During a recent appearance on Mic Check with Ken Anderson, Maven Huffman and the host discussed their experiences working with Paul “Triple H” Levesque during their respective times in WWE. Both men described a competitive atmosphere where top stars were protective of their spots, with Huffman specifically noting that he felt Levesque held a grudge against how he entered the business.
Huffman, who won the inaugural season of Tough Enough, believes that his reality show background created a permanent stigma in Levesque’s eyes. Despite acknowledging Levesque’s wrestling acumen, Huffman felt that the “Game” never respected him. He noted that while he would never turn down an opportunity to work with WWE again, he doubts a call would come as long as Levesque is in charge.
“I just don’t think the call is coming while he’s still there,” Maven said. “I wish him the best. You’ll never find anybody that knows the wrestling business [better] than him. And I had great matches with him because he’s good, not because I’m good… But if there’s anybody who hated the way I came into the business, it’s him. And I will forever, in his eyes, be the Tough Enough guy.”
Ken Anderson, formerly known as Mr. Kennedy, corroborated the sentiment that Levesque could be difficult to deal with during that era. Anderson recounted a specific instance involving a comment Levesque made to Edge while Anderson was in the ring. At the time, Anderson’s character was proclaiming himself the “future of sports entertainment.”
“I remember one time I was, we were overseas somewhere, and I came back from my match,” Anderson recalled. “Edge was like, ‘Man… you should have heard him when you were out there.’ And I at the time, I was saying that I was the future of sports entertainment. And [Edge] goes, ‘When you said that, [Triple H] was like, Well boys, it’s gonna be a rough road if that’s the future of sports entertainment.'”
The two former superstars also discussed the divided locker room culture between Raw and SmackDown during the mid-2000s. Anderson used an analogy of two mountains to describe the difference in leadership. He felt the SmackDown side, led by The Undertaker, Booker T, and Rey Mysterio, was welcoming and willing to help others climb. Conversely, he viewed the Raw side, dominated by Levesque and Shawn Michaels, as a hostile environment where top stars tried to keep new talent beneath them.
“The Raw mountain… was Michaels and Triple H and John Cena kicking buckets of hot oil down the side [yelling] ‘Stay off my mountain,'” Anderson explained. “Kicking boulders and stuff. It’s weird to hear… but I do, I will say that I have heard from a lot of people, that [Triple H] has changed, that he’s a different person now.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Mic Check with Ken Anderson with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. You can watch the full interview on YouTube.
