Triple H comments on getting angry with Vince McMahon after wrestling Ahmed Johnson.
When Triple H first arrived in WWE in 1995, he was undefeated for a year. He was then supposed to go on to win the 1996 WWE King of the Ring tournament, but the "Curtain Call" incident, in which he broke kayfabe with Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall at the end of a live event in Madison Square Garden in 1996, led to the derailment of his push. He was forced to take the brunt of the punishment for the incident.
Mostly, the stories about Triple H's time in the WWE doghouse revolve around how he took his lumps without complaint. However, he now admits that there was one time he went off on Vince McMahon and had enough of the punishment. That came after a match with Ahmed Johnson.
Triple H reflected on the experience during his appearance on the FLAGRANT podcast with Andrew Schulz.
"Over time when I was punished, I think Vince liked the fact that he threw all this shit at me and I never blinked," he said. The only one time I went to him and bitched, in all of it, is because he put me in a match with a guy that was almost impossible to work with and then gave me the worst referee that we had. The whole setup was bad. It went really badly. I came back, and I went off. ’Fuck it. If you’re going to not allow me to have the chance to succeed, then fuck that, I’m out of here. You cannot put me in a position where I cannot fucking succeed or cannot win and can’t even do my job. If you put me in that position, then I have no choice but to go because I can’t overcome that.
"I was wrestling a guy that was just terrible. They wanted me to have this long match with him," he added. "They gave me the worst referee. A referee can help you work around people’s inability because I can talk to the referee. If I need a guy to do something, and he’s not doing something right, I can’t always just walk over there and tell him. I’m like, ‘Fucking tell him to stop doing that’ and the referee can him. I have enough experience to where guys will listen. Sometimes, you need the help, especially on live TV or even taped TV."
After not naming names, he would finally admit that the opponent was Ahmed Johnson and talk about Johnson's less than stellar reputation.
"Ahmed Johnson. He was terrible. He was hurting people, and he was just big. You couldn’t understand him, and he had an attitude problem. It was one of those things and when I came back, I was pissed. I went to Vince, and I cut a promo on him. I thought he was going to go off, ‘I told you if you don’t like it, fuck you, get out of here.’ He was like, ‘That’s fair. That’s fair.’ ‘Okay, fucking don’t do it again.’ Walked out," he said.
In the past, Ahmed Johnson has claimed that he was supposed to become the WWE Champion. Learn why he says that never happened here.
Also on the podcast, Triple H gave his thoughts on the internet and why he believes it's not a genuine barometer for what is and isn't working in the wrestling world. Read his comments here.
If you use any of the above quotes, please be sure to link back to this article and give Fightful credit for the transcription.
