Triple H recently shared his experience training Floyd Mayweather Jr. ahead of his match with The Big Show at WrestleMania 24. Their bout was one of the featured main events in 2008, and although Mayweather hasn’t wrestled since, it’s still remembered as one of the smoother celebrity appearances in WrestleMania history. That may be in part thanks to Triple H, who helped get the boxing icon ready for the ring.
Triple H reflected on the experience during his appearance on the FLAGRANT podcast with Andrew Schulz. He said,
“I helped him when he wrestled for us and fought Big Show. I trained him for that. He would show up with this massive entourage, everybody hooting and hollering and just crazy. We’d talk for a little bit, and he’d be like, ‘You want to get down to work?’ ‘Yeah.’ He’d whistle or something, ‘Alright, business. Everybody out.’ Everybody would stop talking, and anybody who stayed would stop talking, and everybody else would get out of the room.
He was laser-focused. The first time we trained together, we did two hours, and then I had to go on the road. I came back to Vegas and same thing, everyone is there, he tells everyone to get out, and I go, ‘I want to review what we talked about last time.’ He goes, ‘Can I say it to you?’ He went on for 20 minutes and told me everything. I was like, ‘Damn. Alright.’”
In other news, Joe Hendry has offered his perspective on how things played out at WWE WrestleMania 41. The TNA World Heavyweight Champion was the surprise opponent for Randy Orton on Sunday. The match lasted just over three minutes and ended with an RKO. Some fans felt Hendry was “buried” in the process, but he sees it differently. While speaking with Ariel Helwani on The Ariel Helwani Show, Hendry said,
“If this is being buried, keep it coming. We understood the assignment at WrestleMania, we were the fun and the surprise. You saw Randy’s promo after the match had taken place; that’s what he talked about: the match being fun. This is Randy Orton’s 20th WrestleMania. This was a featured match. As Triple H put it in the post-event press conference, this was about giving Randy a fun moment for his 20th WrestleMania appearance.
For me to do that, I remember being 15 years old, walking back from high school, talking to my friend about Randy Orton, and ‘could he win the world title?’ I remember having these conversations. For me to be part of his 20th WrestleMania…this is what people don’t understand, when I was at the Performance Center, William Regal gathered everyone around and said, ‘Listen, if you want to work with Roman Reigns and Randy Orton, you need to show that you can be professional and be relied upon, that you can do the job.’ This year, I wrestled Roman Reigns in the Rumble and Randy Orton at WrestleMania. That doesn’t just happen. That’s a huge responsibility, and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”
