The Triple H regime is in full effect. This past January, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque officially seized full creative control of the sports-entertainment giant, fulfilling the successor role that he had been working towards for the past decade. Triple H took the reins from longtime WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, as McMahon fully resigned from the company when a sex trafficking lawsuit was filed against him. Previously, McMahon had softly retired from WWE in mid-2022. The WWE under Triple H has been largely praised by fans, as WWE has doubled-down on long-term storylines, restored prestige to its championships, and brought back the big fight feel to its premium live events. The numbers don’t lie either, as WWE has broken its arena gate record several times this year.
Triple H’s Leadership Compared to Vince McMahon
The Cerebral Assassin plays the game a little differently.
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Speaking to Notsam Wrestling, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle praised Triple H’s work as WWE Chief Content Officer, pointing out that his former in-ring rival has “more rational answers” than former WWE boss Vince McMahon.
“I love the fact that Triple H is in charge. He was always the one that I knew could run the business and run it properly. He gets it. He gets the comedy. He gets the seriousness. He gets these wrestlers needing to be world class athletes, not just good workers, but great athletes,” Angle said. “He’s one of those guys that is going to take chances, but not as much as Vince did. I think he’s going to have more rational answers and programs that are going to make more sense and not be so outlandish or goofy or crazy. I think Triple H has a great mind for the business. He always has.”
Angle and Triple H shared a locker room within the tail end of the Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression Era in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The two shared the ring 74 times, 27 of those matches being one-on-one. Their final encounter inside the squared circle came at WWE WrestleMania 34 in a mixed tag match, Angle teaming with a debuting Ronda Rousey while Triple H linked up with wife Stephanie McMahon.
Triple H not taking as many chances as McMahon is not necessarily a negative in Angle’s eyes. Like Angle said, there are still elements of comedy and the supernatural in the current WWE landscape, but the entire company is coated in a layer of legitimacy. This is evident within the first minute of WWE Monday Night Raw and WWE SmackDown episodes, as they regularly open with superstars arriving at the arena like professional athletes.
“When I get in the ring with him, he is the one that I feel most secure [with],” Angle continued his praise of Triple H’s wrestling intellect. “Because he can lead you in a match, and then go a separate way for another 10 minutes, improvise, go back to the spot where you ended with. He is just a great improviser. He knows every facet of the business, and I think that he is the one that should carry this company because he has a great mind. He really does. He has the best mind for the business of anybody I’ve known since Vince.”