WWE Quick Hits: AJ Styles on WWE, Triple H Reveals Original Name Plans
Sundays are usually very slow regarding the wrestling news, and this was one of them. Here’s some small news tidbits from that highlighted the day. When Vince McMahon purchased World Championship Wrestling in 2001, he had the option of bringing over many wrestlers from Ted Turner’s company. A.J Styles was not one of them and that has proven to be a wrong move on the chairman of the WWE’s part. Styles was recently interviewed and brought up some interesting points regarding WWE and TNA.
"“The only contact I had was Johnny Ace telling me that they were not picking up my contract. It was depressing there for a little bit, but it was one of those things where (I said) ‘Alright, I’m going to go back to the indies and I’m going to find a way to make a name for myself.’ ” “Ultimately, Dixie’s the head honcho there. If you’re the head honcho of any business, you’ve got to take responsibility for the good things and the bad things. You’ve got to hire the right people. If you’re not smart enough to make this decision, or make the right decision, then you hire someone who’s smarter than you to make that decision for you.”"
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WWE not picking up his contract seemed to have lit a fire under him. Safely to say, it worked. As for his situation with TNA, the contract negotiations broke down and became public. He took numerous shots at the TNA staff in the second quote above, which is all you need to know for how he feels about the company from their troubles late last year. Then there’s Triple H, who was recently on Talk is Jericho.
, including the original plans for his name as he was set to begin in WWE.
"“Vince liked what I was doing and the character, but he wanted me to be American,” he explained. “I didn’t know what the name was at first, so they brought me to Columbus, to TV, just so I could meet everybody and get to know all the guys a little bit. They had asked me to think up a bunch of names to give some input on it and I had a whole bunch of names in mind…and J.J. (Dillon) called me in the room and said, ‘We’ve got your name. You’re going to be Reginald DuPont Helmsley’ and I was like, ‘Holy cow! Here I am in the bad name category again!'”"
Reginald DuPont Helmsley? RDH? Both just don’t sound right. With that name, would Triple H ever be as successful as he became over the years? It’s one of the many what-ifs. Thankfully, HHH sent in a list of names to try to create something better.
"“The next thing I heard, J.J. called me up and said, ‘Hey, we went with a little bit of your suggestions and you’re going to be Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Three H’s.’ and I was like, ‘Okay…I can work with that a little bit.’ So we went with that and then Shawn (Michaels) started calling me ‘Triple H’ from day one.”"
That, folks, is why we know him as Triple H today. Reginald DuPont just doesn’t fit and we’re glad the COO realized that.