Triple H: "Wrestling Was This Tiny, Little Thing Happening In Bars Before Vince McMahon"

Paul 'Triple H' Levesque is currently surfing a wave of positivity and acclaim following his appointment as WWE's creative lead, but the Executive Vice President's first big interview since taking the job was defined by him regurgitating the kind of revisionist history prevalent on WWE documentaries.

Levesque spoke with WWE star Logan Paul on the latter's Impaulsive podcast. The interview, which was recorded ahead of Logan's match with The Miz at SummerSlam 2022 (30 July), saw Triple H state that Vince McMahon had left "massive shoes" for him to fill on creative. This follows the long-serving Chairman and CEO's 22 July resignation amidst allegations he had paid over $12 million to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct.

Said Hunter of succeeding Vince (h/t Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online):-

"I'll say this about Vince, massive shoes that I couldn't even dream of beginning to think I could fill. The gap there in this moment is massive but the opportunity to take it in a direction that it's never gone before is massive. I'm thrilled for that opportunity. We have an unbelievable team. It's never going to be one person, one person can't even begin to fill his shoes, it's going to take an entire team of people to jump in those shoes because without him, there's none of this."

So far, so fair. But not for long:-

"The vision to take this tiny, little thing happening in bars to this big global sensation like nothing else. WrestleMania is one of the most valuable sports franchises on the planet."

The idea that Vince McMahon transformed wrestling from a "tiny, little thing happening in bars" is objectively false, of course. Multiple United States territories were drawing thousands upon thousands of fans on a regular basis prior to Vince assuming control of WWE from his father in 1982. Jim Londos, still credited as the highest-drawing star in wrestling history, retired in 1953 - the year WWE was formed as Capitol Wrestling Corporation.

Vince Jr.'s rapid national expansion eventually killed this era, putting multiple groups out of business and limiting the number of companies that could draw big numbers to only a handful. So while Vince's moves were fantastic for WWE's business, this isn't true of the wrestling business as a whole. Triple H almost certainly knows this.

Nonetheless, this was a reminder that as strong as this week's Raw was (and as high as the audience's hopes are going forward), a top-level WWE executive is always going to regurgitate the company line, no matter who they are.