Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque sat down with Cody Rhodes for an in-depth interview on his podcast, “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling and WWE.
During the discussion, the WWE Chief Content Officer spoke about Cody smashing his throne with a sledgehammer in AEW, conversations he had with AJ Styles leading up to his retirement and the difficult transition to power he dealt with behind-the-scenes in WWE.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also embedded below is an audio archive of the discussion.
On Cody Rhodes smashing his throne with a sledgehammer in AEW: “I saw it as your hammer because it was smaller than mine [laughs]. No, look, that kind of sh*t to me is like, I remember when people brought it to me and were showing it to me and I was like, ‘F**k yeah, all right, good for him.’ You know what I mean? That’s the kind of sh*t you do, you’re trying to make a name for yourself, you’re trying to get out there, you’re trying to do some cool sh*t, trying to do some different stuff. Believe me, if I would have thought there was malice in it, and maybe indirectly there was some at the time, I don’t know. But if I would have thought there was any serious malice in it, I would have called you and said, ‘Hey, dude, like, are we okay?’ Because I was so close to your dad, but then I always felt like a connection to you. And when you were here, and it was difficult for me when you left, because I couldn’t say like, I couldn’t over the top go like, ‘Dude, get the f**k out of here and go out there and make a name for yourself and make yourself, what you said, desirable and we’ll f**ing come chasing after you and bring you back.’ Sometimes you got to get out of the rut you’re in. You just got to bite it off and go in a different direction. Make the left turn, right? And it was so difficult, but during that time, I remember thinking like, all right, that’s getting out there. That’s being bold and making a statement. You know, it’s one of those things where you see somebody going off, doing their own thing, and having success. And I’m like, ‘F**k yeah, Cody. Come on.’ Like, get yourself in that spot where we’re like, ‘Hey, we should go like, I don’t know what he did different, but let’s go get him.’ You know what I mean?”
On AJ Styles’ retirement: “At the end, AJ was like, ‘I don’t want to be done with the business. I want to be done wrestling.’ And I don’t think I’m betraying a confidence here. But even in his last match, he was telling me like, ‘I so know I’m done because I was out there in that last match thinking like, let’s just get [it] over with, I just want to get to the end.’ He wants to participate in the business, right? But being an agent or a producer, it’s a different world. Being in what we do, there’s different fits for different people. AJ came in, he sat in on some creative meetings, he sat in on some production meetings. And I think he realized like, the writing thing’s not for me, the producer thing, I don’t think is for me. What I really like is getting to these young kids and spotting talent and then trying to help fan the flames of the little spark that’s there and try to make them into something more, the developmental side of it. So, great, let’s utilize him in that and grab those talents there.”
On a transition period where Vince McMahon was still around before resigning from WWE in January 2024: “I think so. Though, there was — and again, this is where I’m terrible with times — but it’s not like one day, ‘Here, it’s yours’ and everything else went away. There was so many aspects to that of, ‘Hey, Vince is stepping away. You’re going to take this spot, but he’s chiming in.’ And he [was] still meeting with me all the time and still, you know, directing traffic from the side. And there’s no real, it’s a weird, no real clear moment for me. But I would consider it that, yes.”
On the difficult part of the transition in sharing power at the time: “At the end of the day, when people are like, ‘Yeah, but it’s your decision, right?’ Yeah, sort of. You know what I mean? Like you’re — yes, and you have to defend your position and you have to be able to sell that to people and explain it to people. If it’s a little bit not your position or a little bit, ‘Well, why did this happen?’ And you don’t want to say, ‘Well, because, you know, it wasn’t totally my decision.'”
