HHH on the wrestling business
I watch wrestling tapes all the time from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s-whatever I can get. Our company owns everything now,so I'm bugging the office all the time to put together tapes for me. I'll call the office and say, "Listen, I want the AWA tapes of Ray Stevens and Nick Bockwinkel as a tag team"-or whatever it is. I'll watch those tapes and pick things up. I don't watch for moves; I watch for the story they're telling, why they did things at a particular time. A lot of our guys today don't understand the business. We all grew up as huge wrestling fans, and we need to understand why we liked it so much. It was because back then, they told stories, as opposed to just flip, flopping, and flying. The guys that make the most money in our business have never been the guys that do moonsaults and jumpofff the top rope and do big dropkicks. It's the guys that tell the best stories that are in the main events, that are on top. We tell guys that all the time, and it's almost like the more we tell them, the more they try to go the other way.
HHH on getting into the business
About the time I turned 18, a guy came into the gym one day named Ted Arcidi. In 1985, he was the first guy to bench-press 700 pounds- he did 705. He got into wrestling off of that, and I met him on the downswing of his wrestling career. I was still a huge wrestling fan, but meeting him kinda make me realize, "Ted's like a real guy, and he actually did this as a job." That's the first time that it really hit me that the guys I watched on TV actually were just people. So I would pick Ted's brain about the business all the time and started bugging him, "How do you get into it?" He tried to discourage me, but eventually he pointed me in the right direction. I went to Killer Kowalski's school in Malden, Massachusetts. Killer's school, back in the day, only took very select guys. Later, when I was coming in, he prertty much taking anyody. If you had two grand, he'd let you in. The guys all were, 5'8'', 5'7'', 175 pounds, 180 pounds. I walked in the door at 270 pounds, and Walter-that's his real name-kind lit up. He took a very keen interest in me. A kot of guys, he would just sit in his chair and half fall alseep while they were in a ring. When I'd get in, he'd get right up and come in the ring with me and he'd work with me very hands on. I remember my girlfriend at the time asking me when I came out after that first day, "What are you thinking?" I said, "Honest to God, it was the most at-home I'd ever felt doing something. It just felt natural to me." I never went through what a lot of guys did, like going to foreign countries and getting stuck there, sleeping in their car, down to your last dollar. Inever had to go through that, because I kinda go it right away.
On his body and working out
I started bodybuilding when I was 14, and that pretty much took over for me. They wanted me to play football in high school, but I had no interest in it. I trained at a gym called Muscles in Motion in Nashua, New Hampshire and all my friends were older guys. I remember walking in there for the first time, and there were a couple of guys there that were the biggest guys I'd ever seen. They probably weren't even all that big, but to me it was, "oh my god! This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I've got to do this." I think I've always had a fascination with stength and power.
One of my attractions to professional wrestling was that the guys were bigger-than-life-giants., superheroes. I was the youngest guy in the gym, a tall, skinny kid that just wanted to train. I'd be in there training with guys that were 250 pounds and just strong as could be. Every rep and every set- not weight-wise, obviously- that they did, I would do . If my arms were gonna fall off, I would still do it. There's just something about weight training for me. It's so immediate. You do exercise, you feel the burn, you feel the pain, and you know you're doing something. I've never been out of the gym for any period of time to speak of. I've never said, "I'm gonna take a week off because I feel like my body needs a rest." I don't miss a workout except occasionally when I'm on the road.
Triple H's all time favorie wrestlers
1. Ric Flair - That's the guy I grew up loving and my dad grew up hating-we used to fight about that all the time. Flair was the consummate worker, always brought everyone to the next level, had the best matches. He had the entire package- the flamboyancy, the personality, the charisma, plus his unparalleled work ethic.
2. Buddy Rogers - He was the predecessor to Flair, the guy that increase the speed of the business at the time. He was the kind of guy that could either make you love him or hate him by how he walked into the ring. I use a phrase on TV- "There's only one diamond in this business, and you're looking at him"- I stole that from Buddy Rogers. In late 2000, Vince McMahon started calling me BudRo; like I was today's Buddy Rogers. To me, that was the ultimate compliment.
3. Ricky Steamboat - I feel like Steamboat was the template for babyfaces in the business. Was always the good guy, had a great look, was athlletic, could do anything, was a great worker, had charisma, had the personality. And Ricky Steamboat sold like nobody else.
4. Shawn Michaels - To me, Shawn is today's version of Steamboat. I think Shawn prefers to be a heel, but I thought he was best as a babyface. He sells like nobody else. Probably the best pure athlete I've ever seen in the business. Shawn can do anything. As a testament to that, he was off for five years with a back injury, and in his first match back, we wrestled at Summerslam and had one of the great matches of my career.
5. Ray Stevens - He was an incredible worker, and a fantastic storyteller. He also increased the speed of the business. Ray was big in a lot of territories, but a lot of people don't know about him because he never had major stints until very late in his career with WWE.
6. Nick Bockwinkel - He always looked immaculate, wrestled immaculately, and told unbelievably good stories. Everything he did was right-on; there was never anything see-through in anything he did. Nick would go 30 minutes, and everything just built for that 30 minutes; he'd go 60 minutes and it would build for that 60 minutes-and the end would just blow your mind.
7. Pat Patterson - Pat was very much in the vein of Ray Stevens-incredilbe psychology, got the most out of everything he did. I have an affinity for Pat, too, because I work with him on a regular basis and I consider him to be one of the smartest guys in the business.
8. Dory Funk - Dory was a very dry personality and was kinda one speed, but he was so believable that you bought into everything that he did. He was an incredible technician. He didn't look like much and wasn't flamboyant, but boy, when heturned it on, you knew it was on.
9. Superstar Billy Graham - He set the template for today's personalites. Hulk Hogan to me, is a cheap Superstar Billy Graham knockoff. The lingo, the look, the flexing of the 25- inch pythons, the whole deal-Superstar was doing that way before Hulk Hogan. Superstar might not have been the greatest worker in the world, but from a personality standpoint and for his impact on the business, I give him a lot of credit.
10. Arn Anderson - This may be a controversial pick, but it isn't to me. I feel that Arn was one of the most underrated guys in the business. He was a great constant; never wavered, never faltered, had great matches with everybody. You couldn't see through anything that he did, he cut some of the best promos ever in the business. His proomos were believable, intelligent. scathing, cutting-edge stuff.
Honorable Mention
Tully Blanchard - An incredible worker
Dusty Rhodes - For sheer personality and charisma
Bob Orton Jr - a tremendous performer.
Harley Race - Unbelievable technican and great psychologist
Paul Ondorff - Great technican
Ricky Morton - As a babyface, he was unbelievable good
Bobby Eaton - For his high flying, and combining that with storytelling and psychology
Steve Austin - A guy who took charisma and personality to a whole new level
Freddie Blassie - Ahead of his time in doing things that for shock value. They say he actually gave people hear attacks.
Magnificent Muraco - Tremendous performer
On his wife Stephanie McMahon
The second that people found out I was in a legitimate relationship with Stephanie McMahon, I think everybody forgot about anything I had ever accomplished in the business. You would think I had never been a star before I met her. I went from the guy that busted his ass all those years to get where I wanted to be to the guy that screwed the boss's daughter to get himself in a main-event spot. I was in the main events long before that. At first, it was difficult. We went through a period of time where, while we were not trying to hide it, we tried to tone down the relationship when we were around people in the business. But it didn't take long before I realized, "Hey, fuck that. It's my life. If anybody thinks I'm with her just to get ahead in the business, that's their problem." We talked to Vince about us,and first he said Ok, then he changed his mind and said, "I don't think it's good for business; I don't think it's good for you." We said, "Well, let's try to go our separate ways" – but it was just there between us. We couldn't avoid it and couldn't deny it; you can't help who you fall in love with. Vince saw that and said, "I was wrong." So then we started having the relationship again, and it just took off, especially once we stopped trying to make like we weren't together and just lived our lives.
On his rolex
Diamond rings used to be big in the business, and now the status symbol is a Rolex. I had never worn a watch at all, but then I got to a point in the business where Steve Austin kept telling me, 'Kid, you've gotta get a biscuit; you're killing yourself; you gotta get a biscuit.' Biscuit- that's a Rolex. So one day, I walked in with a gold Rolex on. I was the world champ, and it had been going for a little bit. It was time to get the biscuit. Now Austin drives a fancy car, whereas he used to have just a shit pickup truck and a small house with all his hunting shit in it. He's such a redneck- jeans and t-shirts- but he always has the fuckin' Rolex on. He had a $40,000 watch on when everything else he owned didn't add up to 20 grand.