‘You’re just old’ – Triple H fires back in stinging blast at criticism of current WWE product ahead of Netflix debut
If there’s one thing that seems sure about the reign of Triple H at the top of WWE it’s that he’s doing things his own way.
The real-life Paul Levesque, who enjoyed a Hall of Fame wrestling career of his own and accumulated world title reigns aplenty, now oversees what we see on screen from the company.
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As its Chief Content Officer and Head of Creative, he puts together the matches and storylines that make up the episodes of Raw and SmackDown each week, building to mammoth annual shows like WrestleMania.
Levesque took those reigns from his father-in-law, Vince McMahon, who was renowned for creating a show entirely to his own tastes.
While always claiming to work for the entertainment of the masses, McMahon famously filled his airtime with self-indulgence, once even pitching to be the father of his own daughter’s baby in one storyline.
The billionaire also ended the career of WWE legend Kurt Angle by having him beaten by Baron Corbin and, when told how unpopular it was likely to be with fans, and said: ‘f*** them.’
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From a distance it appears Triple H wants to do things differently, and to work more in-tune with his performers, who are at the heart of what’s produced, he has said in a new interview.
Much like Premier League football in the UK, the wrestling media circuit is littered with stars of yesterday talking either side of big events and on podcasts about the current state of play and comparing it to bygone years.
Triple H would qualify for such a role himself, were he not at the helm, such was his prominence and stardom back in the day. He chooses not to make it about himself, though, and revealed none of his ex co-stars get in touch to offer their wisndow.
“Nobody actually texts me during the show because they know I’m not going to answer,” he to Greg and the Morning Buzz.
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“I know guys across many different generations, and I think there are some older performers that look at the way kids perform today, and they say: ‘They’re just not doing it right. They don’t need to do all this.’
“I get that, but it’s the way kids consume it today. There is a saying about when things start to leave you in life. ‘The first thing to go is music.’ How many people, as you see them get older, [say:] ‘Music today sucks. Back in my day, that’s when they made good music. People put their heart and their soul into it and there was real emotion there.’ No, you’re just old, dude.
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“Yeah, the stuff was great in your generation, and you learned it a certain way, but the kids today learn it a different way, and what they see and what they think is cool, then that’s what you need to give them. I can’t control that.”
Without addressing McMahon’s leadership, Levesque did give a hint of past experiences in WWE, saying: “I learned this [over] 30 years the hard way. It is in no way shape or form about what I want. It’s about what they want.
“If it becomes about what I want, then the show will die. It is about what they want and that overall big picture.”
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Leveque and co are readying themselves for a new era come January when its flagship Raw show airs on Netflix – the streaming giant also becoming the home of all things WWE here in the UK.
Anyone concerned that the recent buffering issues that impacted the Jake Paul v Mike Tyson fight might cause issues for WWE needn’t worry – Triple H clearly isn’t sweating it.
He added: “I don’t want to flex about it, but it was buffering on my end because I was on a plane watching it. The buffering was expected on my side. We were flying back from TV watching the fight and the signal was wonky. I thought: ‘We’re 40,000 feet in the air, it should be.’
“Then, seeing it online of everybody saying it was buffering. You start putting 60 million households all at once on a streaming service, if our first night buffers and they come and say there were 60-70 million households watching, I’ll be good with the buffering.”
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Netflix had already reached out to WWE after the Paul, Tyson fight with assurances about the service going forward.
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