Triple H says there’s ‘no real clear moment’ where he took over WWE creative
Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s ascent to head of WWE creative was more of a gradual process than an immediate transition.
While appearing on Cody Rhodes’ “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast, Levesque was asked if he considers WrestleMania 40 to be the first WrestleMania where he was fully in charge as WWE’s Chief Content Officer. Levesque said he believes it was, but there’s no “real clear moment” in his mind where he became the sole voice leading creative. There was a transition period where Vince McMahon was still around before resigning from WWE in January 2024.
“I think so,” Levesque responded. “Though, there was — and again, this is where I’m terrible with times — but it’s not like one day, ‘Here, it’s yours’ and everything else went away. There was so many aspects to that of, ‘Hey, Vince is stepping away. You’re going to take this spot, but he’s chiming in.’ And he [was] still meeting with me all the time and still, you know, directing traffic from the side. And there’s no real, it’s a weird, no real clear moment for me. But I would consider it that, yes.”
Levesque said the difficult part of the transition period was that decisions were being made that weren’t fully his. When that’s the case, it can be hard to explain why things are happening.
“At the end of the day, when people are like, ‘Yeah, but it’s your decision, right?’ Yeah, sort of,” Levesque said. “You know what I mean? Like you’re — yes, and you have to defend your position and you have to be able to sell that to people and explain it to people. If it’s a little bit not your position or a little bit, ‘Well, why did this happen?’ And you don’t want to say, ‘Well, because, you know, it wasn’t totally my decision.'”
Levesque added that creative in general is a more complex process than people think. We don’t live in an ideal world, and the public isn’t always aware of why things can’t happen. Sometimes there are injuries or behind-the-scenes issues between talent that limit what’s possible.
In 2022, McMahon “retired” from WWE amid a sexual misconduct scandal. He later forced himself back into power before resigning in 2024 after former WWE employee Janel Grant filed her still-ongoing lawsuit against McMahon and the company.
Levesque was named Chief Content Officer in September 2022 and has held that title since. This week, unearthed text messages between Levesque and Nick Khan showed how concerned Levesque was about McMahon meddling in creative before he was fully gone from the company.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.