0:00
Why, good morning, you sexy beast.
Why, good morning, you sexy beast.
Would you like me to make you some breakfast? Oh, I'm sorry.
I was having a flashback there.
Folks, this is Tim Ferriss.
This is an addendum, an urgent update recorded after this episode was completed because I was going through a roster of all of the most amazing things I've been able to experience in my life, and at the top of the list was floating at zero gravity, experiencing weightlessness in a shuttle and being able to say chase after globules of water floating in midair or chase Skittles that you've tossed into the air.
It's floating right in front of your face, say 5 ft away, or screwing around all the way around the perimeter of the shuttle like a hamster in a hamster wheel if you were inverted in a way.
It's really amazing, and I loved it so much that I decided to give away a flight.
So, I am giving away a flight at zero gravity, and you can get it.
There's no cost involved, but it's only possible this week, uh that is the week of Monday, April 20th.
So, jump on this right now.
I would suggest that you pause this and check it out.
Just go to 4hourworkweek. com/zero.
That's 4-hour workweek all spelled out, f o u r h o u r, etc. , /zero, z e r o.
So, check it out, and now back to your regular programming.
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I'm a cybernetic organism living tissue over metal endoskeleton.
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They're super high quality, and if you want to see the headphones that I travel with, that I love, both in ear and out of ear, so kind of big old old-school headphones, then you can go to lstnheadphones. com/tim.
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This episode is brought to you by 99designs, which is your one-stop shop for all things graphic design related.
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You put up what you want, whether that's a business card, a t-shirt, a website, an app thumbnail, whatever, and they submit drafts, mock-ups, and designs that you can choose from, and you get an original design you love or your money back.
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Well, hello, ladies and gentlemen.
This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show.
I am drinking tea with coconut oil in it because I am in ketosis, so my brain is running like Speedy Gonzales on some type of biochemical advantage, but that's not what I'm here to talk about.
I am here to do what I do every episode, and that is deconstruct world-class performers to find the tools, tricks, routines, habits, and so on that you can use, whether those people are billionaire investors like, for instance, Peter Thiel, who was the first money into Facebook, also co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, or celebrities and actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, uh tech icons like Matt Mullenweg behind WordPress, WordPress.
com, and so on and so forth.
Musicians, we've got everybody.
And I have wanted to interview a professional wrestler for a very long time now after seeing the movie The Wrestler, but also having wrestled myself and having watched WWE and WWF before that, and then the the rise of MMA.
And I managed to get a hold of a fantastic fantastic performer and incredible athlete, Triple H.
So, Triple H, who is a 13-time world champion in the WWE, but that is not all.
He's also the executive vice president of talent, live events, and creative at the WWE.
And we talk about just about everything in this episode.
His real name is Paul Levesque, and we dig into the questions of misconceptions related to both Triple H, his his stage name, his stage persona in WWE, the important lessons he learned while training with a wrestler named Killer Kowalski, including getting hit in the back of the head with a phone book in a garbage bag, ouch.
Uh and we get into his longevity, how he avoids and also repairs injuries, pregame rituals, including input from a trainer named Joe DeFranco, of course his colleague in arms, The Undertaker, and even Floyd Mayweather. And who does he model?
Uh how does he view parenting?
He has a bunch of daughters.
Uh and it goes on and on. We really dig deep.
It it turned out better than I could have expected, and I expected it to be good.
So, I hope you really enjoy this.
Of course, all show notes can be found at 4hourworkweek.
com/podcast, all spelled out, and please enjoy my conversation with the one and only Triple H, Paul Levesque.
Paul, welcome to the show.
Thank you very much, man.
It's an honor to be here. I'm so excited for this.
You are a massive human being.
It makes it a job requirement kind of.
It does seem to be a job requirement, and I you have worn a lot of hats and have had a lot of different titles, a lot of different jobs.
When someone asks you, "What do you do?"
if they don't recognize you, how do you answer that question?
Uh it's got it's funny now because I'm kind of in that this weird kind of combo twilight zone of the last bits of my my in-ring wrestling career, you know.
Um even then when I did it then, I used to say I was an entertainer.
And because if if people it's our the WWE is a weird thing.
Like it like it's one of those things if you if you're not into it, no explanation can explain it to you to make you like it, and if you are into it, there's no explanation necessary.
You know, it it just is what it is, and um so, to say sometimes say, "Oh, WWE."
Like they would go like, "Oh, like the wrestler."
You know, and it just had a weird connotation to it.
When you say entertainer, "Oh, what kind?"
Oh, you know, WWE, it just took on a different meaning sure to people that don't understand what we do.
Um so, I always went with that.
Right now, it's it's kind of a combo, you know.
We have a saying that we use at WWE, which is our job is put smiles on people's faces, and it's kind of the overall thing of what we do, but I spend 90% of my day as an executive, so there you go.
Okay, we're going to also we're going to dig into that and rewind the clock and sort of look at the trajectory, but what are misconceptions that people have about you or Triple H or WWE?
Um I I think they don't you know, they just see what they see on TV.
They see, you know, um the the misconception for me is that I'm very much what you see on on television or I'm that I'm this character or they see the simplistic things of what we do.
You know, it's funny, even if you're this huge fan of the WWE, they get so upset over things like um Well, good.
Why would this guy beat that guy?
Just you know, it's one of the terms right now.
They just buried him, you know.
It's um it's a show, and what they don't get about our show is we are like this never-ending if you can compare it to whatever you want, comic book, soap opera, TV drama, movie, but it never ends.
So, it's always another chapter, and they get so upset in the moment of not knowing that you know, not liking maybe the end of the chapter that they're on. There's another chapter. It starts tomorrow.
It actually started right now when this one ended, you know, and they don't get that, and they can't wait for that, and they don't understand all the complexities that goes on, you know, go on behind the scenes.
So, it's that that's probably the biggest misconception is that we're just, you know, that that the WWE is just a bunch of guys um at its simplest form that just go to the ring in their underwear and pretend to fight with each other, you know.
Um but when you really break it down, it's it's a massive global business.
Oh, there's a lot behind it, and I've been so impressed by it for so so long, not the least of which, and and we'll certainly explore the the physical and mental stamina.
Uh how many matches would you say you have had total to date, televised or otherwise? Thousands.
You know, if if you break it down simplistically, and math is not my strong suit, so but you know, I started wrestling I think in like '93-ish, just just training, '92, '93 training.
And was Is in New Hampshire or was this in the um in New Hampshire I went to um I trained with a guy named Killer Kowalski an old Who my mom loves by the way. Oh really? Yeah.
So I wanted to dig into that. Yeah.
Yeah, he he was you know one of the first guys to become kind of like globally known.
And I started training with him at a camp a school if you want to call it that.
It was like a little run down mill building with a boxing ring in it and in Malden, Massachusetts and I started training with him there.
So if you break it down from there to today of 20 plus years and then when you know once I made it to the WWE which was 95 even if you just want to look at it from there and just say 20 years 20 years I probably for a lot of those years wrestled 250 280 days a year.
Sometimes in the weekends we did double shots.
So we'd wrestle on matinee in the afternoon and then a night show. So it's a lot. A lot of mileage.
Yeah, it's a lot of mileage. Yeah.
What were the most we always say it's not the years it's the miles.
And but figuratively and literally and and it's a hell of a lot of travel.
But before I get to asking about travel and all these different training aspects what were the most important lessons you learned while training with Killer Kowalski?
It's funny a lot of the things I think as in life he taught me a lot of things that I didn't know he was teaching me at the time.
He would tell me a lot of things that I would like he's just like The Mr. Miyagi approach. Yeah, yeah.
You know he had this it was a very wouldn't have worked very well in today's millennial age but like he had that his theory of telling you you did something wrong was hitting you in the back of the head with a phone book that was in like a shopping bag, you know. Oh my god.
And um But yeah, he would just teach all the He wouldn't say a whole lot and then all of a sudden he'd come in and he would say um you know I need to you need to be spectacular.
Make everybody look at you no one else.
And then he would just walk away and then you'd be like what what does that mean?
Like I don't you know what I mean?
You be you kind of had to figure it out.
Now there's a lot of things that he said to me then that I find myself telling the young guys now in a different way.
um But it's the same lessons kind of you know um Are there any examples that come to mind?
Well, just just in in how to be spectacular but also how to to break things down and to just look at what you do like never be never be satisfied with what you do.
If you don't do something well, don't do it unless you want to spend the time to improve that.
Like and still to this day I see a lot of guys do stuff in the ring that I'm like he doesn't do that well but he does it all the time.
I I just you know you shouldn't do that.
I have things that I don't do well in the ring.
Just don't that's just what would be um an example For example, there's this one thing that guys take where they they um they go through the top and middle turnbuckle and hit the post. Right.
Right from the inside and hit it with their shoulder.
I just it's one of those mental block things for me like I can't I just I can't seem to navigate going between the two turnbuckles and getting the thing like I always get stuck somehow or I've tried to do it before and it's just one of those things like doesn't work out well for me.
So I never do it and if guys will grab me in the ring over the years and say like take the post and I'll just no you know what I mean cuz I don't do that. Slight correction.
Yeah, I just don't do that well.
I'm not going to do it and I think there's little things like that that guys don't analyze what they do.
They they do what they do and then they go and they say oh that was really good in the overall picture of things right? It was really good. People really liked it.
It was but there were some things in there that weren't really good.
So the the it averaged out well but there were things they should have omitted.
Yeah, you know and and to me I don't know I've always been the kind of guy if if you're if you're doing it why why wasn't everything what you wanted it to be?
And there shouldn't be wasted movement.
There shouldn't be things that aren't what you want them to be.
I don't want to do something just to get to the next thing, you know. No, I do.
And what are you particularly good at in the in that in that environment?
What are the things that you what the strengths that you focused on?
For me it was never about um it was never about individual moves.
And I think as the business maybe some guys now look at that and and they they think differently cuz they they might look at my style and say like I was never an over the top spectacular guy but I wasn't supposed to be.
I was usually the bad guy.
So I wanted to have that I wanted to be that constant and let the other guy be spectacular around me.
And for me it was never about the spectacular moves.
It was about the drama of the the match.
And I I look at what we do as um we're we're more like Rocky the movie than we are legitimate you know like boxing. Right.
It's about the story that you tell.
So if the story is really good going in and you care about the two characters and then you make that emotional story play out through those two characters nonverbally in the ring that's the magic of what we do.
It doesn't matter if you know um yeah it makes the highlight reel like oh my god he did this one spectacular move was crazy.
I don't know how he he made it through that or whatever.
It's it's not really about that cuz tomorrow there'll be another guy can do that move better than you just did it and it'll be even more spectacular.
He'll come up with another way to do it that's even crazier.
Well, you mentioned Rocky right?
It's it's it's it's about the story arc not just a handful of really good lines of dialogue. Exactly.
Yeah, yeah and and that's the thing of it and you'll watch it's one of the things that works.
We have a the WWE network.
It's a lot of old content.
People will go back and they'll watch WrestleMania 1 you know um over and over again and how great it is and or WrestleMania 3 and all these things is because it's a emotional story.
If it was just about the moves it wouldn't be so impactful to you still.
The emotional story that's why people will go back and watch the movie Rocky over and over again because it's a great story.
They very rarely go back and watch you know there's exceptions Muhammad Ali and and Foreman or something you know um moments in time but the the average person unless they're like a boxing connoisseur doesn't go back and watch boxing over and over again.
No and you know what's fascinating about the examples you just gave like uh whether it's Ali Frazier or whatever those those in real life ended up being like story arcs because you would have this back and forth and this drama and the Thrilla in Manila and there were all the elements of sort of the the monomyth or the Yeah.
And well and and even when you go back and usually watch those fights you go back and you watch them in a show that now chronicles the story of that ties them together.
ties them together. Yeah, yeah it chronicles the story of those those epic contests you know and and that's the the reality of the story you know it's um you know I say it all the time if if you know who's in the ring fighting you'll tune in and you'll watch to just watch two guys fight for no apparent reason it's not that interesting unless you're
a connoisseur of the of what they're doing you know if you're if you're watching the UFC and you're a big mixed martial arts fan or all those things and there's a lot of those but they're very into the what's going on scientifically and you know the chess game the technical chess game that's going on but that's not the general public. To hit the general
To hit the general public they need to know something about the two guys and why they're fighting you know.
The uh the fighting now at your peak point in in your your on stage wrestling career you mentioned 200 and something like 250 to 300 days of the year you're probably traveling something like that. Traveling yeah.
And uh what were some of the keys to your longevity being able to maintain that?
And I know we have a common connection in Joe DeFranco and and he's mentioned that you very very rarely if ever miss training days and then maybe you could speak to that but even if that means coming in at your 2:00 3:00 in the morning to train.
What are what have been some of the keys or practices that have allowed you to sustain that type of torturous schedule?
um I think you know you you speak a lot in your in your podcasts and in your books and everything about routines and having things that you do and I'm very big in that way and I like I like to have my life kind of when I when it gets chaotic it bothers me and and it's it would sound silly cuz like what we do is chaotic at all times
like my day varies and you know people talk about when you do live TV like Monday night Raw for us we work on that show and that isn't done until like sometimes guys are walking out the curtain and somebody's shouting a change to them as they're walking through the curtain you know it's so the chaos is there. But having that consistent thing so for
But having that consistent thing so for me I had very distinct things like if I was in in the beginning there wasn't as much supplements and and it was a little bit more difficult.
But as supplements became more available I would I'm I'm like big on the preparation part.
So like if I was going to get on a plane to fly to Japan I would take either containers or or later when they were there the I would make my own protein shakes right?
I'd put the two scoops of protein in the thing I'd put some oil in there I'd put whatever I needed I'd put the top on it no liquid in there and I'd stick it inside my carry-on bag.
So and I would time it in my head.
So I'm on the flight for it's a 16 hour flight I've got three hour I need to eat every three hours.
I'm not going to count on the food on the plane that would just be bonus food.
So every three hours I have a shake for every 3 hours.
And I'd set my watch to go off every 3 hours. Time to eat.
And I'd get a shake out, get water, drink my shake, put it in, go back to sleep, right? Whatever I needed to do.
When I landed, I would check into the hotel.
Second we checked in, I'd ask them to is is the gym open? Can I go train?
Even if it was to get on a bike and ride for 15 minutes, reset that I I learned early that it seemed to me anytime I did that, I didn't get jet lag.
Anytime I did that, I seemed to like we can kick we use wrestling terms like I'd kick out faster, right?
So, while everybody else would be in the building dragging that day, I'd be like, "I'm I feel great.
Like, you know, I don't feel so bad."
Getting your blood flowing, resetting your clock.
You know, if if we were in Australia, I would always like that last day there, I would force myself to stay up.
Because then I could sleep the whole way home and by the time I landed, I was I'm landing in the morning and it's perfect.
Like, I'm just waking up and it's I'm great.
And I'd do the same thing.
I'd land, I'd try to find a gym, whether the hotel, something, ride a bike, reset my clock, do the deal, you know?
Um so, those routines and regimented stuff and same with my training.
Um When new guys would start a lot on the road like internationally when we're all traveling together, it's hard when you go overseas, you're on a bus.
The There's a gym set up for you, but they don't know how like how do I get to the gym? I'm not sure.
Am I supposed to go downstairs, get on a bus? I don't know.
The guys would always come to me and say, "Hey, are you like we've always heard that you go to gym every day. Can I go with you?"
So, yeah, I'd meet downstairs, bunch of guys would come down, we'd all go to the gym together cuz I would go every day.
I didn't like missing it.
I didn't like, you know, it was to me it was that regimented thing and I can look back at my career and say, I think part of that regimented stuff is why I was able to maintain it.
Or or maintain that schedule because I was one of the guys also that really truly believed in that when you make it, the job gets harder.
It's not the other way around.
You don't make it and then go, "Okay, now I can cruise because now I'm I'm the guy and now that means I can say no and I cannot do these things." I felt the opposite.
When you get there, now it's your responsibility to not say no.
So, you know, I I've had times where I've worked 64 straight days and just everybody else went home, I went on a media tour, everybody else went back home, I went to something else.
I did that for years, you know, and and that that regimented having those distinct patterns, so to speak, I think helped helped keep that.
I think it helps preserve your bandwidth also for making decisions about other things.
So, you don't have to decide each morning or each day what all the elements of your routine are going to look like. Yeah.
Uh It's funny, I heard you talk just recently I listened to your podcast in my research for this.
Because I've read your your books and but I I hearing somebody speak is different than what you put in your mind of how they speak. Right.
So, I wanted to like that guy sounds a lot dumber on audio.
But, you know, you you put something in your head and then get there and go, "That is not what I expected at all."
So, I listened to I sounded more like Barry Manilow. Yes, so much. Yes.
Um you you spoke Now, I forgot what I was talking about. Oops.
That was that was bad interviewer etiquette on my part. No, no, no.
We were talking about routines.
It's it's it's bad memory on my part. How are you doing?
Routine Oh, I know what I was going to say.
Yeah, I I believe that like training is almost like a meditation, right?
Like I heard Anthony Robbins say he doesn't didn't meditate cuz he didn't like shutting off.
He's the opposite, he wants to just keep going.
But, I also believe you need to reboot your brain cuz your brain will get stuck in like it's it's like when you go to sleep and you can't stop thinking about something you got going on at work and you can't get it out and in the morning you realize like it was actually gibberish that was in your brain going on.
Um I think training when you do it well, if you're into it, like you can't focus.
You can't be in the middle of trying to do a heavy set of something and be thinking about another project.
You have to be in that moment and it allows you to reboot, which I kind of believe is what meditation and all that stuff is anyways.
It's just a reset button for a second that just allows you to go like, "Okay, start over, clean the plate and now let's do this again, you know?"
And that's really to me what training is. Definitely.
Digging a little bit more on the routines.
For instance, in the last let's just say as you've gotten older in the last handful of years, how do you what is your pre-game ritual if you have one before you're going to go out and compete and and perform?
Yeah, that So, that just became a necessity of of age.
Of I never And just for people listening, if you don't mind me asking, how how old are you at the moment? 45.
But, so you know, for years when I was doing all that stuff with wrestling, you know, wrestling all those dates and and everything, um it's funny cuz some of the younger guys would would joke with me about it like you're like the old school guy.
Like, I would literally be sitting in the chair up at we call it gorilla position right before you walk out the curtain.
It's named after an old wrestler, Gorilla Monsoon, but um I would just be sitting in a chair, my music would hit, I'd get up and go to the ring.
And like they would say, "You don't warm up at all."
So, how I walk to the ring is good.
I think it's a good warm up, you know?
I'll start slow, it'll be fine.
Um Now, I have to like stretch and warm up.
And Joe DeFranco, you mentioned my strength and conditioning guys.
One of the things when I'm really bad with years and dates, but 4 years ago I was my career was kind of winding down and I was but I was I was still wrestling fairly regularly and I I had had this problem I thought it was a neck injury and I'm really having all this problem with my neck and my shoulder.
And I I I got into a position with a company where I needed to go make a couple of movies for them.
Long story, but I went to go make two movies.
I end up taking about a month off from the ring to go make these two movies and then I was supposed to come back.
While I was making the movies one day, I went to the gym to train and it had gotten to a point where I couldn't raise my left arm up like over my shoulder and my neck was really bad and I'd been going to see our team physician, you know, the guy that runs our medical and I'd been, you know, getting stuck with needles and dye and MRIs and things and they kept saying like it looks great.
We don't see there's clearly something nerve going on here, but we don't know what it is.
Um and they kept doing all this stuff and went to the gym one day and tore my bicep.
And it didn't hurt at all. It like snapped.
I looked down, I had the big gap in my arm.
I was I was just mad more than anything.
I was like, "Oh, I can't believe I just It just rolled up like a Venetian blind. No, it tore the top.
So, it just popped down and made like this divot there, right?
And and I heard I had headphones on and I heard it and I looked down and there was this divot.
I was like, "Son of a I can't believe I just tore my bicep."
So, I'm like mad, I put my weights down and like literally I was done training.
I was just going to do like a couple extra sets of biceps or whatever.
And I called the guy to come back and and get me and as I went to go outside, like I was sweating and I'm pissed, so I'm just going to leave.
And I go to put my sweatshirt on and as I did, I put my sweatshirt like through my arm up over my head to put my sweatshirt on and realized like, "Wait a minute.
Like, I can move my my arm all the way around my head like that. I couldn't do that." Your shoulder mobility.
Yeah, that was like everything came back and hey, wait, my neck doesn't hurt.
It was all from like this bicep.
And um I had to get surgery and the whole thing and it but it got me to a point in my head like, "I'm getting older, I'm falling apart a little bit.
Like, I have to start maybe I should think about trying to train like an athlete instead of just like going to the just being a bodybuilder and just looking good or whatever."
So, I'm not like a guy that just like called the local gym.
Like, I have to then like dig into it.
So, I start like researching trainers and everything and um Ironically, I end up probably where you did in your quest to do when you did for our body, which is you start researching all these guys that become the best at what they do and I I come across Joe DeFranco.
It keeps coming back up, Joe DeFranco.
So, then I called Joe DeFranco out of the blue one day and just say um you know, hey, I was I was actually cuz he was in Jersey and I was in Connecticut.
I was thinking maybe he could recommend to me to somebody.
And he said, "Can I come and meet with you?
I'd like to meet with you and just so I can analyze thing."
I still had my arm in a sling and everything.
I just finished making the movies.
I didn't have the surgery until after I finished making the movies.
And um he came and said after we met, he's like, "You seem like a really great guy.
I'd like to take a stab at doing this with you. I'll drive up here. I'm willing to do it."
And drive up and as a thing, he's awesome. He's a great guy.
And for and for people who aren't familiar, he's he's very well known for a lot of reasons, but does a lot of work with football athletes training for the NFL combine. Yeah.
And that's how he ended up the the chapters in the Four Hour Body where I I showed how unathletic I am, but how much Joe could improve my performance attempting to simulate the combine for for a handful of chapters. But, uh please continue.
I just wanted to give some context for people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great guy. Yeah.
And um just wealth of knowledge, incredibly smart and he said to me um "So, this will be a difficult transition for you because your mindset is totally different."
And you know, I'd never been with a strength and conditioning guy.
Everything I learned in the gym was from bodybuilders or powerlifters.
I just I just went to the gym and trained with guys and learned everything I could, but I was a sponge for it and you know, Arnold was my hero and you know, I like just was a sponge for all that stuff and and but that's how I learned it.
So, strength and conditioning and the whole stretching and mobility was totally foreign to me and he said this is going to be a tough thing for you.
We'll see if you can do it cuz tough with old dogs new tricks and I just went to him and I said dude I will tell you this. I am I'm all in.
Tell me what to do, I'll go do it. But it changed my life.
Changed my life athletically.
I went from a guy with you know gimping going upstairs because my knees were killing me.
I've torn both my quads and my knees were really bad and all that.
I have zero knee pain now.
I'm as strong as I've ever been.
Um I don't have physical issues, but it's because of that type of training and Joe and um you know, he was the one of the guys that got me like when you do wrestle, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to get you in this kind of shape and then you're going to here's going to be your pre-match ritual of you know, your stretching and your mobility.
We're going to light your body up, get your nerves kicking and firing and then you're going to go, you know, and and um that's what I do now and it works out whole lot better.
What are what are as opposed to going from the gorilla position straight out to the to the ring?
What are and I can what I'll provide for folks obviously lots of links to everything that you're up to, but also I'll I'll ping Joe and get some links to exercises and and some videos.
What what does that look like now?
What are some of the exercises or the sequence?
It's um it's a lot of mobility stuff.
mobility stuff. Cossack squats, um you know um Is that a weighted Cossack squat or is it No, no, he'll well, it depends, but usually I don't like if I'm getting ready to go for a match, but like he'll have me do Cossack squats into um maybe just like a a squat, but when I come down I'm pushing my knees out to
the side to stretch my groin out into some type of like um uh eccentric explosive push-up, but just getting things to fire my nervous system wake my nervous system up, but then also just open my joints up a little bit and just warm my body up, but it's never anything like I see guys running up and down hallways and doing all these things to get a sweat going. I'm never at that
I'm never at that point, but when I'm done it, I always feel like alive, you know, as opposed to just kind of physically shut down, but mentally aware because I'm about to go to the ring.
So, you know no matter how many years you've been doing this, you're still like nervous and and like freaking out and um to to then have your body just kick in and wake up. Boom, and you're there. You know what I mean?
And that's really what it is, but it's it's just a he varies it, but it's a little series of exercises that just makes me go How long does it typically take? 5 10 minutes. Oh, it's nice.
Nice and short and sweet.
it's it's not you know, I just go right from one thing to the other.
It's it's a good little deal. Yeah. I'll ping Joe.
So, people you can you can find that at the show notes at fourhourblog. com. Uh the fear factor.
What you guys do is can be very dangerous.
I mean there are risks involved.
When you're when you're nervous or have been nervous uh what is your in inner dialogue sound like when you're preparing yourself to go out when you've been most nervous?
What are you saying to yourself?
Um So, it's changed over the years.
I used to get really intense and really like almost like that same level of intensity if you were going to go for a a personal record squat or something where you know, you just get in that zone of intensity and just nothing else is around you and you're in your own little world and just on fire ready to tear through this thing and and that when I was younger, that used to be the thing.
For me now it's much more of an inner dialogue of you have been doing this for 20 years. You know how to do this.
Like relax and this is fun.
Like and there in some way there's that inner dialogue in me saying could be the last time you do this. Enjoy it. You know what I mean?
Like um I Undertaker and I had a conversation couple of years ago about this like you you it's it's a little bit of like you can still do this like and calming yourself down, but at the same point in time like don't forget to enjoy this moment like when you're out there because you might not get another one.
You don't know, you know, and and and injuries do happen especially as you get older.
So, and you can't think about it once you're out there.
And that's the thing for me.
It's always been this emotion and nerve and the my music hits and the second I walk out, it's gone.
Like I don't have any of it.
When I'm in the ring waiting for the other guy or whatever, I don't have any of it.
Um and it's an interesting thing to me that um I'm friends with Floyd Mayweather and and Incredible athlete.
Yeah, and I was walking him to the ring one time and uh I think when he fought Marquez and um we got there early and then his guys came and got me and I wanted to watch some of the undercard and then they came and got me and they said, you know, Floyd just wanted to say hi before he starts getting ready and stuff, chat with you for a few minutes.
So, I came we Steph and I went backstage, my wife and um we get in his locker room and he's laying down on the couch watching basketball game and we come in and say hello and all that and he's like, come here, have a seat, you know, and now he's we're talking a little bit.
But I'm trying to be ultra respectful of him.
He's about to go in, you know this this massive fight and so I uh the second there's like a lull in the conversation, I'm like, all right man, we're going to get out of your hair and and I head back and and we'll come back here when it's time for us to get ready for your deal.
And he's like, man, you don't got to take off. You can sit down.
I'm enjoying the conversation. Have fun.
And he's like completely relaxed and I said so another lull in the conversation, I go, we're going to run, Floyd.
I I don't want to be in your way and he goes Hunter I'm telling you I'm not I'm just chilling watching the game and I said you're not wound up about this at all and he goes why would I be wound up?
I'm either ready or I'm not.
Worrying about it right now ain't going to change a damn thing. Right?
Whatever's going to happen is going to happen.
So, I've either done everything I can to be ready for this or I'm not. It's a fair point. I sat back down.
We watched the game for a little You're like, all right, want a beer?
Yeah, and he he just he just is very calm and relaxed and and I I think when you feel in your mind that you're ready, you're ready and you're going to have those nerves, but it's you know, it's there.
When when you were coming up let's just say when you when you would hit your stride somewhat.
So, you're starting to uh make the ascent through the ranks and really become popular when you thought of the word successful, who was the person in your head at that time? Um I don't know.
It's hard to say because I looked at in inside of the inside of our business there were guys like for me um you know, my favorite performer character was Ric Flair.
Um just kind of felt like overall he had the best package of everything to offer.
You know, there were guys that were great showmen, very popular or guys that were great at one thing, very popular.
He had the kind of the combo of great in-ring performer, it made everybody look good, this great character, all all these things.
In inside the wrestling business, that was a component of success for me.
Um just that level of performer, the way he handled himself in the ring.
I always wanted to be the in-ring kind of general and understand and I it's one of the things I prided myself on at the peak of my career was um I could tell you at any given time if there were six people involved in something, I could tell you at any given time if I closed my eyes in the ring where they all were.
Like no matter how much they were moving around and what they were doing. I knew where they were.
I knew what they had in their hands.
I knew like just on glimpses as I was moving around the ring.
I always felt like it was my job if something was going to screw up, that was my fault.
It wasn't because he didn't know what was coming, it was because I didn't control that.
Um so, I always felt like the control was mine to take cuz it was what I could count on.
I couldn't rely on you know, this might get screwed up cuz maybe there's a confusion between those two guys over there that are supposed to do their thing.
So, I always took it on me to make sure I was there to tell them this is coming up. Be ready. Here we go. Get the chair. Whatever, you know.
Um Flair was very good at that.
So, that was like for me from that point of view was a success um component.
But there was a lot of things that I looked for.
Wrestling didn't define me as far as what I saw was successful.
I looked at and um you know, I looked at my father-in-law now, Vince.
I looked at at that as a guy that saw business that was one thing, but had a vision of it being something else.
He saw this little territory business and thought there should be one global brand that everybody watches because the world's getting smaller.
Cable is taking over and um so, he had this vision and then he just kind of set out doing it. I looked at Arnold.
I remember, you know, as a kid um reading Education of a Bodybuilder and very structured methodical set of here's what I want to do.
Here's what I want to be and here's how I'm going to get there.
Uh you know, um that those kind of things and those kind of people were success models for me.
Arnold um was that in in the structure.
You know, I I just said it to him a few weeks ago like for me, I say this in interviews a lot.
The gym taught me everything I needed to know how to for life.
You know, I walked in a gym at 14, and fell in love with it.
Um I I fell in love with the end result look, right?
Like I was always in awe of these big, powerful, impressive guys.
I think it's part of what I dug about wrestling, you know, I enjoyed the physical and all that stuff of it and and fell in love with that really wholly.
That's probably what led me to the gym at first, but but just the the discipline of it and the the going to the gym when I say it's like life, the more you put in, the more you get out.
The harder you work, the better the results, you know, um if you're willing to prepare, to sacrifice and not just about going to the gym, lifting weights, and then going out and goofing off the rest of the time. It's your life.
So, if you discipline your diet, if you discipline your rest, if you don't go to the party with your friends, if you don't do all these things, your results follow suit.
Um you know, I I I I just did um I just got inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame, Arnold's International Sports Hall of Fame. Congratulations. Thank you.
And but I I bring it up because Evander Holyfield was there and he told this story.
And I've never heard it said this way before and I'm I'm Sorry, Evander, but I'm going to steal this.
Um he he told me that he you know, he was giving his speech and he said that his coach at one point in time told him very like his very first day, he said, "You could be Muhammad Ali You could be the next Muhammad Ali."
And uh he said, "Do you want to do that?"
He He said he had asked his mom and then he went back home and he came back and he said, "I I want to do that."
And he said, "Okay, is that a dream or a goal?"
Cuz there's a difference.
I'd never heard it said that way before, but it stuck to me.
So much so that I've said it to my kid now.
Like, is is that a dream or a goal?
Cuz a dream is something you fantasize about that just will probably will never happen, probably.
A goal is something you set a plan and work towards and achieve.
Is that a dream or a goal?
Um I kind of always looked at my stuff that way.
So, the people that were successful models to me were people that had structured goals and then put a plan in place to get to those things.
And and I think that's what impressed me about Arnold.
It's what impressed me about my father-in-law to this day.
He's still very much a you know, here's the goal.
Here's how I'm going to get there, you know. Energizer Bunny. That's amazing.
I mean, you guys are seem like peas in a pod from us.
Stamina and endurance stamina.
and to you you I've heard you say it before, when when you have that goal in mind, now it's not I got to do this thing to get that done.
It's you can't wait to do that thing to get that done cuz it's going to get you closer to your goal. Right.
Well, it's the it's the compass that allows you to find order in the chaos, too. Yeah. Yeah.
The uh parenting, I don't I don't yet have kids uh that I know of.
Uh at some point I I would love to have a family.
How do you think about being a father? Do you want to be?
What do you think is is important in in that in that role? That's a tough one. I have three girls.
I have three uh I have a an eight, a six, and a four. Very well spaced. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's it. We're done. Yeah.
But um it's man, it's it's hard when the pressure as a parent, if you you know, hopefully if everybody takes the job seriously, you know, you're giving them the examples of how they're going to live their life.
Kids don't do what you say.
They They do what they see.
Um so, how you live your life is their example.
You know, I've heard it said and and I believe this is like the way I treat their mother and the way I treat them is what they're going to look for in a in a significant other.
Um that's Like you got to think about it. Oh, yeah.
Like so, what do what do I want them to have in their life?
Holy cow, and I got to do all that stuff.
It's it's a lot, you know, and then you add in all the other things of life, it's a very it's a very difficult challenge.
Um But you you want to you want to teach them right from wrong.
You want to teach them um you want to give them a path and a direction, but at the same point time I mean, you know, you learn as much from your failures as you do from your successes.
So, you can't you can't give them everything.
You want to help them so bad.
Like, I'm watching you make a mistake and I want to help you, but go ahead and make the mistake cuz you got to learn from that mistake, you know what I mean?
Um and it's it's tough to do, but you have to And and there's no manual.
That's the hard thing about kids, right?
There's no manual that comes with it and you're just doing the best you can.
I remember when we got our first one home, we did the hospital, they put it in the car seat, and you take the thing home, and then we walked in the door and we put it on the step and we're like, what do we do now?
Like, we just stood there looking at him or for a little bit like, what do what do we like what do we do?
We just Like, eventually it she cried and we had to feed her and whatever, but you don't know what to do.
You just Like, you don't It's We have a kid. Holy cow. You know, comes with it. Figure it out as you go.
Yeah, luckily I was I got to go on the road.
Uh the um the aspect of routines uh that that we touched on earlier, I'd love to to to bring that into focus for a second.
Uh specifically morning routines.
What is What What is the first 60 minutes of your day look like?
And I'll probably ask a bunch of really irritating, nitpicky questions because that's how I am.
But what is What is What is When do you wake up?
What is the first 60 to 90 days 60 to 90 minutes of your day look like? Yeah.
So, I I wish I had a really cool example of that.
Like, you know, I wake up, I go in a cryo chamber. the cryo chamber.
He's like got this elaborate ritual of mind-altering, spiritual like jumping in a hot tank and a cold tank and a Mine involves my kids waking me up at an ungodly hour after I get You know, like we we work under the premise of my wife and I and and to me she gets this even more than I do cuz she's got all the roles and all the stuff. And then she's mom.
And when you're the dad, it's it's um it's a big responsibility, but the mom like if anything happens, if they wake up, they go to her first.
You know, when the kids wake up in the middle of the night, unless they're scared, they might call dad if they're scared, but usually it's mom because they just Mom's more the comforter, right?
So, it's it's all those things.
So, that's even harder job.
But um you know, we we train late at night. We get home.
We try to get home every night, no matter what, to to spend a little bit of time with them and put them down and and you know, read them a book, whatever, get them in bed.
So, Joe comes to my house around 10:00. So, by 10:00 p. m. Yeah.
So, I I get them done, you know, we get them in bed, um change, and then Joe's there. And we start training.
And usually by you know, by the time you warm up, takes me a while to warm up. I'm 10:00 at night.
Um you you train and do all the stuff.
By the time we get done, usually it's 1:00, you know, in that ballpark.
And then, you know, you you're getting to bed after 1:00.
They're up at like 6:00 at the latest, you know, and they're in the room.
So, there's no really cool ritual.
I wish I could say I jump in a cryo chamber.
It's usually me stumbling downstairs with them um to try to make every morning my ritual is um I I am I'm also ironically out of your book, Dave Palumbo. Jumbo Palumbo, yeah.
Yeah, Dave um has I've been friends with him for years and he um he's a big um uh ketogenic diet guy.
So, he like works with my diet a lot when I'm getting ready for a WrestleMania.
So, so Dave's kind of my diet guy.
He uses protein powder, Species Protein.
But so, every morning, roll downstairs, two scoops of of of whey protein, a bunch of Starbucks coffee, powdered Starbucks coffee, uh some macadamia nut oil, and I make a shake, and that's the start.
Like, you you got to get the kick in going.
powdered Starbucks, macadamia nut oil. What else was in there?
Uh two scoops of Isolyze protein Nice. and uh some ice. Blend it all up.
It's a Starbucks uh smoothie kind of concoction, but very healthy and has enough caffeine in there to at least make me realize what's going on.
Get them ready for school.
My wife and I get them ready for school. Uh jump in the shower.
Either depending if I'm getting ready for like WrestleMania, it's either uh throw sweats on cuz I'm going to bring them to school and then get a workout in cuz usually I train twice a day when I'm getting ready for WrestleMania or something, but uh train and then off to work.
If I'm not getting ready for WrestleMania, it's shower, get ready, suit, bring them to school.
You know, we drive them to their school, get them to school, get them in their class, do all the stuff, and then drive to the office, start the day.
Uh get home at, you know, 7:30, 8:00 at night and repeat.
And this is all in Connecticut.
Is that All in Connecticut, yeah.
And the the HQ is I want to say I'm going to get this wrong. It's not Stamford. Is it It is? Yep.
You see it right from 95, right off the highway.
Close to the UBS building. Yeah.
Yeah, down the street, not far.
to live I used to work there.
I guess I the the Yeah, slip of the tongue, live there is probably appropriate.
Pretty much lived in the office.
Uh what is your what is your role currently at WWE in the in the executive capacity?
So, I am the executive vice president of talent, live events, and creative.
So, if you look at the core of what we do as a company, like from the the product itself, Ross Mac down, all that.
And we're a lot more than that because we have movies and music and like um it's I I say all the time it's like saying Marvel's a comic book company but but that's the core of what we do.
Um I control those aspects.
So talent and that goes from we have a department talent relations which is like their HR and they handle everything that has to do with talent from their travel to um and anything that has to do with them.
All the logistics of WrestleMania week, you know, what talents are doing.
There's a thousand appearances for talent literally in the week of WrestleMania.
They have to handle all the logistics of getting who where making sure nobody's late and all of it. It's a maze.
Um from to talent development which is the biggest probably thing that's closest to my heart that I do which is where do we find talent?
Where do we recruit them from?
Where do we um Where do we um Where do we recruit them from? How do we train them?
We opened a performance center in Orlando, Florida to a developmental territory or a developmental system that I have called NXT that has become kind of like an alternative brand.
Um Through to how do they then evolve and and get into the main roster of the WWE?
So basically what we did is kind of created college football to get guys ready for the NFL.
And then um the the last part of what I do is is creative which Vince is kind of the ultimate filter of creative.
I'm more um Well, I I weigh in a lot on that stuff and the content that's going to go on the network and all these things that I weigh in on it from a creative concept but I'm also approving t-shirt designs and banner designs and going through all that stuff through all the different departments and doing the approvals of all that day-to-day process.
Sounds like quite a few hats. It's It's a lot of hats.
It's funny I used to marvel at um Vince's ability when I first started coming in the office um I I've had a working kind of behind-the-scenes relationship with Vince since probably I started in the WWE in '95 since like early '96.
I just was always fascinated with the behind-the-scenes of the business and how it actually all came together as much as I was doing it in the ring.
And he and I just kind of clicked in that sense and we started working together and I didn't meet Steph, his daughter, until uh quite a few years later and then we ended up having a relationship and the whole thing but I had this working relationship with Vince
and as time went on and I got more and more involved in that and then um kind of later in my career he kept always asking me like when are you going to stop messing around in the ring and come do some real work in the office, you know? You need to be in the office. I need to
You need to be in the office.
I need to get you in the office and um I used to marvel at how many hats he wore and how quickly he could change them.
You know, he'd be talking about a foreign tour and box office receipts or or you know, um a touring strategy or a marketing strategy for that and then two seconds later he's looking at a t-shirt design and approving colors and that and then
that would go away and now he's he's you know, looking at some new talent or he's like just with so many hats that he that he wore and it used to amaze me at how quickly he could change gears and I find myself now having to do that same thing. Um
Um And it's it's really cool to see yourself grow that way cuz I used to think how does he keep that all straight?
And at first I couldn't keep it straight and now you just you learn it, you know, you you you learn that you adapt to that process.
I know we only have a few minutes left.
I feel like I could ask you questions for hours so maybe we'll do a round two sometime I love it. This is great.
The I'd love to ask you some rapid-fire questions and I think we could do an entire session just on productivity but just really quickly what is the the book that you've gifted most to other people?
Or any book you've gifted a lot to other people? Um Hm.
I don't know that I can answer that question. I don't give books much. Not a problem.
Most of my friends aren't big readers I guess.
I got to I need to work on that.
We can come back to that.
What what what band or song have you been playing most on your iPhone or or in the car or otherwise?
So lately it's it's been anything heavy. Metallica, Motorhead.
I'm I'm you know, I'm in like training mode for WrestleMania so I I at 10:00 at night I need to put something on the stereo that just makes me gets me in ass-kicking mode.
If you could only do one or two physical exercises for the rest of your life, movements, what would they be? Wow.
Um I I I think if if if at this age if I could do like free standing just body weight squats and like push-ups and kind of body weight exercises would be where I'd be at because I think you can stay in phenomenal shape doing them and you don't need a whole lot of space or equipment.
I should at some point introduce you to a buddy of mine named Travis Brewer who is a top competitor in American Ninja Warrior and you guys could could trade workouts.
I think that'd be amazing. Yeah. I bet you yeah.
I bet you that's awesome. He's a little monster. I bet.
What advice this will be the last question before I I ask you where people can find out more about you online but what advice would you give your 20-year-old self?
Don't take it all so serious.
You know, and and and be more open.
Um It's It's man when you're so focused on making it and you're um I always had fun in the business and it was one of the things that I like I could I I can look at it now and say like I didn't take everything so seriously that it was detrimental to me but like there were times when it just something happened it just eat me up, you know what I mean?
And I would be just just couldn't take it cuz I was so hungry to get to that next place and um the you need to keep that that perspective of where everything lays out, you know?
There's times when I uh when over the years when we looked at each other and and my my friends within the business little group of guys and we'd always look at each other and at a certain point in time you just laugh and go like it's the phony fight business wrestling in our underwear. You know what I mean?
Like what am I getting all worked up about?
And and I think that that is the biggest thing is just not taking it so seriously and then and then being open to stuff, you know, it's it's funny.
I mentioned that I listened to the Anthony Robbins interview with you and I and I was fascinated with it. I met Anthony one time.
And it was probably 2000.
Um I was just kind of like getting to a high spot in my career and um I just happened to be in a hotel.
I look over next to me he's checking in next to me and I'm like it's just a big giant dude, you know?
And uh I but I recognized him from TV and he looked over me said how you doing?
I said great, how are you? Good.
And he he you know, I grabbed my keys and I went and get in the elevator and he gets in the elevator with me and he looked at me and said um he goes Forgive me, I don't know I don't know what you do but I clearly see people looking at you and I clearly see you're somebody and I don't what what do you do?
And I so I tell him who I am and what I do and I said I've seen you on TV I'm you know And um you know, one of those two-second chance meetings in an elevator, right?
And this really impressed me that I get back a couple weeks later and I get a big box of like the cassette and his books and all his stuff that he had written me this handwritten letter and sent it didn't know how to get a hold of me sent it to the WWE office whatever.
Two weeks a month later when I come back through the office at some point in time in my travels they give it to me and I'm like wow, this is amazing.
I was too young and stupid and unopened at the time to foster a relationship or I listened to the tapes and I and I read the books and and all that stuff and if I'd have thought about it maybe I would have reached back out to say thank you and like hey like this is really cool could you know, and he invited me to one of his his seminars and and you know, I was just at that time like I'm doing good like I don't you know it was close to it.
I wish I was more open to it.
I wish I could have had the bandwidth to not be so absorbed in what I was doing in my moments going forward that I could have said but this guy could teach me so much and man I should call it and just you know, foster that relationship cuz he he put the he put the put the hand out and I was like I don't I don't need a hand.
You know, and and it's those are things that I look at there's other opportunities in my life that I wish man I wish I would that was right in front of me and I could have grabbed that but I was too narrow-minded to see it, you know?
Well This has been fascinating and you're a fascinating guy.
I would love to do a round two sometime but we're out of time.
I know your schedule's incredibly impressive to me.
Where can people find more about you online, say hi and so on?
It's so Twitter What's my Twitter handle?
It's like a It's at Triple H. I don't know.
I just know how to push the buttons on it. I don't know what it is. at Triple H easy peasy. Yeah, wwe.
com is is for our for our company and our site and all that.
You know, I do stuff on Twitter and whether anybody believes it or not I actually do it.
It's not somebody else doing it. It's me.
So if it's terrible it was me.
If it was really good it was me.
Um you know, uh if you want to go back and and look at my career Um, the WWE Network is a great place to do it.
All the historical content is on there.
Um, you know, that's that's really me.
But I you know, for me I'm uh I know you say I'm fascinated.
I'm I'm fascinated by this process and what you do and how you do it.
Um, and I'd love to do this again cuz I I think these kind of things it's funny.
A lot of things I said in here when you asked me questions today like I'm I feel like I gave you long-winded answers.
I apologize if I did, but like I'm I'm I'm almost almost explaining it to myself as you ask me like I never thought about it that way.
So I'm kind of explaining it to you going like, "Yeah, that's really cool."
But you know, Not long-winded at all.
They were uh you're a great storyteller, you're a great story creator, an incredible performer.
I hope I am I'll never be as big as you, but hopefully I will be as bulletproof as you are when I'm 45. So until next time. Thank you so much. very much, man.
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