Triple H on WWE's Evolution, the Rise of the Antihero, and the Psychology of Stardom

**Jason** (0:04)
14 time WWE World Champion, a two time world rumble winner, and now he's behind the scenes running world wrestling entertainment.

**Paul Levesque** (0:17)
Welcome to the Netflix era!

**SPEAKER_3** (0:23)
Whether it be a mentor, a leader or an executive, his love and passion for this industry hasn't changed.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:32)
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the WWE's Paul Levesque.

**Jason** (0:53)
All right.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:53)
Yeah.

**Chamath** (0:54)
Thanks for coming.

**David Sacks** (0:54)
Welcome.

**Chamath** (0:56)
So the audience may not know this, but I'm a big professional wrestling fan, going back to my childhood in Memphis, Tennessee. Yeah. In Memphis, we didn't have any professional sports growing up. All we had was Memphis State, Tigers basketball, and professional wrestling at the Mid-South Coliseum on Monday nights. That was pretty much it. Jerry Lawler was so popular in Memphis that he could have been elected mayor and I think he almost was. So it was really a wrestling town. But so growing up, I watched you and WWE. I would say that Triple H was the premier heel champion, the unstoppable force of the whole Attitude era. It's a thrill to have you here. Since then, you've transitioned into being the Chief Creative Officer at WWE and had a huge business career. So I think we want to talk to you about both those things. Maybe let's start with your career as a performer.
I don't know if people will understand everything that goes into being a WWE superstar, but you've got to be, first of all, you've got to be a tremendous athlete. You're a stunt man because you're doing tremendously dangerous things. You have to be able to cut promos, which means you're basically an actor, but you also have to write your own dialogue. You've got to be a charismatic star to all the fans. There's a lot that goes into it.

**Friedberg** (2:14)
How many people are cut out for this type of work?

**Paul Levesque** (2:17)
Well, it's a difficult thing. One of my tasks now in my job is finding that next generation of stars. So we have a robust program through college, athletics, through an NIL program, through a lot of different avenues where we find talent. But the key to it really comes down to charisma and your innate ability to connect with people. It's one of the things about WWE that I think is remarkable is it is a kind of a combination of everything, right? The athleticism, the showmanship, the charisma that you have to have, the media skills that we teach from day one coming in the door, all of it. When you leave WWE, whether you've been there for a long time or if you've had any level of success, you are so well suited to do just about anything in life. Because I truly feel like for a lot of people, sometimes can be a lot less about all the things you know and how good you are at them as the charisma to get people to listen to you. And then if you put the right people around you, you can have all the things that you need, but people will follow that leadership, right? So even when it comes to politics, it's amazing to me when I walk through the White House. Over the last few months, I've been there quite a few times. How many people in the White House are huge fans of WWE?

**SPEAKER_8** (3:43)
I mentioned this to you backstage, but similar to David, I had a growing up in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Yes. There wasn't any professional sports. Ultimately, we got the NHL.

**Paul Levesque** (3:53)
I didn't get as big a pop as Memphis.

**SPEAKER_8** (3:55)
Memphis, yeah.
My father and I, one of the few things that we were able to bond over was wrestling. Your whole progression where you started off as Hunter Hearst Helmsley, which is really what David is like now. Then he became more of the Triple H Heel. But I wanted to ask you a question about exactly what you just said. I want you to walk us through the characteristics of these two individuals who have had a very vibrant career in wrestling. Donald Trump who's now in politics and The Rock, who people say may actually go into politics later. What you just said is it's an incredible breeding ground for charisma and connecting with people.

**Paul Levesque** (4:37)
Yeah, I mean, I think if you go back through history, even in politics and you look at the person that gets elected in every presidential cycle, it's the most charismatic person on that stage that gets elected president. The issues are important.
All the real life day-to-day things that are important to people obviously are there, but at the end of the day, they're picking who they like. They're picking who connects with them. They're picking who is charismatic to them. You know, Donald Trump was very good in our world of WWE because he was okay to be himself. He was okay to sort of get egg on his face and be embarrassed sometimes. He was okay to put it all out there and just be him, but he's charismatic. He's larger than life. He's not afraid to say what's in front of him, right or wrong. The rock is the same way. That connection with people is really, in my mind, it is what drives the planet.