Ahead of the finale of “The Last Ride,” Triple H spoke with Joseph Staszewski of The New York Post and discussed his friendship with The Undertaker and their in-ring rivalry.
First, Triple H described his close relationship with The Undrtaker. “I think [it] was built on mutual respect for each other, but also I think we have a lot in common from a human being standpoint, the way we look at things, the way we approach things,” said Triple H via Staszewski. “‘I think that we just had that same mentality of stuff at kind of a moment in time over the past five years, or so it feels like, we have been going through the same, to a degree, some of the same doubts and fears and anxiousness and nervousness around our careers and how do you get to the end. We’ve shared a lot of that. We’ve shared a lot of time in the ring. We shared a lot of time together outside the ring and I just think there’s a lot of respect there.'”
Triple H also reflected on how he understands The Undertaker’s worries about retiring with a good performance. “‘When I first started to see that he had the doubts and the fears and all those things it was mind-boggling to me,'” said Triple H via Staszewski. “‘I was like, how can he doubt himself? But it’s like, oh my God, he’s going through the same stuff I am. It’s like holy cow I had no idea. But then it humanized….That was mind-boggling to me, but it was the same things I was going through and having those same anxieties and fears. And to hear him say it almost made me go, “OK, I’m not out of my mind.” Because in some ways he’s that inhuman character and it never dawned on me that he had that. Once I saw it, then I could see it in him. I just would see him trying to get inside his own head so we would talk about it more and more.'”
The Cerebral Assassin also discussed his WWE WrestleMania 17 match with The Undertaker and recapped how, at one point, neither star was in creative’s main plans for the event. “‘It’s nobody’s fault because now I can see it from the other side,'” said Triple H via Staszewski. “‘But when you’re on the other side, you’re like, “How the frick can they have nothing for me at WrestleMania?” And how could they have nothing for The Undertaker, which actually made me feel better. We both went in with a chip on our shoulder, like we’re taking this show and we’re gonna do everything we can to steal the show on this one and make sure they don’t ever think twice about not booking us, again.'”
Triple H also looked back at his consecutive matches with The Undertaker at WWE WrestleMania 27 and WWE WrestleMania 28. “‘It was incredible,'” said Triple H via Staszewski. “‘I don’t think it was until after they had the first that we all kind of got together and started saying like, hey, what if we booked an almost yearly comeback thing and it was sequential if Shawn does it and then I take up for Shawn and I want to finish what ended up putting Shawn away. Now I get there and I can’t get it done but I do what hasn’t been done before which was him in that third one getting carted out for the first time ever. He beat me, but he couldn’t walk out of the match and all that, legitimately I think. And then we get to the other side of it and get to the hell in a cell and for us … it’s hard to look at anything and go here’s a four-year story in the business. That first match between Taker and Shawn is, this gets thrown around a lot especially right now, the greatest match ever, but it arguably was.'”
Finally, Triple H reflected on the End of an Era match at WWE WrestleMania 28. “‘There’s a lot of pressure [at WrestleMania 28] but I’m out there with Taker, I’m out there with Shawn,” said Triple H via Staszewski.”‘For us, and our relationships and our respect and everything that we had for each other, man, it was like this whole storybook series. I talk about it a lot about the moment of us all standing at the top stage is one of the biggest moments of my career. I’ll never forget that feeling in that moment.'”
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