Triple H interviewed by The Masked Man

[Victator]

They gave Owen a raise after Montreal and promised him a real push. They promised to make him the top face in Canada. If they had kept their word and not lied almost immediately, it is safe to say he would have not been looking for a way out. 

[Big Fresh]

I often wonder if Owen would have held one of World Titles before he retired, like Jericho, Eddie, and Benoit did.

[DylanWaco]

Best part of the interview was HHH admitting he's a bootlegger

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

Yeah I don't really understand people who say Trips was undeservedly shoved down everyone's throats during the initial main event push in 1999. I don't remember that year great but I definitely don't remember being offended that HHH was getting elevated. Obviously he reached another level in 2000 when he retired Foley and had one of the great calendar year's in the history of the sport (TM Tony Schiavone), but I still thought he was fine in '99.

 

I don't disagree with this, but I always felt in 95-96 that HHH was getting pushed pretty hard and wasn't getting over on a level equal to his push, and that was before I knew who he was friends with or anything like that.  Come 98-00 he was really good, and over, and deserving of his level of push.....but it was a struggle to get him there.

 

And he didn't "get himself over" like FSW said, that's bs.  Foley working with him and doing a cage match and a hardcore match at MSG that were all about making HHH look legit got HHH over.  Getting paired on TV with HBK got him over.  CHYNA was a heat magnet because she was so different and unique and weird.....that got HHH over.  Leading DX with the red hot Outlaws and red hot on his return X-Pac got HHH over.  Storyline drugging, marrying and presumably raping Stephanie McMahon got HHH over.  Practically murdering Shawn Michaels when he came back for a week of tv and wanted to be back in DX got HHH over.  He didn't do it all himself, nobody does, and he sort of was shoved down the audience's throat with how hard they tried to get him over for years.  He was obviously good and talented enough that it stuck and he got over, but it wasn't like he was instantly embraced by the WWF audience.

[DylanWaco]

HHH got a massive heel push.  You can argue about whether or not he "deserved" it or whether or not he worked hard to get it or whether or not he was the best choice (of the guys in the WWE even I think he was the best choice, but it was slim pickings in terms of viable heel options of that sort at that time), but if you are arguing that it was just another push and not atypical you are fucking nuts.  The number of heels in the WWE/WWF history who got pushes like that is...well...offhand he's the only one I can think of 

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

reading more of the thread, since Owen was brought up......he was massively over post Survivor Series 97 when he did the run in and attacked DX on RAW after being off TV for a bit.  The fans would have eaten up for a main event push at that point, but they just didn't want to do it, and it would have screwed up the path they had laid out with Austin getting the title at WM.  Even just a hot shot for the belt with Owen would have put him over for life.  But HBK didn't want to work with him and they had plans laid out well in advance already......so what do they do with Owen?  Put him in a feud with HHH (ironically enough given the topic of this thread) where he loses every important match, and all the heat he has coming off of Montreal is gone.  Then he gets stuck in the Nation of Domination which was sort of cool but never really made sense, then a random "MMA" feud with Shamrock and Dan Severn, which again was cool, but it was not any sort of big picture stuff.  Then he's put in a tag team with Jarrett, who again ironically, is someone Austin didn't want to work with or put over.......then the Blue Blazer stuff and we all know how the story ends.  All of this was entertaining because Owen was really good, but they totally wasted him.  It's like the opposite of HHH......Owen had a natural connection with the audience and could get anything over......HHH would get the best booking available and it still took a long time for him to catch on

[MakeMineGeek]

They had this weird attempt at elevating Val Venis in I wanna say...2000, where he turned heel on Mick Foley for no reason(And kept giving him the testicular claw) and wrestled Stone Cold in the main event of a Smackdown. It was all done really poorly and came so out of nowhere, that no one bought into it at all. 

 

Was that the period when Val and Rikishi had that strangely very awesome feud that (I think) had a cage match blowoff that Rikishi won by doing the Snuka dive?

 

EDIT: Should've kept reading.  Obviously it wasn't!

Edited August 24, 2013 by MakeMineGeek

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

I remember the Venis-Austin match on SD! being really great for a tv match at the time and a lot different from the typical fare because Austin didn't go on TV and work under or even with midcard guys ever.  I thought at the time, "Val Venis must be in line for a huge push" and then.....nothing. The RTC gimmick never got over with me, so while that was a prominant spot, it just never felt like something where Val Venis would come out of it as a bigger star.  Always felt like the crowd was booing because the theme song was annoying as shit, the promos were overlong, and they just wanted these guys out of the ring and off TV.  Total Vince McMahon entertaining himself, middle finger to the world booking.

 

That was the weird period of time where he got a haircut, changed his gear so it became all white and looked generic as hell. It's no wonder no one bought into it.

 

I think that's actually my favorite period for Val Venis in the WWF other than his first year in the company and the Ryan Shamrock and "choppy choppy pee pee" stuff where they were really having fun with the gimmick and being as over the top as possible.  His feud with Rikishi for the IC title was really great and had the feel of two guys on the cusp who were being elevated by having awesome, throwback style matches and IC feud.  Trish as his manager was a good pairing.  They didn't follow through with either guy's push after that from what I recall.

 

I thought Val as Chief Morley came off well and had a lot of potential.  I don't remember how it was dropped......Bischoff punishing him for some transgression and he went back to Val Venis as a face maybe?........but I thought if they'd run with it longer he could have established himself and made people forget about the Val gimmick

[Victator]

I think Chyna was a detriment to HHH getting over. She was a heat vacuum that stole the heat of anyone she was near. Every time she helped HHH win, it put all the heat on her. It is not a coincidence that he only got real traction as a heel, when she was far removed from the act. 

[pipGofern]

The thing where Val went heel on Foley and actually beat him in a ppv match happened in 1999. That angle was spun off the Rock N Sock Connection when Foley gave Rock his own personalized Mr. Socko (Rock-o) and Val stole it and wouldn't give it back because he liked stuffing it down his trunks.

 

The Rikishi feud and his alliance with Trish was all during his I-C title run in 2000. That's when they did the ppv match where Rikishi did the Snuka dive.

 

HHH was already the champion and main eventing ppvs when the 1999 Foley feud happened so I don't see where his push came at either Val or Riskishi's expense. They were definitely the next guys in line to be elevated but that's only because people forget how thin the WWF's roster was at the time. Jericho and the Radicalz coming over impacted Kishi/Val's push more than HHH did.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

The thing where Val went heel on Foley and actually beat him in a ppv match happened in 1999. That angle was spun off the Rock N Sock Connection when Foley gave Rock his own personalized Mr. Socko (Rock-o) and Val stole it and wouldn't give it back because he liked stuffing it down his trunks.

 

I had completely forgotten that angle.  Foley selling absolute horror as Mr. Rock-O was snuggling Val's johnson was patently absurd.  Thank you for reminding me how ridiculous 99 Russo WWF was

[The Man Known as Dan]

Amusingly enough, Rikishi didn't win that cage match. And Val being willing to let Kish hit that on him took brass balls.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

 

Yeah I don't really understand people who say Trips was undeservedly shoved down everyone's throats during the initial main event push in 1999. I don't remember that year great but I definitely don't remember being offended that HHH was getting elevated. Obviously he reached another level in 2000 when he retired Foley and had one of the great calendar year's in the history of the sport (TM Tony Schiavone), but I still thought he was fine in '99.

 

I don't disagree with this, but I always felt in 95-96 that HHH was getting pushed pretty hard and wasn't getting over on a level equal to his push, and that was before I knew who he was friends with or anything like that.  Come 98-00 he was really good, and over, and deserving of his level of push.....but it was a struggle to get him there.

 

And he didn't "get himself over" like FSW said, that's bs.  Foley working with him and doing a cage match and a hardcore match at MSG that were all about making HHH look legit got HHH over.  Getting paired on TV with HBK got him over.  CHYNA was a heat magnet because she was so different and unique and weird.....that got HHH over.  Leading DX with the red hot Outlaws and red hot on his return X-Pac got HHH over.  Storyline drugging, marrying and presumably raping Stephanie McMahon got HHH over.  Practically murdering Shawn Michaels when he came back for a week of tv and wanted to be back in DX got HHH over.  He didn't do it all himself, nobody does, and he sort of was shoved down the audience's throat with how hard they tried to get him over for years.  He was obviously good and talented enough that it stuck and he got over, but it wasn't like he was instantly embraced by the WWF audience.

 

I don't feel like your post contradicts mine, Hunter was helped because there's two people in every angle and match, but he didn't get pushed beyond his popularity at any point. In the end, he was as big a star in 2000 as anyone and that was organic.

[Niners Fan in CT]

 

So when 1999 rolls around, and Vince needs someone to take over while Austin is on the shelf - who better than the guy who always showed up early to work, never partook in the nightlife, and always wanted to talk about wrestling?

 

 

Amazing isn't it?

 

Great read and I ride with FSW.

[Niners Fan in CT]

The number of heels in the WWE/WWF history who got pushes like that is...well...offhand he's the only one I can think of 

 

Well Brock was pushed right into the WWE title. Of course, it was obviously the right decision. Kurt got a pretty damn big push as a new heel also. Remember the whole "Best first year in WWE history!!" thing?

[DylanWaco]

I think Brock is a reasonable comparison, though it doesn't feel the same because wrestling had changed a great deal by the time he came around.  I don't agree on Kurt - it's impossible for me to envision the WWE allowing HHH to job at a major ppv in a major market in seconds to a guy debuting from the number three fed.  

[Brian Fowler]

I think Triple H '95-'97 or maybe '98 got a fairly normal WWF "young guy we have faith in" push, overall.

 

In '99, they pushed him way beyond where he was at, but, as mentioned, there really wasn't another choice.  He had the look, the size, and the in-ring skill to get in the ring and go, Austin was breaking down, Foley was out of shape, Big Show wasn't really clicking, and they had nobody to step in against Rock except Triple H.

 

The latter half of '99 stuff is fascinating, because Trips is being pushed as hard as any heel (other than that brief bit where Show had the belt that got dropped in a hurry) and he is absolutely working his ass off in the ring, but it's not quite clicking.  The Foley feud and the Mania win combined to make him the most hated guy in the business, in the good way.

[DreamBroken]

 

They had this weird attempt at elevating Val Venis in I wanna say...2000, where he turned heel on Mick Foley for no reason(And kept giving him the testicular claw) and wrestled Stone Cold in the main event of a Smackdown. It was all done really poorly and came so out of nowhere, that no one bought into it at all. 

 

Was that the period when Val and Rikishi had that strangely very awesome feud that (I think) had a cage match blowoff that Rikishi won by doing the Snuka dive?

 

EDIT: Should've kept reading.  Obviously it wasn't!

 

 

Yeah that was at Fully Loaded 2000 and that match ruled. Loved the Rikishi dive. As mentioned above, Rikishi ended up losing the match after Tazz interfered and hit him with a camera. I really liked that period of Val also.

[Library Dude]

While it took a while for HHH to feel like a proper main eventer around 1999, he was trying to get into a pretty exclusive club. Austin and Taker were a huge deal. Foley had ridden a huge crest and had a completely different angle to his success to anyone else (everyman who finally realised his dream....through being a psychotic maniac). Rock was a total phenomenon. Big Show is Big Show. Back when HHH and Rock were feuding over the IC title you always felt these guys were going to be at the top soon, just Rock got there quicker because he was the bigger character. HHH was probably the least over person in the post-Shawn Michaels DX (he worked well as Shawn's goofy stooge, didn't work as the cool badass leading the group. Jesus, Road Dogg seemed cooler.) They didn't really find the right character for HHH until he was already being treated as a main event guy ("The Cerebral Assassin" - and yeah, yeah, that's pretty flimsy because his diabolic plan usually involved the same old hokey sledgehammer shit.  But it stuck, and he got real heat until those 20 minute Evolution promos every week, made him a total GO AWAY guy.). I don't think he got more breaks, rather he was clearly a really good talent but hadn't found his niche yet. Edge is a similar guy. The persona that finally made him work as a main event dude didn't really come around till he was already there.

 

From what HHH says in the interview with guys like Sandow, he's really aware that people need to find that hook that's going to get them over. It would be interesting to find out if the whole blue blood gimmick from earlier in HHH's career was just something that WCW gave him, so when he came to WWF he got the same thing. Because it's clearly very different from what ultimately suited him best. Is there any footage of HHH pre-WCW, like when he was at Kowalski's school?

 

Hearing what HHH says about getting Vince's ear and how he got into helping with the creative direction just chimes with a lot of things you hear other people say. Who was it who said that Zach Ryder never approached Vince about the stuff he was doing on youtube? (Foley, I'm thinking?) And if he had, Vince might have said "No, we won't put it on TV" but at least then he'd know Ryder's a guy with ideas. I'm pretty sure Vince is too busy to keep up with all the stuff his employees are doing on social media. Then there's JR's constant "too busy playing video games" jibes. I'd imagine that a lot of younger guys are totally intimidated by Vince, and the people who've been there for a long time, whereas guys who were there in mid-90's, when stuff was in the shits, basically felt freer to contribute. Unrelated, but I love that story about Vince going off on creative about not being able to find anything for a guy like Jimmy Wang Yang to do. It would be really interesting to find out the relationship between Daniel Bryan and HHH, Vince and everyone else because they are obviously super high on him.

[Petey]

I really liked the bit about Triple H just wanting to barbecue some burgers and Vince just wanting to talk about business in Peoria (or whatever town was referenced). Mostly because I can picture Triple H with the apron and chef's hat working the grill.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I liked Evolution and did not like many of the babyfaces they were feuding with (Kane, Booker T, Goldberg, over-the-hill Steiner) so that period of RAW did not bother me as much as it did many others but I can see why someone would say it was boring.

 

I wonder though..  what was the ceiling on those guys that Triple H "held back"?

 

I felt RVD was at his peak in 2001 during the InVasion angle and they should have ran with Austin vs. RVD for a while. They never REALLY pulled the trigger on that. They gave RVD a shot at the title in a triple threat match where he took the fall but did he ever receive a proper one-on-one? Fans went nuclear for him. I think they totally would have bought RVD as world champion. By '02-'03 RVD was still very over (he usually is) but it wasn't to the level of the Austin feud. I think if they really wanted Austin to be booed, RVD was the guy to face.

 

I never liked Kane as a happy monster.

 

Booker T has always felt like an upper-midcard guy to me. I'm sure some would disagree with that. I think he's more Edge than Rock.

 

A ton of people were pissed about Goldberg losing the Elimination Chamber match and I can see why. Triple H wasn't even healthy at this time. Now, he says that he wanted to drop the title one-on-one to Goldberg which he did but who knows if there is more to the story. I still felt like WWE gave Goldberg plenty. He killed Evolution by himself on a number of occasions. He was very over but a difficult guy to work with and in a lot of northeastern cities the "WWF guys" were being cheered over Goldberg.

 

Steiner was so out of it in 2003. He was terrible which is unfortunate because he was massively over. Remember his debut? MSG went fucking bonkers.

[Overly Critical Man]

As a high schooler in 1999, I can remember being REALLY underwhelmed with HHH's shitty first title reign(Where he got treated like Dolph Ziggler with syphillis) but then everyone jumping on board once he drugged Steph and secretly married her.

Of course, all us dumb high schoolers thought Test was gonna be a big deal from that and instead HHH got the biggest heel push ever and Test got his nose broken by X-PAC every week.

[odessasteps]

I really liked the bit about Triple H just wanting to barbecue some burgers and Vince just wanting to talk about business in Peoria (or whatever town was referenced). Mostly because I can picture Triple H with the apron and chef's hat working the grill.

The DX kielbasa sketch?http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=znBBdxvibS4

[Big Fresh]

I really liked the bit about Triple H just wanting to barbecue some burgers and Vince just wanting to talk about business in Peoria (or whatever town was referenced). Mostly because I can picture Triple H with the apron and chef's hat working the grill.

 

No imagination needed:

 

[Josh Mann]

It's nice that Shawn doesn't seem to have Kielbasa Envy.