As noted, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast with Cody Rhodes.
During the discussion, the WWE Chief Content Officer spoke about a famous meeting with Vince McMahon where he was asked about WWE releases, as well as how he groomed Bobby Roode for a behind-the-scenes career in WWE after his in-ring career winded down.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also embedded below is a complete audio archive of the discussion.
On a famous meeting in the 1990s where Vince McMahon asked he, Shawn Michaels and The Kliq who should be released: “There was a moment where a bunch of us were in a room and Vince (McMahon) was there. Famous meeting [in] Indianapolis and Vince took out a roster and was like, ‘Who leaves? Who stays?’ And this is a point in time when I was kind of new-ish, right? I didn’t feel qualified to even be making that thing. But, I remember there was some people on there that their names came up. I remember one in particular and it’s Bam Bam Bigelow. Bam Bam hated The Kliq. I don’t know that anybody had an issue with him per se but he just, for whatever reason, he hated … and his name came up, and we had all written down our stuff on paper and given ‘em to Vince and he’s like, ‘Hmm, you guys all unanimously want him here.’ We’re like, ‘Yeah, he’s f*cking really good.’ ‘Yeah, but he hates you guys.’ ‘So what? I want him on my team.’ I want him on the team. Because it’s not about he don’t like us… He’s f*cking good. So he should be here. There’s some other guys on there that we like a lot. I like him as a person. I like him as a person but, come or go, doesn’t matter. Those are tough decisions to make.”
On grooming Bobby Roode behind the scenes in WWE: “He’s a sponge. It’s funny. When I very first … I didn’t know Bobby (Roode) at all, then he came into NXT, when we were there, and a couple things I realized very quickly about him was, one, he had an innate ability for this. Two, I don’t think he’d been taught a whole lot. Not from the wrestling standpoint. He knew that the television standpoint, and the psychology standpoint. I think because TNA was sort of a, hey, just go do it and then that’s what comes out. Nobody did TV like here… When he came in, he was like a sponge, and I would see him picking everybody’s brain, just for his own stuff. When his carer started to wind down, at that time, I remember thinking to myself, when he wants to be done taking bumps, like, he’s a good guy for this. I always start out with the, ‘He’s a grown-up, as well.’ He’s not a kid just looking to get another paycheck, right? He understands the difference between business and being one of the boys and all that stuff. Grown-up, but gets it and just has a great demeanor for it and is a sponge for it and then the more I got to work with him … unfortunately, he had a neck injury that wasn’t subsiding. He and I spoke about it. I said, ‘Why don’t you come in and start learning to be an agent? And if the medical stuff clears up, it’d be great. It’ll help your career. If it doesn’t, we’ll start using it’ but, man, he jumped on it, and just very quickly I started moving him up the line and then having the conversation with Mike (Hayes) about, ‘Mentor him.’”
Also during the interview, Triple H addressed Cody Rhodes smashing his throne with a sledgehammer in AEW.
