Kevin Nash Reveals Why 2011 Match With CM Punk Didn't Happen, Triple H's Involvement

For a time in 2011, Kevin Nash looked set to clash with CM Punk in WWE. Nash had returned to cost Punk the WWE Championship at SummerSlam, delivering a powerbomb to the new WWE Champion — who had just beaten John Cena — before Alberto Del Rio cashed in his Money in the Bank contract. The pair were announced as facing one another at Night of Champions, but the match would never come to fruition, Triple H instead taking Nash's spot and winning the bout. Nash revealed during his "Kliq This" podcast that Triple H actually insisted on beating Punk. 

"When I was supposed to wrestle Punk, he got under [Paul's] skin so bad. Paul just came up to me and said, 'I'm going to beat him. You're not going to wrestle him. I'm beating him.' Cool. That's why me and Punk never wrestled. He made the call, 'I gotta beat this f***er.'" Adding a degree of credence to Nash's version of events, WCW veteran Glenn "Disco Inferno" Gilbertti shared during "Keepin' it 100" that the story is "100% true" and that Nash had even shared it with him before taking it public.

Nash would put Triple H's decision down to the fact he was part of The Kliq — alongside Nash, Scott Hall, and Shawn Michaels — and was ruthless in his drive for success. He also spoke of Triple H's leadership role in WWE, and how Paul Levesque has changed from the "Cerebral Assassin" now that he leads the company direction. "It's funny now that Vince has taken a backseat to this whole thing, that I see Paul, he owns it now, like, he has ownership of that company as far as ... his creative, his demeanor, he is in complete control of that situation ... It's such a different Paul now."