10 things the WWE wants you to forget about Triple H

Triple H, real name Paul Levesque, is one of the most established superstars of modern professional wrestling. He’s performed as both a heel and a face, as a rebel and as the company’s Authority figure.Not only that, but he’s the real-life executive vice president of the WWE company and just won his 14th combined world title by winning the 2016 Royal Rumble. Unfortunately for Triple H and the WWE, though, there are things in his past that they’d rather you forget. Here are the top 10 such stories, facts and rumors about the champ.

#10 Connecticut Blue Blood

Triple H’s initial character in the WWE was far from the rebellious party boy he eventually became.

So a name like Triple H has to stand for something, right? In this case, that name stands for Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the wrestler’s first character in the WWE. While later iterations were technically the same character, this guy was no D-Generation X rebel.

Instead, he was a “Connecticut Blue Blood,” an aristocrat who dressed well and looked down on his less wealthy and inferior opponents. It’s far from the worst gimmick of the early 1990s in the WWE, but that doesn’t mean it’s a role he wants remembered.

#9 Older names

Triple H wrestled in other promotions under other names before he came to the WWE.

Like most wrestlers of his era, Triple H didn’t start his in-ring career in the WWE, then known as the WWF. Instead he wrestled in multiple other promotions under other names. In the International Wrestling Federation, he went by Terra Ryzing, and in the WCW, he was Jean Paul Levesque.

Since that WCW character was fairly similar to the role he initially played in WWE, folks in the home office might not want to remember that their current champion was initially just a stolen character from another promotion.

#8 Missed opportunity

“The Curtain Call” is one of wrestling’s most infamous moments.

Most people who followed wrestling in the 1990s can tell you all about the infamous “Curtain Call” incident of 1996, which involved Triple H and other members of “The Kliq.” With Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, both members of the backstage allliance, headed to the WCW, Triple H and Shawn Michaels joined them for a hug in the ring at Madison Square Garden. That was an upsetting mix of heels and faces and caused backlash in the locker room.

Triple H had been set to win the 1996 King of the Ring tournament, but that honor went to Steve Austin instead, reportedly as punishment for the incident. Austin jumpstarted his “Stone Cold” persona after winning the tournament and went on to become the biggest star of the Attitude Era. It’s hard to know what would have happened for Triple H in the same position.

#7 Titles after marriage

Triple H has won plenty of championship gold during his time in the WWE.

With 14 combined world heavyweight championships and five Intercontinental Championships, Triple H is among the most decorated performers in WWE history. But at least some of those belts should come with a caveat.

Of those 14 world titles, 10 happened after he began dating and eventually married Stephanie McMahon, daughter of WWE majority owner Vince McMahon, and three of his Intercontinental title reigns have come in that time. Now he was certainly on a trajectory for more titles at that point, but just how many will never be known.

#6 Steroids

Triple H returned bigger than ever in 2002 after battling back from a quadriceps injury.

Steroid allegations have long dogged the WWE and Vince McMahon himself, including accusations that he supplied wrestlers with performance-enhancing drugs. Among modern wrestlers, few have been at the center of those rumors as much as Triple H.

According to reports, he has admitted to using steroids at multiple points, although once he said it was just for therapeutic purposes. That would’ve come as he was recovering from a quadriceps injury, and there’s little doubt that he was much bigger when he returned to the WWE ring in 2002.

#5 Doofus son-in-law

For many reasons, CM Punk’s infamous “pipebomb” promos are among the best-known speeches in WWE history.

It’s well known that a disgruntled CM Punk delivered two candid and groundbreaking promos known as “pipebombs” in 2011 and then in 2013 before eventually leaving the WWE. And one of the targets for the 2011 version was Triple H, even if he wasn’t mentioned by name.

In that promo, CM Punk talked about Vince McMahon and his management of the company, and then he mentioned that McMahon’s “doofus son-in-law” would eventually take the reins of the company. Even if you can chalk those remarks up to sour grapes, as the day Triple H takes control of the company draws closer, it’s hard not to remember CM Punk’s words.

#4 Relationship with Chyna

Triple H and Chyna were a different type of power couple in the late 1990s in the WWE.

Triple H and Chyna were members of the D-Generation X faction on the screen but also had a romantic relationship in real life. That all ended around the time he and Stephanie McMahon began dating, with accusations from Chyna that he cheated on her with McMahon.

To make matters worse, those allegations led to interviews on the Howard Stern Show, among other outlets, that revealed a bit more about Triple H than the now-executive would want out in the public. And as Chyna has gone on to a questionable porn career, being tied to her as a former boyfriend has gotten more unfortunate.

#3 Date rape marriage

This is a still from the video Triple H showed of his “wedding” with Stephanie McMahon in 1999.

In late 1999, Stephanie McMahon was set to marry Test in a storyline wedding on Raw. Triple H interrupted, though, revealing that he had drugged her, kidnapped her and married her in Las Vegas, meaning she couldn’t marry Test.

That story was later revealed to be part of a plan by Stephanie and Triple H to get back at her father, but it was still an uncomfortable angle. Making light of a man using essentially date-rape methods to marry a woman is certainly not one of the WWE’s brighter moments.

#2 Katie Vick

Few things were off limits for Triple H during the Attitude Era, including implied necrophilia.

Few storylines in WWE history are talked about with the same disdain as the Katie Vick story. In 2002, with Triple H in a feud with Kane, he began to use a story that Kane had been in a relationship with a woman named Katie Vick.

As the story went, Vick was killed in a car crash, and Kane went on to have sex with her dead body. As if that weren’t bad enough, Triple H “released” footage of the disgusting event, which was actually him dressed as Kane humping a mannequin in a coffin. Now that’s regrettable.

#1 Booker T Comments

Triple H and Booker T had a battle for the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania XIX.

Racial sensitivity has often been an issue for pro wrestling, particularly the WWE, and that came to an ugly head in 2003. With Triple H and Booker T building to a match for the now-defunct “big gold” world heavyweight belt at Wrestlemania XIX, Triple H set out to cut a promo against Booker T.

What happened was awkward, at best, and downright racist, at worst. The obviously white Triple H went on to say that “people like” Booker couldn’t win the world title and that Booker was there to make people like him laugh. Triple H later explained it as a play on Booker T’s past in WCW or even his real-life criminal record, but most people saw it otherwise.