Triple H has recalled angering Vince McMahon and the USA Network with a number of controversial skits and segments during the late 1990’s.
During the summer of 1997 Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chyna and Rick Rude began working together as a unit, with the group eventually becoming known as D-Generation X. For much of the next three years members cycled in and out as the faction became one of the most dominant and popular in WWE history.
The group were anti-authority and revelled in pushing broadcasting tastes to the limit (especially in their earlier years) with their brand of crude humour. This approach helped create a number of segments and promos that are still praised to this day, but at the time, many of these skits proved divisive.
During an appearance on the SPORTbible Stories podcast, Triple H has now revealed that USA Network who broadcast Monday Night Raw, were less than impressed their antics. Vince McMahon was also hard on the group as he was fully aware of the potential ramifications of upsetting their television partner.
“USA [Network] had been on us for weeks,” Levesque said. “‘These guys cannot say that stuff, they cannot do those gestures, they have to stop it.’ We would go out and do it the next week, and Vince [McMahon] would tear us apart. ‘You guys are gonna get us thrown off the air!’
But he wasn’t doing anything about it, right? We felt like there was a lot of threatening going on, but he wasn’t doing anything.”
During one memorable segment the group decided to take the real worries from the network and management and turn it into a story. This involved taking a letter sent by USA Network to WWE warning D-X over their conduct and reading it out on the show, something Triple H says they surprisingly loved.
“Vince brought us the letter, and he’s like ‘Well, here it is… And if these demands aren’t followed to a tee, you will no longer be on the air on USA Network… What are we gonna do about this?'” Levesque continued. “And we said ‘Let us take the letter and use it on TV.'”
“The next day we got a letter from USA that said ‘Congratulations on the rating last night. What DX did with our letter was hilarious. Congratulations on the success, here’s to many more years.'”
Following the retirement of Vince McMahon, Triple H now finds himself on the other side of the fence and in control of WWE’s creative. The former World Champion was recently given the title Chief Content Officer while his wife Stephanie McMahon is Chairwoman and co-CEO alongside Nick Khan.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.