Former WWE Writer Describes Paul Levesque as “Petty”

World Wrestling Entertainment had entered a new era. Following Vince McMahon’s retirement from the company, Paul “Triple H” Levesque has assumed all responsibilities related to creative. Levesque’s first show with creative control came earlier this week on Monday Night Raw, and his first premium live event with the new role comes this Saturday with WWE SummerSlam. While locker room emotions have ranged from dejected at McMahon’s retirement to “generally excited” about Levesque taking control, the wrestling world as a whole has responded quite positively to the news. Reports have circulated that numerous former WWE wrestlers, including some who left for AEW and some who are currently free agents, said they never would have left if Levesque was in this position sooner.

While that overall sense of optimism seems to permeate across the industry, not every talent linked to the squared circle is ready to play The Game. Actor Freddie Prinze Jr., who worked with the WWE writing team from 2008 to 2009, detailed an interaction he saw between current AEW Champion CM Punk and Triple H.

“[Triple H] and Punk had a thing on SmackDown when Punk was at his height, or just before it. He was on that rise, where everyone knew there was a fire under him. He had this thing about being straight edge, and he created the Straight Edge Society: no drugs, no alcohol, technically no women if you’re super straight edge. Hunter’s looking him dead in the face, just gassed to the gills,” Prinze said on his Wrestling with Freddie podcast. “And you know, drinks wine with Vince on the plane, and he just no-sells Punk’s whole promo and goes, ‘I don’t see what the big deal is. I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink,’ and he just looks him dead in the face like, ‘Go ahead and try to call me a liar. I’ll fire you so quick,’ and Punk couldn’t do anything!”

After the Straight Edge Society disbanded, Punk would move to Raw and begin to work with the Nexus. Punk’s position of power as the New Nexus’ leader would slowly fizzle as the Second City Saint set his sights on the main event scene. In Summer 2011, Punk famously sat criss-crossed on the Raw stage in Las Vegas, cutting one of the most impactful promos of the modern era. Prinze believes Punk’s pipebomb was only possible because Raw was a live show.

“So that’s why when Punk had that promo on live Raw instead of taped SmackDown where [Hunter] had no control,” Prinze said. “Like, Hunter would blow live promos on a SmackDown and to the live house audience and would go, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll edit it,’ and he would just keep going cause he was so gangster with it. But on Raw, Punk got a chance to kind of do his own thing, and he let his feelings known.”

11 years later, and Prinze does not think that cooler heads have prevailed.

“This could be a huge chance for Hunter to stick it to him,” Prince said to his co-host. “I promise you, dude, Triple H is ‘petty Betty.’”

Punk is currently healing from a foot injury while Levesque gearing up for WWE SummerSlam.