Triple H on WWE Physiques Being “Variety Makes Everything Better”, Not Being Real Clear Moment When He Took Over WWE Creative, Not Having Any “Malice” Towards Cody Rhodes for Throne Smash Moment in AEW, & His Talk with AJ Styles About Styles’ In-Ring Retirement

A recent episode of the What Do You Wanna Talk About? with Cody Rhodes podcast featured WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Levesque’s thoughts about his belief that wrestling should showcase a variety of physiques and how ultimately the performer’s in-ring capabilities matters the most.

“I feel like it’s mixed, depending on who you are as a performer, and what you’re bringing to the table. Would Brock Lesnar be as frightening if he didn’t look like Brock Lesnar? But I don’t think you have to have it, I don’t think it has to, I’m a bigger believer in the variety of things. There needs to be some semblance of believability to what we do, right? But I don’t think that means you have to be a bodybuilder, I don’t think it means you have to be lean where you can see your abs. I think that works for some folks, but there’s also room for the Gunther’s.

I’d love to see the Kamala shape and size. There’s something for everybody across what we do. You know I talk about history a lot cause we’re both history buffs in the business and stuff but Abdullah the Butcher, Kamala, people like that were just as frightening to me as the Road Warriors were, or anybody else who was jacked up and on a different level.

So, I’m a big believer that variety makes everything better. When you get fed one thing for a while, after a while you get tired of eating the same thing, so you want that variety.”

Levesque also gave his thoughts about how there was no real clear moment when he took over creative from Vince McMahon in WWE and it was a transition period instead.

“I think so. Though, there was — and again, this is where I’m terrible with times — but it’s not like one day, ‘Here, it’s yours’ and everything else went away. There was so many aspects to that of, ‘Hey, Vince is stepping away. You’re going to take this spot, but he’s chiming in.’ And he [was] still meeting with me all the time and still, you know, directing traffic from the side. And there’s no real, it’s a weird, no real clear moment for me. But I would consider it that, yes.

At the end of the day, when people are like, ‘Yeah, but it’s your decision, right?’ Yeah, sort of,” Levesque said. “You know what I mean? Like you’re — yes, and you have to defend your position and you have to be able to sell that to people and explain it to people. If it’s a little bit not your position or a little bit, ‘Well, why did this happen?’ And you don’t want to say, ‘Well, because, you know, it wasn’t totally my decision.’”

Levesque also gave his thoughts about him not believing there was any “serious malice” from Rhodes in regards to his throne smashing moment during AEW’s inaugural show in 2019.

Cody Rhodes – “You never once, when I came back, asked me about clearly taking your throne, making it imagery in my entrance away from here, starting my own thing, and taking your hammer to it.

Paul “Triple H” Levesque – “I saw it as your hammer because it was smaller than mine [laughs]. No, look, that kind of sh*t to me is like, I remember when people brought it to me and were showing it to me and I was like, ‘F**k yeah, all right, good for him.’ You know what I mean? That’s the kind of sh*t you do, you’re trying to make a name for yourself, you’re trying to get out there, you’re trying to do some cool sh*t, trying to do some different stuff. Believe me, if I would have thought there was malice in it, and maybe indirectly there was some at the time, I don’t know. But if I would have thought there was any serious malice in it, I would have called you and said, ‘Hey, dude, like, are we okay?’ Because I was so close to your dad, but then I always felt like a connection to you. And when you were here, and it was difficult for me when you left, because I couldn’t say like, I couldn’t over the top go like, ‘Dude, get the f**k out of here and go out there and make a name for yourself and make yourself, what you said, desirable and we’ll f**ing come chasing after you and bring you back.’ Sometimes you got to get out of the rut you’re in. You just got to bite it off and go in a different direction. Make the left turn, right? And it was so difficult, but during that time, I remember thinking like, all right, that’s getting out there. That’s being bold and making a statement.

Rhodes – “You did tell me, because you said, ‘Go rattle the cages.’ And you kind of made yourself the target for me to rattle in terms of the optics of wrestling. And there was no malice for sure because this is after I won the Ring of Honor title. One of the first texts I got back to was yours: ‘Congrats.’ As I was walking to the hospital in Lowell because my lip was busted open holding my first World title.

Levesque – “You know, it’s one of those things where you see somebody going off, doing their own thing, and having success. And I’m like, ‘F**k yeah, Cody. Come on.’ Like, get yourself in that spot where we’re like, ‘Hey, we should go like, I don’t know what he did different, but let’s go get him.’ You know what I mean?

Rhodes – “I’m glad the feeling is good on it versus — because I’m thinking, man, if he’s mad about it, it’s a long road to whatever the payoff is.”

Levesque – “He’s waiting on that receipt [laughs].”

Rhodes – “Oh, now it’s happening [laughs].

Levesque – “No, man, I never even — I never thought about anything other than, ‘F**k yeah, good for him. Go get it.’

Levesque also gave his thoughts about the conversation he had with AJ Styles about Styles’ in-ring retirement.

“At the end, AJ was like, ‘I don’t want to be done with the business. I want to be done wrestling.’ And I don’t think I’m betraying a confidence here. But even in his last match, he was telling me like, ‘I so know I’m done because I was out there in that last match thinking like, let’s just get [it] over with, I just want to get to the end.’

He wants to participate in the business, right? But being an agent or a producer, it’s a different world. Being in what we do, there’s different fits for different people. AJ came in, he sat in on some creative meetings, he sat in on some production meetings. And I think he realized like, the writing thing’s not for me, the producer thing, I don’t think is for me. What I really like is getting to these young kids and spotting talent and then trying to help fan the flames of the little spark that’s there and try to make them into something more, the developmental side of it. So, great, let’s utilize him in that and grab those talents there.”

Levesque also gave his thoughts about his belief that Rhodes is another person who will still be able to make a big impact in WWE whenever he decides to retire from his in-ring wrestling career.

“It’s your show and I’m not trying to blow smoke up your ass. You’re one of those guys that I believe as you come to the end of your career, it behooves you to start to pay attention to the other things.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com 1, 2, 3, & 4