Andrew Ravens
Triple H has broken his silence on one of the more talked-about moments from the early days of AEW, revealing that he had no problem with Cody Rhodes smashing a throne bearing his imagery at Double or Nothing in May 2019.
Speaking on Rhodes’ “What Do You Wanna Talk About” podcast, Levesque cleared the air on an entrance that generated significant conversation at the time about whether it was a direct shot at his former employer’s top creative figure.
The entrance in question came during AEW’s very first event, held in Las Vegas. Rhodes was handed a sledgehammer by his wife, Brandi Rhodes, as he made his way to the ring for his match against his brother, Dustin Rhodes.
Triple H told Rhodes that when the clip was brought to his attention, his reaction was entirely positive. “I remember when people brought it to me and were showing it to me, and I was like, ‘F— yeah, all right, good for him,'” Triple H said. “That’s the kind of s— you do. You’re trying to make a name for yourself. You’re trying to get out there. You’re trying to do some cool s— and trying to do some different stuff.”
Triple H said he never interpreted the gesture as coming from a place of genuine malice, and added that if he had felt otherwise, he would have reached out to Rhodes directly out of respect for his father, Dustin’s father, Dusty Rhodes.
“If I had thought there was malice in it, and maybe indirectly there was some at the time, I don’t know. But if I had thought there was any serious malice in it, I would have called you and said, ‘Hey, dude, like, are we okay?’ Because I was so close to your Dad, but then I always felt a connection to you.”
He also framed the moment as exactly the kind of decisive move a performer sometimes needs to make when trying to break out of a rut and establish a new identity.
“Sometimes you’ve got to get out of the rut you’re in. You just have to bite it off and go in a different direction. Make the left turn, right? And it was so difficult, but during that time, I remember thinking, all right, that’s getting out there. That’s being bold and making a statement,” Triple H said.
Rhodes returned to WWE in 2022 and has since become the company’s top babyface and a world champion. He has headlined the last three WrestleManias and will do so again at WrestleMania 42 on April 18 and 19 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where he defends the Undisputed WWE Championship against Randy Orton.
