21. Bruce Prichard Talks About Who Was Triple H’s Biggest Advocate During His Early WWF Days, Vince McMahon Thinking Triple H Was A Mid-Carder At Best

During a recent edition of “Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard” podcast, Bruce Prichard (f.k.a Brother Love in the World Wrestling Federation) discussed Triple H’s early days in the WWF. Below are the highlights:

On what Vince McMahon thought about Triple H back in the day:
“I do remember Corny and Vince McMahon saying that Triple H would be a midcard guy at best early on in his pro wrestling career and Vince Russo was a huge proponent of Triple H. And I dare say that without Russo at the helm at the time, Hunter probably would not have gotten the breaks that he got at the time. Yeah, Russo was Triple H’s biggest advocate at the time and then Vince McMahon became, but Hunter was one of those guys who was always around, always asking questions, and wanting to be a part of whatever he could do to learn. I liked Hunter because I always liked his attitude, just willing to do whatever it took to learn the pro wrestling business, but Russo was definitely pushing Hunter and had an awful lot of ideas for him.”

On Triple H being punished for the Curtain Call incident:
“It was simply a feeling of what they did being disrespectful to Vince McMahon, being disrespectful to the memory of Vince’s dad doing it in the Garden, our home. It was something that hadn’t been done before and something everybody was upset about, not just me, not just Cornette, but Vince McMahon, pretty much every one of the boys who wasn’t involved in the Curtain Call. Hunter was punished and he was considered for King Of The Ring, but Vince didn’t feel like he could trust him at that point in time and he wanted Hunter to prove himself and Hunter did.”

On Triple H & Chyna being a “package deal”:
“Probably so Triple H had to be present for Chyna’s creative meetings with Russo from his vantage point pitching stuff. Whatever Joanie was doing, she was with Hunter, so I’m sure Hunter wanted to be there. But they were also an item at the time, so they did everything together. Whenever I’d call either one of them, the other was usually there. It was kind of a team decision because they were a package deal.”