Vince McMahon almost fired Triple H after a pitch made to creative, claims WWE veteran
Whilst Triple H's creative ideas usually sit well with Vince McMahon, a pitch made by him and WWE Executive Bruce Prichard almost led to The Game and multiple other staff members losing their jobs.
An on-screen comedy character who occasionally appeared on WWE TV in the mid-2000s was former writer Chris DeJoseph's male dancing persona Big D**k Johnson, a gyrating oiled-up man dancing in nothing but his underwear.
Speaking on the latest Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard podcast, the WWE Senior Vice President said that Vince's initial reaction to DeJoseph's character did not go down too well.
"I’ve always gotten along with Chris (DeJoseph). Chris is a nice guy… (Prichard laughed when asked what he thought of DeJoseph as ‘Big D**k Johnson’). Um… I mean, Paul Levesque (Triple H) and I might have kind of come up with that a little bit. It was… God, what was his name?… Chris Farley. Patrick Swayze thing, yes, and I’m looking at it and the first time that we did it, he did it with Vince (McMahon) with the oil and everything. Almost got him fired, almost got all of us fired after that one." H/T [Post Wrestling]
Chris DeJoseph returned to World Wrestling Entertainment in 2019 where he worked as the head writer and lead producer of SmackDown, however, he was released a few months later in May 2020.
Current WWE star praises Triple H's booking of him
Since the King of Kings took over the main creative responsibilities in WWE last July, many performers have been able to showcase a lot more of themselves on TV than they were perhaps able to in the past.
One WWE Superstar who has enjoyed working with Triple H is Chad Gable, with the former RAW Tag Team Champion recently stating on the Out of Character podcast how The Game has helped his career as of late.
"I think the way that Hunter’s used me over the past 8-9 months allowed me to show everybody what I can do technically. Also on the character side of things, and what that does, I think in the long term, is earn the respect of the fans because they sniff that out and it's not just the thing where ‘Oh yeah he’s a great wrestler, no, he’s also entertaining us in the meantime.’" From 7:13 to 7:38 H/T [Sportskeeda]
Since Triple H took over as head of WWE creative, many former superstars have returned to the company, including the likes of Johnny Gargano, Dakota Kai, Karrion Kross, Bronson Reed, and Braun Strowman.
How has Triple H fared as head of WWE creative? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.