Triple H Recalls Vince McMahon Nearly Firing Him Over DX Skits

Though Paul "Triple H" Levesque is now in an executive role in WWE, most fans will remember that the earlier part of his career was not so corporate-friendly. Levesque, along with D-Generation X stablemate and friend Shawn Michaels, was often known for causing trouble, both onscreen and off.

Levesque spoke with the "SPORTbible Stories" podcast about his rebellious nature during the WWE's Attitude Era.

"USA [Network] had been on us for weeks," Levesque said. "'These guys cannot say that stuff, they cannot do those gestures, they have to stop it.' We would go out and do it the next week, and Vince [McMahon] would tear us apart. 'You guys are gonna get us thrown off the air!' ... But he wasn't doing anything about it, right? We felt like there was a lot of threatening going on, but he wasn't doing anything."

One memorable segment on "Raw Is War" saw the duo read out loud a letter that the company had received from the higher-ups at USA concerning the group's language and behavior on the air. "Vince brought us the letter, and he's like 'Well, here it is. ... And if these demands aren't followed to a tee, you will no longer be on the air on USA Network. ... What are we gonna do about this?'" Levesque continued. "And we said 'Let us take the letter and use it on TV.'"

As it turned out, the reaction from the network was surprisingly positive. "The next day we got a letter from USA that said 'Congratulations on the rating last night. What DX did with our letter was hilarious. Congratulations on the success, here's to many more years.'" From then on, Levesque and Michaels had McMahon's full support, and the Attitude Era was off to the races.