The Undertaker recently had high praise for WWE Chief Creative Officer and former onscreen rival, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, for how well he has done since taking over WWE Creative and how the backstage environment has changed for the better. Triple H has been at the helm of WWE for the last year and a half or so after Vince McMahon initially retired in July 2022. In that time, WWE has changed their on-screen product, but also some changes are happening backstage.
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One of those big changes is the backstage environment and how calm it is now. The Undertaker praised this year’s Royal Rumble matches on his podcast Six Feet Under with Mark Calaway [his real name] and credits Triple H for it.
“I’m not around obviously, like I used to be. When I was working full time or even when I wasn’t, it was just so chaotic … The Rumble itself is put together, it is a complicated deal. It really is complicated, but there was always like this tendency last minute for things to get changed.
“You got something in your mind for a couple hours now. This is what we are trying to achieve, this is how we are going to get there and then somebody, somebody! Decides they want to change it and now all this thought as to how you’re going to do this now has been changed and it’s 10 minutes till go time, right … It’s just chaotic. People, I don’t think, in other genres of entertainment … in the entertainment world, I would be interested to see how many people that act, or musicians could handle the stress of working like that.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
WWE Used to be More Chaotic Backstage Before Triple H Took Over
Undertaker went on to talk about how stressful it can be to have to change everything at the last minute and then get possibly 30 people, depending on where the change occurs, on board with the change. However, with Triple H taking over he has seen a change to a calmness backstage.
The chaotic nature of the backstage environment has gone away and he thinks it is because of Triple H and his leadership style. Despite Triple H being in a high-pressure position, Undertaker said he has not seen him get too worked up to the point where he has yelled at talent. The former WWE Champion continued:
“I’ve seen him get worked up, but I haven’t seen him yell at talent, I haven’t seen him badmouth anybody. There’s times when you come through the curtain and you know the ass-chewing is coming. I haven’t seen that with him … For me I almost don’t like it. It’s almost too calm … It’s like, they don’t care enough, it’s not that, it’s just the atmosphere.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
The Undertaker thinks that because the roster is younger they are more “chill.” He also thinks that because of how young wrestlers are, it is better to have a calmer environment. He compared the old WWE to being a battlefield. The WWE veteran also thinks that having someone who can nurture the young roster like Triple H does is perfect for the current time in the industry.
Triple H has a lot of experience with nurturing young talent. He was in charge of developing NXT. In the time he was in charge of NXT, Shawn Michaels now holds that position, he built it into possibly the best wrestling show in the world. A lot of those wrestlers he helped to develop are now at the top of Raw and SmackDown. Some are even doing very well in AEW. They have become the stars who will carry WWE and wrestling into the future and maybe Triple H had a lot to do with that.
Another huge change Triple H has made to WWE for the better is opening the “forbidden door” to other promotions. The most recent example of this is having TNA Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace appear in this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble match. Undertaker talked about how that would not have happened before and the best they would get is someone from Japan. The WWE Hall of Famer added:
“Used to, we didn’t acknowledge, no one acknowledged. Occasionally we would bring someone in from Japan. I think it is great. I think doing that, it almost makes it more legitimate ‘cause you let a champion come from a different company and test [them].”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
WWE has been a lot more open about acknowledging other promotions since Triple H took over. They let Mickie James appear in the Royal Rumble while she was TNA Knockouts World champion in 2022, let AJ Styles record a video for a TNA anniversary show and they let Shinsuke Nakamura wrestle The Great Muta in Pro Wrestling NOAH as part of Muta’s retirement tour.
Undertaker acknowledges that he could try to pick apart how WWE is now, but they are currently doing very well. He pointed to the big WWE Raw Netflix deal as one of the signs WWE is doing very well. Since Triple H has taken over WWE fans are for the most part happy with it. The only issues fans have are with unpredictable booking.
One example of this might be Roman Reigns holding the WWE and Universal Championships for as long as he has, while Cody Rhodes has a ton of momentum, and WWE not pulling the trigger on giving him a win over Reigns for the championship. One could that the booking of Reigns’ title run has become too predictable.
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What have you thought of Triple H taking over WWE? Has it improved, remained the same, or degraded? If Triple H hadn’t taken over WWE, which ex-wrestler do you think would have done a good job? Do you think WWE allowing Superstars to wrestle in other promotions and other promotions wrestlers in WWE a good idea? Let us know on social media what is the one thing Triple H needs to improve upon.
SOURCE: Six Feet Under with Mark Calaway, Wrestling Inc.
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