Triple H Was Worried About Celebrity Getting Hurt On WWE TV
Triple H has recalled a scary moment on WWE SmackDown when one of the NBA’s biggest stars nearly got hurt.
When WWE Smackdown was in New York City on June 28th, NBA All-Stars Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks and Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers were involved in a match.
It was a brilliant creative move by WWE since Haliburton’s Pacers eliminated Brunson’s Knicks earlier that spring, so the NYC fans hated Haliburton, who is a huge wrestling fan.
During that show, LA Knight won a Money in the Bank Qualifying Match over his rival Logan Paul and Santos Escobar. Paul had Haliburton with him to upset the fans while Brunson appeared at ringside to watch Knight’s back. After the match, Brunson and Haliburton got into the ring for a staredown, but there was no physicality between the huge NBA stars who are making huge money at their day jobs.
The WWE’s Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque was a guest on The Rommates Show hosted by Jalen Brunson & Josh Hart of the New York Knicks. At the time of the Smackdown segment, it was about a month after Brunson had surgery on his left hand and it led to this discussion with Triple H, who admitted he was scared that Brunson may have been hurt.
Brunson: Were you upset with me when I got in the ring and looked at my hand?
Triple H: I wasn’t upset, I was scared. I was like, ‘The one thing we can’t do is hurt (Jalen).’ I had told everybody, at a certain point in time, somebody like you comes in and as everybody is talking to him, you’re a big star, especially in our world. You kind of convince them of everything. It is my job to make sure nobody gets hurt. I’m like, ‘I don’t care what he says, he’s not to do stuff with his hand and we have to be careful.’ You came in, slid in, and pushed off on your hand. I came up out of my seat, ‘Oh my God.’ You got up and looked at your hand.
Brunson: I didn’t think I was going to do that. It was the first time I had really used my hand since pre-breaking it. I looked at it and was like, ‘Oh, I guess it’s alright.’ I wasn’t, ‘Ah, I hurt it.’
Triple H: We practiced him getting in the ring. ‘Here’s how you get in the ring without using that hand. Here is how the chair works without using the other hand.’ We have practiced. Then, when he got in, adrenaline takes over and he slid in. That’s what I’m looking at, his hand, as he’s sliding in. When I saw him push off and immediately (look at it), I was like, ‘Oh, we will never do anything with the NBA again. We’re doomed.’
Triple H Confirms Huge Match For WWE Raw Netflix Premiere
One of the biggest television episodes in WWE history is set to take place on January 6th in Los Angeles when Raw airs live on Netflix for the first time.
During a promo on WWE Smackdown, Roman Reigns issued a challenge for a Tribal Combat Match against Solo Sikoa and after the show was over, Triple H confirmed that the match is on for Raw on January 6th.
Triple H also recently said that the WWE product right now is bigger than it has ever been, including in the beloved Attitude Era where Triple H was one of WWE’s biggest stars.