Billy Gunn Discusses Triple H’s AEW Jokes at WWE Hall of Fame, Whether They Were Planned Out

In an interview with Jeffrey Harris for the 411 Wrestling Interviews Podcast, Billy Gunn discussed Triple H’s jokes mocking AEW during D-Generation X’s induction at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. The Game made multiple references to the company, which Gunn is a producer for, including joking that Vince McMahon “would buy that pissant company just to fire you again!” Speaking on the podcast, Gunn said that he appreciated the jokes and thought they were hilarious.

“Yeah, I mean, come on,” he said. “It’s not a secret! We all know what’s going on, we all know what’s happening. It had nothing — yeah, it’s funny and everybody’s gonna react to it, and it’s not taboo. Because everyone’s talking [like] ‘Well, you work for AEW now. How can you be in the Hall of Fame.’ It’s not about working for WWE. It’s about being recognized as a part of wrestling, as being part of one of the greatest things that ever happened to wrestling. So yeah, it was funny, I thought it was hilarious, it was well-done. It wasn’t meant by no means to hurt either/or feelings. Either AEW’s feelings or WWE’s feelings. But you can’t walk around like it’s not something. Like, it’s not happening, right?”

Gunn agreed with Jeffrey that the spirit of DX meant they kind of had to say something about it.

“I thought it was done very tastefully, so it was some good, funny stuff that was — yeah, you were right. It’s typical DX stuff. You shoot at something and then you try to knock it down. So yeah, it was good.”

Asked whether he knew Triple H would say something about AEW, Gunn talked about the importance of not planning too much in advance.

“We had some stuff we were gonna go to… we had a couple calls before the Hall of Fame just to kinda figure stuff out. But none of it came true. Because it doesn’t work like that for us. It never has worked like that for us. We’ve always just been, ‘Hey. You point us in the direction, we’re gonna go there. We have no idea what we’re gonna do.’ So when you start planning stuff out, it takes away from what we are. Because I feel like that’s what a lot of things are doing right now, you’re planning a bunch of stuff out. so when something organic happens you don’t react to it, because it’s not in the script. And we’ve never ever been ones to go by the script.”

In the full interview, Billy talks about his work with AEW, Triple H’s jokes about AEW during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, his time in the New Age Outlaws and run in NJPW, Dustin Rhodes’ status with All Elite Wrestling, what we can expect from him at Double or Nothing and more. You can listen to the full interview below.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the 411 Wrestling Interview Podcast on 411mania.com.

Introduction (0:00)
On how it feels to be a WWE Hall of Famer and if it feels like closing a book on his career (0:39)
On Triple H’s jokes about AEW during the Hall of Fame speech (1:55)
On the status of AEW’s plans for a potential training facility (4:12)
On the need for more psychology, storytelling and selling in today’s era (4:55)
On his 2014 reunion with Road Dogg in WWE (9:00)
On his relationship with Cody and signing with AEW (10:47)
On WWE not using tag teams properly (11:48)
On the New Age Outlaws’ dumpster match with Cactus Jack and Terry Funk and other big moments (13:10)
On his appearances on Being the Elite (16:16)
On working for NJPW (17:30)
On whether fans online are getting overhyped or overly critical about AEW (21:03)
On what his role at Double or Nothing may be and Dustin Rhodes’ status with AEW (22:37)
On AEW providing an alternative for wrestling talent and being great for the industry (24:07)
On going into the Hall of Fame at the same time as Honky Tonk Man and Torrie Wilson (25:30)
On not being a wrestling fan growing up (28:21)
Where to find him online (30:16)

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