The Ottawa Sun posted a rare interview with Triple H today. He gave his candid thoughts on the wrestling business in terms of younger wrestlers, determining the greatest wrestlers, preferring being a heel, parenthood, and more.
“I hate to sound like an oldtimer, but sometimes I get upset about the young guys,” Triple H said. “We’ve got guys like Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, Ricky Steamboat and Michael Hayes around. That’s a wealth of knowledge, and they still have to make it mandatory for guys to show up early and go into the ring with them.”
Triple H believes there’s a disconnect between him and the younger wrestlers, saying that a number of them are more concerned with their iPods or playing Guitar Hero than getting better in wrestling. “When I got into the business, you couldn’t get me out of the building. I had a burning desire to get better. Now, the young guys seem more interested in their iPods or playing Guitar Hero,” Triple H told the Ottawa Sun. “I see guys complaining: ‘I’ve been here for five years and they’re not doing anything with me.’ I say to the guy: ‘Dude, you’ve been doing the same thing now that you were five years ago. What do you expect?'”
Triple H also gives his take on determining who the best wrestler in the business is. “If you go to the internet, there’s always somebody saying ‘this guy is the best wrestler in the world’ and you’ve got somebody else saying, ‘no, this guy is the best wrestler in the world.’ But it’s not about what they like. It’s what the masses like,” Hunter said. “These guys they’re talking about are wrestling in front of 50 people, not 20,000. And that’s because the masses don’t want to see them.” Triple H then praises Hulk Hogan. He said, “The biggest name ever, if you look at Hulk Hogan, what big move did he ever do? But he knew how to tell a story, how to get fans to interact with his character and keep them entertained. It’s not about how high or how far you can jump, it’s about telling stories.”
Triple H admits he’d rather be doing what Edge is doing by playing a heel on television. He said he watched The Dark Knight and would rather play The Joker than Batman. “It’s more fun playing a heel,” Triple H said. “I look at a guy like Edge, and I mean this in the nicest way, he’s getting to do such cool things.”
On moving from Raw to SmackDown, Triple H said the schedule is actually worse for him, but he was willing to do what was necessary in the eyes of Vince McMahon. He said, “You know when you get into this line of work you’re going to be gone a lot. It’s really important that the time I get to spend with my family is quality time.”
Triple H also said that being a parent has changed his outlook on relationships, especially with women. “It’s changed my perspective about what’s important in life,” Triple H said. “I don’t know if it’s softened me up, but it changes the way you look at women. I’m probably going to pay for my past.”
You can read the interview in its entirety at this link.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
