Triple H and Stephanie McMahon have been the definitive pro wrestling power couple, first establishing their dominance when they carried the WWE Championship and Women's Championship in the 90s, and in later years when they truly gained power backstage in WWE. Today, the two have been married since 2003, and Triple H is the COO of WWE and Head ofCreative, holding more power than ever before, but if it wasn't for an onscreen angle, they might have never found love.
During an appearance on the "Flagrant" podcast, Triple H looked back at the angle that brought him and Stephanie together, noting that the pitch came in whilst he was still feuding with The Rock, The Undertaker, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. At the time, Stephanie was still in an angle with the late Test, where they were going to be engaged to be married, but Creative wanted to pivot the storyline, leading Triple H to pitching that he instead gets kayfabe married to Stephanie who he claims he didn't even know at the time.
"Originally, it's just supposed to be a one-off thing," he recalled, explaining that the video of him and Stephanie getting eloped in Las Vegas wasn't going to lead to more on-screen romance between them. "It's supposed to be this one-off thing that makes us have the match. I go over. I get my world title shot, she moves on, does the rest of the stuff with the Test thing." Additionally, Triple H recalled how much heat Stephanie got for the angle, with fans in the audience chanting "slut" at her whilst she was supposed to be a babyface, but all Vince McMahon saw was the money in the angle.
Following the reaction Stephanie McMahon got from the crowd, Triple H claimed that Vince McMahon now believed their romance angle should be long-term instead. "Vince comes to me and he's like 'What if she, like, what if the worst possible thing happens, is like she turns on me?'" he recalled. "'We have this match at pay-per-view, right at the moment where holy s**t, Vince might actually do this and beat Triple H, and who turns on him but his own daughter to join his worst enemy at the time?'" Following this, the couple went on to 'run' WWE, allowing Stephanie to fully come into her own as a heel.
"As this happens, I don't know Steph at all sort of," he recalled. "I don't, and the thing is, she's a sponge for the business, right? Steph is like, she wants nothing but to be in this business, right?" Triple H further claimed that Stephanie loved being booed at by fans and embraced being a heel. "When I make that small list of people on one hand, that get it? She's one of them." Triple H clearly had an eye for Stephanie's potential even then, as she'd go on to become an integral part of WWE in the years that followed.
Triple H lastly claimed that he and Stephanie McMahon truly got to know one another whilst going over the creative details of his matches, and as a result of her badly wanting to know about wrestling, she was around him all the time. "I'm talking to my mom one day on the phone and she's like 'What's going on between you and that Stephanie?' I said 'What are you talking about?' and she's like 'I don't know. Like, you're not that good of an actor,'" the veteran recalled, further claiming that Linda McMahon also saw something brewing between the two of them.
When it came to Vince McMahon, Triple H claimed the former WWE co-Founder was in favor of them developing a relationship, but had to pull in the reigns because their relationship started getting heat backstage. "We try, and I honestly think at that point...is he just saying this to try and see what we'll do?" Triple H added. "For me, at the time, I'm sort of gambling everything...If this doesn't work out, I'm f**ked. I'm done. But at the same point in time, it's like, you know, when you meet the right person? You meet the right person."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Flagrant" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
