HHH interview from Raw Magazine

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Credit goes to degenarate902 of the IGNboards for providing this interview

 

 

Raw Magazine: Stone Cold made some scathing comments about you. How do you respond to them?

 

Triple H: I could care less.

 

RAW: Were you surprised by it?

 

Triple H: No.

 

RAW: Why do you think he said what he did?

 

Triple H: When somebody does something wrong, they make all the excuses in the world that what they did wasn't wrong. They blame everybody else. But I could care less what Stone Cold Steve Austin thinks about me, about my career, about anything I do. I do what I do whether anybody likes that or not. I could care less.

 

RAW: He complained particularly about the times you've referred to him "taking his ball and going home."

 

Triple H: If Austin has a problem with that, then he can tell me to my face. Don't write about it in a magazine.

 

RAW: Has he done that?

 

Triple H: He hasn't talked to me yet.

 

RAW: Has he done that?

 

Triple H: He hasn't talked to me yet.

 

RAW: Have you had any words at all since he's been back?

 

Triple H: We've spoken. But just pleasantries, and that's it.

 

RAW: Is there any tension between the two of you?

 

Triple H: No more than usual.

 

RAW: And why would there usually be tension between you two?

 

Triple H: It's a competitive business.

 

RAW: So it's safe to say that you don't consider Austin a friend.

 

Triple H: I consider him somebody I work with. Sometimes we've been friends, sometimes we've been--I don't want to say enemies--but competitive. The best rivalries in the world are fueled by competitiveness.

 

RAW: Do you think he doesn't like you?

 

Triple H: It doesn't matter to me if he does or doesn't.

 

RAW: How do you feel about him?

 

Triple H: I think Austin is one of the biggest draws ever. If he wrestles, it's good for business.

 

Raw: Would you work with him?

 

Triple H: Sure. From a professional standpoint, Austin is one of the greatest performers ever. People make too much out of all these other things. The bottom line is that Austin is a great wrestler and a great entertainer. I think we're all about giving the fans the best entertainment they can get, and certainly Stone Cold gives them that.

 

RAW: But do you think he's making this too much of a personal issue?

 

Triple H: I don't know 'til I talk to him. You've got to understand something: Just 'cause you guys write it on a piece of paper, doesn't mean it's true.

 

RAW: But what's in RAW Magazine are his actual words.

 

Triple H: Who knows what his inflection was? Who knows what he was feeling that day? Who knows what he's feeling today? Until I speak to Austin the man, look in his eyes and talk to him face to face, I have no idea what his feelings toward me or toward anything else are, just as he has no idea what my feelings are. And honestly, that's between nobody but me and Steve.

 

RAW: You've said that you don't care what he thinks about you. Yet in Raw Magazine, he said you need to stop worrying about him and start worrying about your own career.

 

Triple H: See, that's where he's mistaken. I don't worry about Steve.

 

RAW: He said you need to start worrying about yourself and about drawing money for the company.

 

Triple H: And so does he. Steve doesn't know what I worry about. He doesn't really know how I feel.

 

RAW: If he's never spoken to you about these things, where do you think he would get these impressions from?

 

Triple H: Obviously, he's watched the show, and he's heard comments Triple H has said to him. Were those comments written for me? Did I say them on my own? Steve doesn't know.

 

RAW: Could he be confusing your in-ring comments with your feelings away from the ring?

 

Triple H: Maybe. We've always had respect for each other, from before we were big stars. When Steve would have matches, or I would have matches, there were certain guys whose opinions we ask for--certain guys you know you're gonna get the truth from because you share their sensibilities. Steve and I had that relationship. We know how each other thinks. But we were never best friends. I've never stayed at Stone Cold's house or gone hunting with him. We're different people. But that's cool.

 

RAW: Do you still have that respect?

 

Triple H: Oh, definitely. But again, I can't tell you what Steve thinks. Here's something you've got to understand: If you're Stone Cold and you go home, you have people calling you up and winding you up, saying "This guy said this..." or "I read on the internet..." Way too many people put way too much stock in what's said on the internet. What some six-year-old in Podunk thinks about the show that night, or the match I had... It's a bunch of crap. But if you've got those people in your ear, or you're reading these things, it might seem like someone's attacking you, especially when he's not here to defend himself.

 

What I've said about him in the media or backstage is nothing I wouldn't say to his face. And I'm sure we will have that conversation. The things I've said in character are in character; the things I've said out of character are how I feel. And I would say those to his face. If he has an issue with that, fine. We'll hash that out. We don't have to see eye to eye on everything. But even if I don't see eye to eye with him, I still respect the hell out of Austin the performer and Austin the athlete.

 

The thing people don't understand is I've traveled all over the world with Austin. We've drawn some of the biggest houses in history. It wasn't just him doing it; it wasn't just me doing it. No different than the way it was when Rock and I worked, or Foley and I. It was both of us. We've done all that together, and there's a bond between us for having done that together. There's never been a guy more popular than Steve, and I respect him for that. But we will have that coversation between him and I, not in a magazine.

 

RAW: Austin stated that you're not where you should be with the amount of TV time invest in you. How do you respond to that?

 

Triple H: That's an easy thing for him to say. But there's a problem with him criticizing what's happening, or anyone criticizing who's not in our business. Before Steve left, he wasn't where he should've been with the amount of TV time invested in him.

 

Raw: But this is from somebody who is in the business.

 

Triple H: No, he wasn't. See, that's the issue. He wasn't at the time he made those comments, and hadn't been for a long time. So he had no idea what was going on. He contradicts himself by saying, "I left because I didn't feel like I was being used right, I wasn't where I was supposed to be," and then looking at me and saying "He's not being used right, and isn't where he should be."

 

Why is my situation an different? He was sitting at home every day, with no contact to the business, watching the show as a regular guy, thinking he had a bead on what's going on 'cause he knew how things were done in the past, and was bitter about the business in general anyway. Trust me, you have to be very bitter to walk out.

 

I'm not saying what he did was right or wrong; in his mind, he had reasons. Whatever they are, I'm not the judge. But when you leave and you're bitter and then you look at the business that you're bitter at, what are you gonna say? "These guys are doing a tremendous job, they haven't missed a beat since I've been gone?" No, that's not what you're going to say.

 

RAW: If you share a respect for each other, how could it not bother you that he said what he said? You wouldn't think that someone who shared that respect would say those things.

 

Triple H: If you sat at home for six months, stewing, and finally got an opportunity to say your piece, you're probably gonna overextend what you want to say. Things could be said a certain way. And I'm not saying anybody printed it to wind people up. I'm not making that accusation at all. What I am saying is that if things are written a certain way, they sound a certain way. It's not necessarily how they were said.

 

I read the article. Did it bother me? No. Did it upset me? No. 'Cause I know it's just an article. When I speak to him will be just when we decide whether we have a problem with each other, and whether we're still the same as we ever were. Either way, I'm cool with it. I don't have to be best friends with Stone Cold Steve Austin. I've wrestled guys that are just someone I work with, and if that's the way it is now between us, that's fine. If we staytight, that's fine too.

[Guest Trivia247]

Ummm I maybe be scrolling this wrong or something but it looks like the same train of thought was pasted 3 times.

[Guest jester]

I'm too tired to really rip this apart, so I will settle for this instead:

 

Levesque, you 'roided up hanger-on with an inflated ego and no grasp of the damage you're doing, the phrase is "couldn't care less." To say "I could care less" means that you care a little, and you could be more indifferent. If you "couldn't care less" you are totally uninterested in topic at hand.

 

Moron. Go hump another dummy. Steph or Katie Vick, I couldn't care less.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Watch, everybody's going to ignore his comments vis Austin and instead focus that he said something bad about the internet.

 

I kinda doubt he's talking about us explicitly, guys. In fact, having read a good number of those so called "journalists" work, if I had to say he's picking on one single solitary person, it'd probably Scott "I hate everything" Keith. And there's someone we could all agree on ostracizing.

[Guest Memphis]

If Triple H praised Internet fans for being objective and implementing their own educated opinions on ideas that could be used to increase business productivity, the Smarks would STILL hate him.

 

Because he's a selfish, conceded, over-rated, bitter piece of shit.

[Guest Luke Cage]

This "interview" reminds me of Apter mags.

[Guest Memoirs of an Invisible Chevy]

He can be a smug prick when he is the pull he has. Bastard.

 

 

[Guest CA$H MONEY]

How many WWE people do you think have even read or heard about TSM........I know Trish has heard of us atleast, but that's about it.

[Guest THE MIGHTY THOR]

Ummm I maybe be scrolling this wrong or something but it looks like the same train of thought was pasted 3 times.

Nah, it's just Trips repeating himself over and over, he is like an answering machine that was programmed to say the same shit all the time. But as always he is playing the game of Show and Tell, he is showing us shit but telling us everything. He constantly complaints about the internet fans, mind you the fans that are paying with their hard earned money to see the WWE and the ones that allowed him to have a nice house and has made him rich, if Trips thinks is not true what the internet fans are writing about him why does he get upset?Why the fuck does he care?I guess the truth hurts Paula, the biggest punk in the locker room with a huge push b/c he is banging the owner's fat bimbo daughter. Eventually all good things for him will come to an end and he will be a nothing just like he was b4.

[Guest CanadianChris]

What some six-year-old in Podunk thinks about the show that night, or the match I had... It's a bunch of crap.

What an arrogant ass. The fans pay your salary, you jerk.

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

Yawn. By now, you'd think the smarks would learn. Triple H probably enjoys the attention he gets, so he continues to make these comments.

[Guest notJames]

A friend of mine posed a theory where HHH is deliberately targeting Internet fans so that he can build a rep as a true heel. Traditionally, good heels are praised by smarks, so in order for him to buy heel heat from them, he deliberately lets all this backstage shit "leak out", so that we have a reason to hate him.

 

Trouble is, this HHHate is not prompting any of us to pay to see him get his comeuppance, which seems to get farther and farther the more his challengers gets cleanly beaten and dismissed to the midcard. It's also making any show he's on more and more unbearable, especially with the Clique once again rising to the top.

 

Stupid HHHuman.

[Guest AndrewTS]

He "thinks" Austin is one of the biggest draws ever. Gee, how humble of HHH to admit that.

[Guest notJames]

Just wanted to add that it's not just the IWC that's railing against HHH. My brother-in-law is an average Joe wrestling fan who doesn't delve into the backstage crap on the Internet, and even he is savvy enough to figure out what the IWC has been saying all along about HHH. He's boring, doesn't wrestle well, and his extended Title reign is making the show unwatchable.

 

He also takes issue with some other Smark complaints; i.e., too much McMahon-o-Mania, the nostalgic re-signing of wrestling's dinosaurs, T&A getting too much airtime. Unfortunately, he's not a big fan of cruisers or wrestlers lacking charisma like Benoit and Team Angle, so it's probably wise not to get him on the IWC bandwagon just yet.

[Guest jester]

Now that I've read this over again, it seems like HHH does a lot of ass-covering and obfuscation here. Lot of "I don't know, ask Austin" stuff. Lots of "Yeah, that was said, but did he really mean it."

 

Like:

 

"Were those comments written for me? Did I say them on my own? Steve doesn't know."

 

He seems very careful to hide what he really thinks. I'd have more respect if he came out and said "I personally, not in the HHH character sense, but me, think what Austin did was wrong" or whatever.

 

And he should care what some six year old in Podunk thinks. While yes, you can't please everyone, his job is to be an entertainer. If there are signs he isn't entertaining, he should be paying attention to them.

 

Oh, and fuck HHH. I can't wait for the final burial of Booker tonight.

[Guest AndrewTS]

HHH hasn't been entertaining since the Steiner fued--and for all the wrong reasons.

 

The fact that he's pretending he doesn't want to act like he knows what Austin meant makes him sound as much like an ignorant ass as Clinton debating the meaning of simple words.

 

Hey, HHH, why is it that you can't have a match against some one who isn't a real draw without the fans walking out? Why is it you can't even main event a house show without the fans deciding to leave early?

 

Wake the fuck up, jackass.

[Guest Austin3164life]

Aside from the fact that he is an egocentric and basically two-faced individual, he actually is very good at hashing the truth.

[Guest bob_barron]

Just wanted to add that it's not just the IWC that's railing against HHH. My brother-in-law is an average Joe wrestling fan who doesn't delve into the backstage crap on the Internet, and even he is savvy enough to figure out what the IWC has been saying all along about HHH. He's boring, doesn't wrestle well, and his extended Title reign is making the show unwatchable.

 

He also takes issue with some other Smark complaints; i.e., too much McMahon-o-Mania, the nostalgic re-signing of wrestling's dinosaurs, T&A getting too much airtime. Unfortunately, he's not a big fan of cruisers or wrestlers lacking charisma like Benoit and Team Angle, so it's probably wise not to get him on the IWC bandwagon just yet.

To quote my friend who is a huge mark:

 

I think Triple H has held that title for way too long.

[Guest Mattdotcom]

Triple H: I don't know 'til I talk to him. You've got to understand something: Just 'cause you guys write it on a piece of paper, doesn't mean it's true.

 

RAW: But what's in RAW Magazine are his actual words.

 

I thought that was pretty funny, especially picturing HHH doing a double-take and a Conan "Zuh?!".

[Guest Anorak]

A friend of mine posed a theory where HHH is deliberately targeting Internet fans so that he can build a rep as a true heel. Traditionally, good heels are praised by smarks, so in order for him to buy heel heat from them, he deliberately lets all this backstage shit "leak out", so that we have a reason to hate him.

That's why HHH actually loves internet fans. We're the only ones who give him any heat.