August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557596 "Solid B+" was tied with "Check your ego at the door, just like I do" for line of the night for me.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557598 The best thing about the B+ was that it wasn't JUST a knock but it let Bryan have a comeback that the crowd got behind.
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557600 "Solid B+" was tied with "Check your ego at the door, just like I do" for line of the night for me. There were so many great lines written that it was hard to fuck up. On another note, does anyone else feel Hunter came off as a more convincing heel on Monday night than, say, in 2003 or 2004?
August 21, 201312 yr comment_5557603 In 2003/2004 it felt like Ric Flair/Harley Race fan fiction with an underlying insecure passive aggressiveness. This was more genuine maybe?
August 22, 201312 yr comment_5557990 This is quite the interview in many ways. Trips is very candid here. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/958836...fficer-triple-h
August 22, 201312 yr comment_5557991 By the way, I had this interview set up for Bix but he had to go and Bix it up....
August 22, 201312 yr comment_5557994 It's...um...interesting? I always like that Triple H is candid and wants the business to thrive, and agree with him on why things had to change, but still...it seems like a lot of it is all ideas and little execution in some ways.
August 22, 201312 yr comment_5557996 This is quite the interview in many ways. Trips is very candid here. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/958836...fficer-triple-h Couldn't help but Ctrl+F "business." Disappointed it was only 16, I was hoping for over 20.
August 22, 201312 yr comment_5558008 I have to laugh at Trip ripping Keller over Page. I bet if you ran that by Wade that his memory would be considerably better than Trip's on it, including stuff like... well... knowing Page back when Page was managing in the AWA. I'd hazzard a guess that Wade didn't rip Wade as much as Trip claims, nor was page as annoyed by it as much as Trip claims. John
August 22, 201312 yr comment_5558010 PWTorch reader Travis of Monterey asks: Wade, Triple H dropped your name, not in a positive light, in the article with Grantland on ESPN. I'd be interested to hear your response. PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: The story as he remembers isn't at all accurate. The person who wrote those things about DDP was Mark Madden, a columnist for PWTorch Newsletter at the time. DDP, as he has said numerous times in our recent interviews, and I always got along since we were both around near the start of our respective careers in the AWA. The idea that DDP called me and suddenly I "was digging Page," as Triple H said, is just not at all how things happened. First of all, the Torch doesn't speak with one voice. I was an advocate of DDP pretty early once he started showing he could be a great common man babyface character to go opposite of the NWO. All of the back issues of PWTorch Newsletter lay this out. In fact, at one point I compared DDP's rise in WCW to Steve Austin's the WWF. Of course Austin was a much more well-rounded wrestler and would go on to greater heights, but both WCW and the WWF at that point needed fresh babyfaces who fans saw as "one of them," and when DDP had that series of really good career-making matches with Randy Savage, that's when I really began to get behind him. The idea that a phone conversation made me "dig DDP" is pretty lame. My "digging DDP" coincided with his hard work and opportunity leading to a successful push and a hot series of matches. My "digging DDP" coincided with a lot of other people suddenly seeing DDP in new light and complimenting him, too - those people did not have a conversation with DDP. (I also "flipped" on my opinion of Triple H work in the ring when it got better; it didn't take a phone conversation or "being charmed" by him. What it took was his changing the pace of his work in the ring which coincided with his getting over with fans and becoming an effective main event wrestler instead of that guy with all the potential who just wasn't getting over with fans.) Also, if I have a rep for anything, it's for ruining "friendships" or turning away people who think they've "worked me" by speaking the truth as I see it despite their being friendly to me or providing me with information. It's one of the reasons three of Triple H's best friends in the industry have given me the longest interviews they've ever done. Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Sean Waltman have each done ten-plus hours of interviews with me. Funny thing is, I've ripped on all of them, including Waltman who is on my PWTorch Livecast tomorrow. They all understand it's my job to give opinions, and as long as there's no malice or a disregard for fairness, they are man enough to take it. There have been times in history where a wrestler has called me and it's changed my perspective on things based on new information, but nobody's ever "charmed me" on the phone and suddenly they went from a waste of time and total crap to being saviors who do wonderful work. I have nearly 26 years of a track record of the opposite being the case, and Triple H disrespectfully disregarded that based on one anecdote he remembers totally wrong. What's frustrating is that sometimes people like Triple H think "the dirt sheets" or "the Internet" speak with one voice. PWTorch itself doesn't even speak with one voice, and I certainly don't want to be grouped in with the conventional wisdom of "the Internet" when it comes to certain things, including what Triple H complained about in the next paragraph - that the Internet makes him out to be evil and out to kill careers. I take heat for it, but nobody has defended Triple H and The Clique more than I have. Not blindly and not without some qualifications, but the notion that The Clique killed careers that could have blossomed if not for Triple H and his buddies sabotaging them has been debunked by me more than anyone the last 15 years, most recently including when I challenged Bob Holly on that assertion he made in his book in an interview I did with him on the PWTorch Livecast recently. So it's ironic he'd complain about people misconstruing his role behind the scenes, while the one thing he said about me was badly botched by attributing to me something someone else wrote. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/Ask_the...ml#.UhZgxMxZqfE
August 22, 201312 yr comment_5558013 By the way, I had this interview set up for Bix but he had to go and Bix it up....For the record, he's kidding.
August 23, 201312 yr comment_5558100 Got a laugh out of this paragraph, my fav part of the interview: I wish I had the brainpower and the wherewithal and the drive to be as maniacal and devious as people fucking think I am. I'd be fucking Darth Vader. I'd run the Empire, and I guess maybe that's how some people see it, right? They'd say "Oh, he went in there and he buried this guy," and it's like, fuck, I had nothing to do with that. I didn't even know he was coming in until I saw him that day.
February 3, 201510 yr comment_5652809 Wow! Been that long since there's been any action on this thread? Thought it was worth bumping in light of last night's podcast, and his previous one with Jericho. Anyone's opinion changed on him? I've definitely softened on the guy, but maybe I'm being worked?
February 3, 201510 yr comment_5652810 I've mellowed some. On the one hand, I think he has a better mind for what the fans want from the WWE more so than Vince does. On the other, I still think he's very much the politician with a big guy fix like Vince.
February 4, 201510 yr comment_5652839 Still can't stand the guy. He may be some sprt of master at some aspect of wrasslin' but at this point he's the public face of over a decade's worth of missed opportunities to me. He's given the rub to ? Batista ? In a career as long as his, with so much time at the top, he leaves a wake of failed feuds behind him. Creatively and commercially. In that, he lives in rare air, a top a throne. But if anyone can think of someone comparable, please speak up!
February 4, 201510 yr comment_5652845 Personally the guy doesn't have any real power in the WWE. The buck stops with Vince. Sure he double talked on the pod. It's not like he could go on the pod and bash the company. To me the worst thing was the Buddy Rogers tweet that occurred. It's been discussed for years how selfish of a performer he was.
February 4, 201510 yr comment_5652917 I think the talking point that Triple H (and Stephanie) don't have any real power in WWE is a really strange one. He's built a new performance centre, created a new NXT brand, is responsible for hiring all new developmental talent, oversees the talent relations department, is so heavily involved in the main roster creative process that his fingertips are all over the booking, and continues to be pushed as the top heel in the promotion. That's not real power that can heavily influence the future of the company?
February 4, 201510 yr comment_5652936 Yeah just because there's one guy that can overrule him doesn't mean he has no power.
February 4, 201510 yr comment_5652943 No power might have been worded poorly. We see with the presentation of NXT how HHH wants to present wrestling. To me it's not fair to give him the lions share of the blame. Instead of a HHH thread maybe we should have a what in the hell is Vince thinking thread.
February 5, 201510 yr comment_5652955 I disagree in the sense that we see with the presentation of NXT how HHH wants to present wrestling to hardcore wrestling fans. That's not the same as how he wants to present wrestling full stop.
February 5, 201510 yr comment_5652957 Then tell me what things should we be looking at? NXT is his baby. He is totally hands on in it. It's what he's in charge of. So holding him accountable for NXT is fair.Holding him accountable for WWE creative isn't.
February 5, 201510 yr comment_5652959 Also people who say he gets pushed as the lead heel. Guess what the Authority figure has been lead heel for the most part since 97. I'll take HHH and Steph over Johnny Ace.
February 5, 201510 yr comment_5652997 He's the Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events & Creative. If we just assess Triple H based on NXT, then you're assessing him on only part of his job. By his very job title, we should be holding him accountable for WWE creative, as well as Vince McMahon! Triple H is the head of talent relations, so he should be compared with his predecessors JJ Dillon, Jim Ross and John Laurinaitis. He's also the number two guy in creative behind Vince McMahon, so he should also be compared with his former right-hand men in that department. People have worked very successfully under Vince in the past, even when he was out of touch before. If Triple H can't do that, then he's not fully succeeding in his position.
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