Triple H On Why He Pie-Faced Shane McMahon During A Match, Current Generation Vs. Attitude Era Stars
Recently on Cheap Heat, WWE Superstar and Performance Center guru, Triple H, talked about working with Mick Foley recently on RAW, "pie-facing" Shane McMahon, and the differences between The Attitude Era and The New Era.
On the subject of working with Mick Foley recently on RAW, Triple H said he and Foley both felt like they were transported back in time by 15 years and remarked that they have great chemistry.
"It's funny. There [are] certain guys, or women, that you have a certain chemistry with, right? When you get onscreen with them, there's just something that it just? whatever? everything clicks and you just have magic, kind of feel to whatever you're doing and it's that way with Mick. I think for both of us, we felt like it was a trip back 15 years in time to something that we haven't done? He and I hadn't been in the ring together in forever, not in anything meaningful. To have that moment was very cool."
Triple H divulged that drawing a reaction out of an opponent can be challenging, especially, when you do not have a rapport or track record with that opponent. 'The Game' recalled "pie-facing" Shane McMahon to get a rise out of him and the same behavior backfiring on a different opponent years later.
"I'll never forget, there was a time years ago when sometimes you're trying to get a reaction out of a guy. If a guy's not intense enough, you do something to him. You're trying to get a reaction because it's all about that reaction and that chemistry with each other and I had done something with a guy where I had kind of pie-faced him in the ring because he wasn't intense and I knew that would just infuriate him and make him fire up on me. It was actually my brother-in-law. But I knew it would just infuriate him, and it did, and it got the reaction I wanted to get, and it just made for a great TV moment. And then, I did that years later with another performer and the guy absolutely just shrank, like, he looked at me like, 'why would you do that to me?' and it was the exact wrong reaction, but I was taking a guess at it and he was giving me nothing and I was trying to get something more out of him."
Triple H explained that the main difference between the Superstars of The Attitude Era and the Superstars of The New Era is the current crop's experiential deficit.
"Part of it is just experience. I think that a lot of it, a lot of times, we? I'll say this, Shawn and I, Shawn Michaels and I, have had this conversation because he [has] been helping out and doing a lot of things with us at the Performance Center here and there. And I've said to him, every now and then you've got to say to yourself, 'these kids are learning – it's developmental alright when you're working with them on that level.' We forget sometimes how brief a period of time some of these guys have been doing this. And because they're at WrestleMania or because they're on RAW, and it's packed and it's huge, you go, like, 'but they're the best in the world.' Yeah, but they've been doing this for two years or they've been doing this for three years or sometimes you find guys who've been doing it for 15 years, but he [has] been doing it out in the independent circuit and nobody [has] been guiding him. He [has] been the best guy there forever and no one [has] been helping him get better.
"Like, they don't do a lot of TV interviews. They don't do a lot of character stuff, so it might have been physically in the ring and even then, guys say they've been in the business 10 years, but you've been working, what, a couple of days a month, sometimes? So the level of skill is different and I think when you break it down to today versus then, it's a skill level because? I don't want to say it's a skill level because the guys are very skilled. But like, an experience level. You get to a point where you know what you're doing, but the experience to just feel it and be in that moment without having to think or worry about 'what do I do here? When he does this, how should I react to that?' Do it, man. It's a feel. It's not a think. And I think that only comes with experience. In this job, you get better with the more reps you do."
Listen to the show here. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit the Cheap Heat podcast with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: Cheap Heat