Billy Gunn says Triple H calling AEW a “pissant company” was a “dick move”
WWE Hall of Famer Billy Gunn spoke with Kenny McIntosh in an interview published to the Inside The Ropes YouTube channel. Here is an excerpt…
McIntosh: “In January 2019, you signed with AEW, the new company that was starting up. Then, that April, you went into the WWE Hall of Fame with D-Generation X. Of course, the crowd started chanting for AEW, and Hunter [Triple H] had to get on the microphone and say Vince [McMahon] would buy that ‘pissant company’ just to fire you again. I know you’ve said you’ve let it go, but in the moment, or when you went backstage afterward, was there a conversation about what that was all about, or did you just accept it for what it was?”
Gunn: “No, because I knew it was coming. I kind of knew they were going to do something about AEW because it was hot at the time, and I was there. They were all wondering how I got to go there, and that was because Tony Khan was super cool. They were going to stick us in, so I went and asked him, and he said, ‘100%.’ He said, ‘Of course you can. I would never hold you back from that.’
I didn’t know what they were going to do, but I knew they were going to do something. I also knew that Hunter was going to have something to say about it. Once I prepared myself for that, I just let it go.
The only one who got hurt out of that whole deal was him. I don’t want to say it, but it was a dick move. It was kind of an attempt to save face, and you didn’t need to because it was going to happen. That’s the wrestling business. That’s what we do, and that’s what they like to stir up.
When you have somebody in another company, and I’m not trying to be egotistical, but I’m sure a lot of people didn’t think I was going to make it because I worked for another company. Then, when you see me, they have to do something. It’s like an unwritten rule in a book: if another guy is in another company, we have to say something and do something.”