The Undertaker addresses Triple H’s comments
During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show last week, WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque seemingly took a shot at Will Ospreay for signing with AEW instead of WWE by saying the following…
“When I see people coming out of trying to make it, and then they pick a job where, well, they work less, the schedule is lighter, then I’m like, ‘I’m glad I didn’t pick you.’ If you’re not in it for the grind, at that point early in your career, you have no business being here.”
While speaking on his podcast, The Undertaker addressed Triple H’s comments…
“Somebody asked Triple H about other talent coming in from other places. It was so true, but I never heard anybody really say it. There was a time like back in the day when guys came in from WCW and were big stars in WCW, and not such big stars when they got to WWE. Of course, people always want to point fingers, ‘There was this vendetta.’ That’s just crap. If you draw money…obviously, you have to be put in a situation to be able to draw money, but you have to work within that WWE frame of mind. That’s the thing that he was trying to say. Just because you were a big star here or there, doesn’t mean you’re going to fit into the WWE system without a little bit of acclimation time. That’s what most ‘smart marks’ don’t get. They’re like, ‘He was this huge star at this company, but now at WWE…’”
“[The boss had it in for a wrestler] Why on earth, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Why would you waste anyone’s time just to bring them in, just to hold them down? It’s ridiculous, it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. You don’t bring people in to hold them down. You bring people in to make the product better.”
(quote: Jeremy Lambert)
“‘There was this vendetta.’ That’s just crap.”
I know he was there and I wasn’t, but it suuuuure looked like there was a vendetta against WCW guys that came in after the company folded from what I saw on TV.
I agree with Taker. In respect to WCW, all those guys were given the chance to succeed. DDP took a CRAP story and spun gold. Booker T started hot at the KOTR and kept it up from there. Rey did great, Helms did great, Jericho had a ROUGH start but settled in to become on of the BEST EVER. Even Stacy struggled at first.
The same could be said for the ECW guys. Each were given a chance to make it. While only the Dudley Boyz and RVD really broke out, a slew of the ECW guys were at least given a chance to succeed. WWE isn’t supposed to make it easy. Nothing is easy. How many musicians leave a band and fail solo? Or are great solo but fail in a “super group”? Actors are the same. From Seinfeld to the Sopranos, were did the bulk of those actors end up when the show was over? It’s not easy to pick up shop and start anew somewhere else and it SHOULDN’T be!
Why would WWF/E buy WCW, push the tape library, sell the merch, draw awareness to the asset only to kill the real-time momentum that most benefits such acquisitions? It makes no sense when you actually apply a bit of common sense to it. Vince LOVED Dusty, going back to the MSG run in the mid-’70s, but people still think the polka dots was a rib to run Dusty down. I don’t get it. TV time is precious, PPV/PLE time even more so. This debate grinds my gears. And those who believe the most firmly that sabotage is a real thing can NEVER be corrected no matter what kind of real world info you can supply. They’re high on their own supply and liking it. What else can you do?