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January 15, 2015

Triple H on wrestler deaths, Randy Savage entering the WWE Hall of Fame, what he looks for in a wrestler, WWE Network


WWE executive Paul "Triple H" Levesque appeared on the "Permission Granted" podcast hosted by Damon Amendolara of CBS Sports Radio. The following are the highlights of the interview. Listen to the full show at Soundcloud.com.

-Triple H on the various hats he wears and the title at the top of his list: "Dad," he said. He eventually tied it into the fitness DVD and said all the hats that he and his wife wear made them realize how difficult it is to find workout time. He said he and Stephanie rush home to see the kids before they go to bed, and it's ten at night before the head downstairs to their home gym.

-On what he looks for in a wrestler: Triple H said charisma because it's the one X Factor that you can't teach. "All the other things can be brought out of somebody," he said. "That's a tough one." He mentioned Mick Foley as being a guy who didn't fit the typical WWE wrestler mold, but "he is charismatic, when you watch him you can't help but be drawn into him. He's intelligent, he speaks well, he's humorous."

-Triple H on WWE Network: "We took the gamble and we're ahead of the curve on a lot of this," he said. He noted that others are following in their footsteps. He said Netflix has their model, but they don't have the live stream like WWE Network does. He said it takes a while to condition fans to break from their patterns. "We're thrilled with the progress, we're thrilled with where it's at, and we're just starting to scratch the surface of where it can go."

-Triple H on wrestlers who have died young: "To me, everybody makes personal choices in their life," he said. "Even some of my closest friends, my best friends, made personal choices of how they wanted to live their life that I never chose, that I never went down those roads. And I will put the physicality of my career up against anybody. The majority of those guys made personal choices to live a certain way and you can't live that way forever. It's a short run, it's fast and furious, and it's a short run. Did it affect me? Absolutely. I've watched a lot of guys that I was close to and that I was friends with... There's a certain point and time when even as your friends, you try to stop them, you try to talk them into it, and there's no... And that's not just in our business, that's in any business. People are responsible for their own lives, their own personal decisions, how they live their life outside of a sport or a job or anything else. We try to protect our talent now in a way like never before with our wellness programs and our ability to try to stay ahead of them to see if there are problems or they are headed down a path or anything, but the reality of it is people have to be responsible for their own lives. I've seen this company tell guys listen, we can't work together unless you get some help or whatever and they say, okay, great, I'm just going to leave then and I'm just going to go because this is more important to me. You can't live somebody's life for them and it's tragic, and I've had to come to terms in my with that with some guys that were close friends of mine, but that's just the way it is, unfortunately."

-Triple H on Randy Savage entering the WWE Hall of Fame: "One of the biggest stars ever in the industry," he said. "It's so well deserved and a long time coming. I think for a lot of fans it feels like a long time coming and they are just so overwhelmed that it's happening and I know we are and his family is. It's just a great thing to celebrate a career like that."


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