Triple H Describes His First Meeting With Vince McMahon, What Impressed Him Most About Vince During That Meeting

On the latest edition of The Bump, Triple H discussed his first meeting with Vince McMahon, recalling how Vince didn’t know who he was, but how he was impressed by Vince’s larger than life presence. Highlights are below.

Triple H on realizing during his first meeting with Vince McMahon that Vince doesn’t know who he is: “The very first time I met Vince was when I was still at WCW, my contract was coming to an end, and I was trying to gauge interest, I guess you could say, so they took a meeting with me. JJ Dillon, at the time, was running talent relations and was kind of in charge of that, and I spoke to JJ. He brought me in for a meeting with Vince. I remember coming in and meeting with Vince and thinking, one, obviously it’s Vince McMahon, so he has a larger than life presence, and of course it is the ultimate, probably, meeting that you could take in the business, especially at that time, maybe even more so today I guess. But going in to the meeting, obviously very nervous and expecting a great outcome and then getting in there and realizing, this guy has no idea who I am. I’m sure he was asked, knowing the situation now, he was asked to take a meeting with a talent, and here’s a kid that’s new, up and coming, they believe, and his contract is coming up, we’ll take a meeting with him and see if he’s somebody you want to bring in, and I don’t believe he was aware, necessarily, of me as a performer or of my work, nor should he have been, I guess, probably at that time.”

Triple H on being impressed with Vince’s larger than life presence at the meeting: “So we had a very cordial meeting. He just asked me what my plans were and what I was thinking about doing and why I wanted to go there as oppose to staying where I was and all that kind of stuff, but I guess the biggest takeaway for me was just the larger than life impression of Vince McMahon that you get. He has a presence and when you’re in a room with him, that presence carries over and I’ve seen it in meetings with the biggest, so to speak, heavy hitters in industry and in business, and he’s in the room and he carries the room. So it was quite a meeting, it would be a little bit later that, maybe like a month later, that he would then call me, I think now he was aware of what I was doing, had seen me work, it was after I had performed at Starrcade against Alex Wright, kind of at the very end of my contract, and he called me right after that to say, ‘Look, if you’re still interested in coming here, I saw what you did at Starrcade and I’d like you to come here.'”

On if Vince McMahon watched all of Starrcade: “I’m sure he did not watch all of Starrcade, I’m sure someone showed him a clip, ‘Here’s that kid you met with the other day and what do you think?'”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit The Bump with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.