Triple H Discusses Talent Leaving For AEW & Competition Being “Great”

Triple H has opened up on how he keeps in touch with much of the talent that has left WWE for AEW, and that he feels having another company as competition helps to keep everyone “sharper”.

In a recent interview with The Athletic, Triple H was asked about his thought on the two companies being in competition with one another, and said that it prevents either company from becoming lazy, with changes needing to be made quickly if required.

As far as the competition aspect goes, it’s great. It makes everybody sharper. You get lazy if you’re all there is and everybody goes about their business. The end of the day, it’ll make us better, and we’ll all be better for it. All those things have forced us to be in a better place right now. Not that we wouldn’t have gotten there anyway, but we had to do it quicker in some manner. That’s an important piece of it, right?

Using the XFL as an example, Triple H continued to say that having someone to run against helps increase acknowledgement of the industry rather than splitting the crowd.

As long as there aren’t things hurting the business overall, I think any of that stuff is good. If you’re a 6-year-old kid, you turn on the TV, wrestling is on and you like it. Now you’re caught up in it. Then you start sampling all of it. You get to where you’re a huge fan. That’s the money. There’s room for everybody to do it.

“It’s like saying the USFL or XFL is starting up and the NFL is panicking about market share. It’s just going to increase people’s love for football. If you love football that much, you’ll watch all of the football, and it’s great. But the NFL is not sweating that.

Triple H also commented that he stays in touch with many of the stars who’ve moved on, and also sees it as positive as they continue to develop with the possibility they may return to WWE one day.

I like all those guys. They helped us get where we needed to get, and I’m thankful for it. The truth is there was a period of time where we were trying to build NXT. We built NXT. Then we were trying to build a brand that could get a television show and sustain it. All those names helped us get there. Whether anybody believed or not they fit on Raw or SmackDown, those aren’t necessarily my decisions solely, and they’re Vince’s (McMahon) decisions and fans’ decisions; and then, can we continue to do business with them?

If they have great gigs, I’m happy for them. I stay in touch with almost all of them. I like to think they came into us here, we taught them a lot, got them to (a higher level) where they learned how to do television, how to be professionals and all that to be successful there.

At some point, they might come back with us, or they might never because they don’t fit our brand as well, but that’s OK. They got us to certain places, and I’m thankful for that, and they’re thankful for that, and they’re off to different things. But that doesn’t stop the train. People leave football teams, move to different teams all the time, and it’s great.

Triple H confirmed his retirement from in-ring competition ahead of WrestleMania 38, thanking the fans at the start of the second night and symbolically leaving his boots in the centre of the ring.