Vince McMahon says he listened to The Kliq because they were smart and also claims that Shawn Michaels owes his life to Triple H.
When discussing New Generation era WWE, the one topic of conversation that always comes back to the forefront is the subject of The Kliq. The Kliq is the collective of Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, and Triple H. Aside from being seen as a group of guys who like to cause problems in general, they are also known as a group that was not afraid of going straight to Vince McMahon whenever they had grievances.
Addressing the rumors of letting the group call the shots, Vince McMahon stated on the Shawn Michaels A&E Biography that he wouldn't let the group actually make any decisions but he would listen to them because they were all smart both as a collective and individually.
“They couldn't call any of the shots, but I listened. They had some really good ideas," said Vince McMahon. “Really smart, individually, and Shawn, very smart when he was sober. Shawn had an attitude. When he drank, even more so, on top of pills… Shawn would say the wrong thing at the wrong time and he was protected in the WWE environment, but outside of that environment *shakes head.*”
Triple H then recounted the incident that occurred in the autumn of 1995 where Shawn Michaels was attacked outside of a bar. Triple H would say that aside from his time inside of the wrestling ring, Shawn Michaels always turned to different substances because he needed to numb whatever pain he was feeling.
“His moment of existence was the 20 minutes in the ring every night,'' said Triple H. “He wouldn't be messed up. He would go in there and kill it every night. Then, the minute he was done *mimics taking a pill* ‘I'm in pain and I took some stuff so I wouldn't be in pain this morning but I'm not messed up,’” Triple H recalled. “‘Why would you hang out with this misery 24/?’ No, it's not. Again, it's like your brother. It's like a family member,” Triple H stated, recalling his mindset during those days.
Vince McMahon, who had his issues with Triple H and Shawn Michaels both on and off camera stated that Shawn Michaels owes his life to Paul Levesque.
“Shawn owes his life to ‘Triple H’ Paul Levesque. Owes his life to him,” said Vince McMahon.
In years since then, Shawn Michaels has credited Triple H for putting up with him for as long as he did and helping him straighten out his life when Shawn Michaels eventually turned his life around. Now, Shawn Michaels and Triple H help run the WWE NXT brand which is facilitating the next era of Superstars.
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