to go or I'm not, and either it's
going to hold or it won't. I don't really have a whole lot
of control over that. All I can do is train as hard as I
can, and make my leg as healthy as possible and come back.
Whether it holds is not up to me.
Does it change my outlook? I think it makes me more
appreciative of what I have. It gives me a fresh
perspective. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in things that
you forget to step back and smell the roses. This certainly
has given me a wake-up call. Luckily, it's something that I
can come back from and will have to opportunity to do so.
WWF: It took you a long time to prove yourself as one of the elite performers in the business. Do you feel the same challenge now in coming back? Is this going back to square one in some aspects?
HHH: It's certainly not square one.
Once you make a name for yourself in this industry, you have that
name. But it's square one in terms of proving to the world
that I can be what I once was. People have expectations of
what your performance will be and what you can do in the
ring. You start over after an injury.
It's not different than when Austin came back from his neck
surgery. The spotlight's on you, and when you're under a
microscope, everybody's looking for any sign or weakness that can
be used to cut you down. That's just the reality of
it. I will become at least what I was, if not better than
before, simply because I won't have it any other way.
If anything, this has made me refocus my efforts. It's like
the old clich?bout when you get the silver spoon struck down your
throat and you start choking on it. I think that's where I
was. This allows me to refocus all my energy and
re-evaluate how badly I want and need to be in that
position. It's made me work that much harder. I'm not
sitting on my @$# waiting for my comeback to happen. I'm
making it happen. I will be the best again, because I won't
have it any other way.
WWF: Your comeback is still weeks away at the time of this interview. As you've rehabbed, have you played it through in your mind? How much are you looking forward to hearing your music hit and stepping through that curtain again?
HHH: I can't wait. Being in the World Wrestling Federation and getting that rush from the crowd--when you're a performance athlete, you live for the rush. It's like being an entertainer--you live to perform. That's what we are in the WWF: performers. We live to perform. To not have that for a long time is like being a junkie without his high. That's your high--the crown and that rush. You hear your music, the crowd, and you go through the match and do your thing, that's your high. There's no greater feeling in the world. When that's taken away from you , you're starving to get it back. You get hungrier by the day to get it back.
WWF: It's been over two years since you first won the WWF title and had the official elevation to elite status. How would you describe that ride, the last couple of years before the injury? Is it the culmination of everything you've done before, in the last nine or ten years?
HHH: I always felt that I had the ability and the talent that if given the opportunity, I could run with it and be on top, that I could carry the ball. There's a lot of great boxers in the world who are never given title fights. You have to be given that opportunity. You have be put in that spot. To be put in that spot, to work as hard as you can and be given that spot is what it's all about.
WWF: Along with everyone from Stone Cold Steve Austin to The Rock, you've really benefited from the evolution of the business from gimmicks and cartoon guys to what it is now in its current form. What role do you think you played in that evolution?
HHH: I was one of the last guys in the
business--not the last, but one of the last--to come in with a
gimmick.
You couldn't be a regular guy. You have to be a
firefighter, a cop or something; you couldn't be a
wrestler. So I did that. Along the way, a lot of us
were saying that the business had changed because of this.
We were telling Vince McMahon that things needed to be more
serious. I remember having a conversation with Vince, in
which I said, "We market the show too much towards
kids."
Kids will watch no matter what. Every kid in America knows
how Michael Jordan is. He doesn't wear clown pants.
He's not a guy that dresses up like a cop or anything else.
He's just the best basketball player on the planet. What we
do is very exciting. I don't think we gave people enough
credit for watching, admiring and enjoying what we do on it's own
merits.
We had a lot of discussions where everyone felt [the gimmicks]
needed to go. Vince felt they needed to go. And that
was the start of the "WWF Attitude."
Some people look back on the attitude thing and say that Stone
Cold Steve Austin was the inception of "WWF
Attitude." That's partly true; he was there when it
happened. But DX was also the inception of that
attitude. I changed my character to the reality base of
where we were, and started being cutting-edge, young and
hip. And Austin turned from the Ringmaster to Stone
Cold. And that all happened at the same time the restraints
were taken off us a little bit. And obviously, that's what
the business needed.
WWF: In a way, it was almost back to what it was in the old days, because the guys then were just wrestlers. Buddy Rogers didn't have a gimmick; he was just Buddy Rogers. And aside from guys like Gorgeous George, most of them had no gimmick.
HHH: I agree. And I also believe
that it changed in the sense that guys became more serious.
With all due respect to to everybody from that time period--from
the Hogan era to what followed after--you didn't have to be very
good at the craft or art of wrestling to be at the top of your
came. Guys like the Ultimate Warrior--and he couldn't lace
a boot--are bottom guys now as far as in-ring ability. But
they had a character and charisma, and that's what everything was
based on then.
Now it's based a lot more on in-rind performance. Fans are
smarter. They don't just want to see hype; they don't just
want to see a guy out there yelling and screaming. They
want to see the hype; they want to see all the yelling; they want
to see all that stuff. But when it comes down to it, they
really want to see a kick-@$# match. Fans want to see two
guys going at it, who'll take them on an incredible ride. I
think that's what we do now. We have some of the greatest
workers in this business all in one place right now. All
doing the same thing--striving to have the greatest matches they
can.
WWF: Is it a generational thing? The guys you and I both grew up watching in the late '70's, like the Magnificent Muraco, Greg Valentine, guys like that, weren't cartoons, they weren't gimmicks, they just put on amazing matches.
HHH: There was a point when the
professional wrestling camp took off in the '80's. I think
its explosive popularity was due to people who weren't
necessarily fans of wrestling; it was just a fad and something to
watch. I think a lot of people got turned on by that
initially, but they were held by the matches. For example,
if you grew up then and watched WrestleMania III, you were
held by a match like Steamboat vs. Savage or Snuka vs.
Muraco. Those are things you remember in the long run, not
Hogan ripping off his t-shirt. You watched because it was
fun, but in the long run you really appreciated the great matches
more.
I know that during that time, I was never a Hogan fan. I
don't mean any disrespect to him--I have a lot of respect for
what he did--however, as a kid and a fan, I saw Hogan as a
poseur. He wasn't really a wrestler, he was a guy they put
at the top of the company because he sold t-shirts. You
knew what he was gonna do before he did it. And I never
wanted to be like that.
WWF: You often hear how the guys today are more serious. The locker room is filled with guys who are dedicated to this sport. They single you out as someone who just lives, eats, and breathes everything about this business. It's your entire being. How long can you sustain that?
HHH: I don't know. I know I work
very hard at what I do, but it's only hard work if you don't
enjoy it. Right now to me, this is fun. Even the
behind-the-scenes stuff and things that other people don't want
to do, I enjoy doing. It's fun to me. It's like a
hobby that I get to do every day. I get to go out there and
perform. But I also get to mentally create and be a part of
that, too. There's just something about it, that's fun.
Will I burn out on that? I don't know. I look at
[former Federation Superstars] Pat Patterson and Jack Lanza, who
are agents for us now. I think they're as happy as we
are. They live vicariously through us. Guys like
Lanza, Patterson, and Jerry Briscoe are still as excited about
the business today as they were 20 years ago when they were
wrestling. There's just something about this business that
if it's really burned into you, you don't lose your passion for
it.
WWF: You grew up watching wrestling on TV and in-person when your dad took you to the Boston Garden. You've said that Ric Flair has had a big influence on you. Who are some of the other guys who have influenced you? Even then, did you find yourself gravitating towards the heels?
HHH: I always enjoyed the heels better,
especially in those days, because I believed that the heels, are
the guys who make a match interesting. I'd watch a heel--a
good heel--work with a baby face. The next week or the next
month they'd be working programs with different people.
That heel would probably have a great match with another baby
face, but that baby face, depending on the guy he's working with,
might not necessarily have a great match. It became evident
to me that a lot of times, the heels were the guys to watch
because they were the guys who had great matches with everybody.
My admiration for Flair is for his character and promos. He
was just priceless. Much of my admiration for him stems
from his ability to have great matches with everyone--from
Bruiser Brody to Dusty Rhodes to Harley Race to Kerry Von
Erich. Flair had great matches with everybody. Guys
like that, I watched.
I admired Arn Anderson, Magnificent Muraco, Tully Blanchard,
Cowboy Bob Orton, Greg Valentine, and different guys. I
enjoyed Jake Roberts, especially when he was a heel. And I
think I enjoyed the seriousness of the business during that
time. I think that seriousness is what pulled at
people. There's always going to be matches that aren't as
serious, and those are important to the card. The intense
matches are the ones you always remember, but they can't all be
that way.
WWF: You can't have a two-hour card with all intense stuff.
HHH: You've got to lighten it up in spots and fill things around it. But the big money is in the seriousness. People want to see two guys go out there, have an incredible match and rip each other apart.
WWF: That really describes your work. How you rose through the ranks because you've done the lighter stuff and the theatrical stuff, but when you got down to it, it was all serious and intense.
HHH: I look back and there's definite sections within my character. When I was the aristocrat, I had good matches that a lot of people wouldn't necessarily think of as good matches. Of course, I grew over the years. I had good matches with Mick Foley, as Mankind. Then when Chyna came in and DX [was formed], it was a chance for me to come out of the aristocrat character and be myself. When we reformed DX with X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws, it was what we needed in the business at the time--a bunch of smart-@$#es. We needed that, somebody pushing the envelope. And that's what we did. We attacked WCW and did some radical things. And we were very good at it. We drew a lot of money with it.
WWF: The sketches were incredible.
HHH: Yeah, but what I really always wanted
to do was be the worker. I had a blast doing it and
wouldn't change any of it. But when the time came for me to
make the move, and the opportunity arose, I grabbed it. I
knew that I wanted to do with it, that I had the ability to do
it.
I think a lot of people questions my ability. It wasn't a
slam-dunk; there were a lot of questions on whether I could carry
the ball. Even after I got it, there were a lot of
questions: "He's not the guy. He's not this. He's
not that." I had to prove everybody
wrong. One of the hardest things to do is change people's
mind, and that's what I had to do. I had to go out there
every night and be at the top of my game, because I had to change
everybody's mind about what I was and what I could do. Some
of the things I'd done in my career set me up for that
question. I'd made mistakes and been in positions where it
looked like I was a lackey, but those were things that drew me to
where I was at the time.
WWF: But you had to be that way, in order to eventually be the World Wrestling Federation Champion.
HHH: Not only that, but when I look back on it, I'm glad everything happened the way it did. If they had given me the opportunity two years earlier, then I probably wouldn't have been ready. I probably would have dropped the ball. They can't give it to you too fast, because if you fail, it's harder to recover. I look back to guys like Tommy Rich. [The NWA] made Tommy Rich a world champion, and that was it. They gave him the world, and he couldn't handle it. So, I look at my career and that everything happened for a reason. I wouldn't' change a minute of it.