10 Most Old School Wrestlers Of WWE's Modern Era
9. The Player
Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque is a man that prides himself on exemplifying the best traits of the old and new school, taking on board the iron principles of classic bruisers like his trainer ‘Killer’ Kowalski, his hero Harley Race and the legendarily po-faced Arn Anderson and reinterpreting them for the more theatrical, fast-paced style of today’s WWE.
Let’s not forget that when the Game tore his left quad in a tag team bout on RAW in May 2001 he finished the match as planned. Getting your bell rung a little is one thing, but the muscle was torn completely off the bone: the rehabilitation after surgery cost him eight months of his career. Yet he even insisted that Y2J put him in the Walls Of Jericho on the announcers’ table as originally laid out, a move which must have been agonising.
Not only that, but he tore a tendon in his right quad muscle in January 2007 while working a tag team match at the New Year’s Revolution pay-per-view. Once again, Triple H managed to finish the match, including delivering several Pedigrees, posing for the fans and walking unassisted backstage.
But those incidents were about more than simply being a hardass. Levesque prides himself on having developed that radar sense that comes along with being a true ring general. In interviews, he’s stated that in every match he’s in, no matter how complex the story or how many gimmicks, characters or stipulations are involved, he can close his eyes at any point and immediately tell where everyone is, in the ring and outside it, what they’re doing, even what they’re holding in their hands, having picked up all the necessary information in his peripheral vision as he’s working.
That’s not some form of parlour trick, to impress the boys backstage. As far as Triple H is concerned, if they get lost out there, he’s the one with the map. If something goes wrong when he’s in the ring - a botched sequence or a forgotten spot - it’s his fault.
That kind of commitment to the sport is a classic old school perspective, and something he learned from NWA legend and old school pioneer Ric Flair. Above all, Triple H is all about the business, so much so that he’s satirised that obsession as part of his onscreen character.