MR. TITO: In Defense of Triple H’s Response (or Lack Thereof) to Vince McMahon’s Allegations

Right now, many within the “prestigious” Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) are burying Triple H for his post-Royal Rumble 2024 press conference response to any allegation questions regarding Vince McMahon. There are even theories going around on whether Triple H or not Triple H was named in the lawsuit as well as one of the “officer #” mentioned by the victim as knowing about the situation. I’m seeing many AEW diehards piling on, likely from WhatAboutisms from Tony Khan being asked uncomfortable questions about CM Punk incidents or Nick Hausman‘s Chris Jericho hints regarding possible allegations.

And before I get into the meat of the column, don’t ever allege me of trying to protect or being a mark of Triple H. If you’ve actually read my columns for the past 25+ years, I’ve been no fan of Triple H and his backstage politics as a wrestler, I blame him for ruining the momentum of CM Punk in 2011 and Daniel Bryan in 2013, and I was a major critic of his runs as Talent EVP from mid-2012 through early 2020 (that timeline is VERY important now) and Creative from late 2013 through the Fall of 2019. If you’ve read my recent columns, I’ve ripped him for creative decisions such as the awful Kross/AOP stable, booking a Fatal 4 Way at Royal Rumble, and having Styles immediately attack LA Knight upon his return (the “hat on a hat” argument). In fairness, I have praised Triple H’s recent role as Creative/Talent executive since mid 2022, as he’s learned from experience and is doing an overall good job now as a manager.

Did you get all of that? Are you sure? Good, let’s discuss Triple H and his role regarding Vince McMahon’s allegations and now a very detailed lawsuit.

First and foremost, Vince McMahon IS Triple H’s father-in-law. THAT needs to be said. From your WhatAboutisms, Tony is not related to anyone he’s been asked about during his media scrums or other interviews. Triple H is married to Vince’s daughter and with that, you have a personal relationship with your in-laws. Vince also took many chances on Triple H as a wrestling talent and made HHH not only a household name, but a millionaire wrestler and an even richer executive. HHH is thriving as an executive now thanks to working for and being related to, through marriage, to Vince McMahon.

In addition to not wanting to bury Vince McMahon publicly, he is also protecting his wife Stephanie McMahon but also by extension, her mom and Vince’s wife (but separated) Linda McMahon. They don’t want their dirty laundry discussed in public, no matter how mad they are at Vince McMahon right now. It’s embarrassing for Linda, as it shows what a sham her marriage really was to Vince and for Stephanie, that’s her dad. Your parents mean the world to you, good or even bad, and these allegations are highly disappointing to her especially as a woman.

With that said, I GAINED respect for Triple H for not wanting to address Vince McMahon’s allegations at the Royal Rumble 2024 post press conference. Goes to show you that he’s a great family man and a great husband. He’s also very loyal to those who personally helped him in his career, which you can see and still see with his friendship to Shawn Michaels. He knew what Shawn was doing during the late 1990s, but rather than walking away from the friendship and possibly let Shawn overdose somewhere, HHH watched out for Michaels and took good care of him. And if you want additional information on HHH as a guy, he actually held Shawn accountable during the early 2000s when Shawn showed up high on pills.

But, how much did Triple H really know about the allegations or Vince’s behavior?

For one, it’s publicly known that Vince McMahon has cheated on his wife repeatedly. Public knowledge, as Vince has stated it himself in interviews. I’m sure there has been affairs around the office with Vince or other WWE employees where the gossip about that becomes known. It’s likely that HHH, as he became an executive, probably heard about Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) being signed. It’s likely that Stephanie McMahon knew all of this, too, and I believe when the complaint arrived to the board during 2022, that was when Stephanie walked away because the behavior she probably knew her dad had got worse. Rather than getting in a situation where she had to judge her own father, she took a leave of absence. Then, Stephanie resigned when Vince returned during early 2023 (mad respect for her in hindsight).

BUT – From the lawsuit filed against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE/TKO, it mentions that the affair, trafficking, and harassment ended during 2022 when Vince’s separated wife, Linda McMahon, found out about what was happening to this alleged victim. Then, the NDA and $3 million settlement occurred and shortly thereafter, the friend filed a complaint with the WWE board and from there, the story was leaked to the Wall Street Journal to make everything erupt during June/July 2022 to where we are today.

Again, the big point here is keeping the affair with the victim SECRET from Linda McMahon… THAT’s the key here, folks… Vince was doing all of this crap to this victim in secret, as evidenced by his alleged text message and involving only John Laurinaitis and his physical therapist in these sexual games. Thus, if Vince was keeping it from Linda, he was also hiding it from Triple H, Stephanie, and Shane…

With Triple H, WHY ON EARTH would Vince McMahon share his intimate details of his affairs with his son-in-law Triple H? Do you think that he’d want Triple H to cheat on his daughter Stephanie with other women? HELL NO!!!!! No father would ever encourage their son-in-law to engage in such horrible sexual activities like Vince was engaging. Vince wants his daughter to be happy and be safe & secure, while NOT being married to someone like himself. Funny how hypocritical that is, as Vince is a scumbag in practice but he doesn’t want his daughter to be around one. Yeah, that’s what all dads do… Trust me, Triple H doesn’t know the fine details of the affairs as they are happening but just hears about them as they are complained to the Board of Directors, reported through leaks to the Wall Street Journal, or shown in full detail in a lawsuit.

Vince was allegedly texting her stuff… Does Triple H have access to Vince’s cell phone or other computer equipment to see what Vince was privately sending to other people?

And remember the timeline of this… Things started happening during 2019 with this new legal employee who eventually joined John Laurinaitis’s talent relations department through 2020. Ah yes, there’s the important part of this story. During early 2020, Triple H was DEMOTED from his position as EVP of Talent Relations and John Laurinaitis was brought back on, by Vince McMahon, to assume those duties as talent manager. Thus, HHH has no direct contact with the victim. Further complicating any knowledge of HHH’s was the fact that he had major heart surgery and had an extensive recovery during September 2021. But when he returned, he was mostly a live event manager, as he no longer had any creative ties (lost in 2019) or talent management (lost in early 2020).

Vince McMahon is a very secretive person… We didn’t hear about ANY of these Non-Disclosure Agreement events until 2022 as the public at-large. Furthermore, most of the WWE Board members did not hear about the extent of the NDAs until the 2022 complaint was filed by the friend of the victim. Then, and investigation was held by the WWE Board and that probably uncovered complaints likely found within the HR and Legal departments, two of which I 100% guarantee you that Vince McMahon had full control, trust, and their silence of regarding his behavior. Remember, Vince McMahon was President/CEO and incidents seems to escalate once Linda resigned as President/CEO herself during September 2009.

Vince is good at hiding things as serial cheaters tend to do… Vince McMahon is a sociopath who wants to put on a corporate and family face up front, but the real terror comes out to fulfill his sexual appetite. Most people, including family especially, don’t know that guy except a few who have participated in sexual escapades with him such as John Laurinaitis. What Vince McMahon obsesses over is keeping his high profile side as business titan and family man strong, while “getting off” on getting away with filthy affairs behind the scenes. This pattern of behavior has been there for 40 years, folks, as there was a female employee that filed a complaint about Vince during the late 1980s.

I just don’t see Vince McMahon sharing the details of peeing and defecating on a woman he’s sharing with John Laurinaitis to Triple H. Furthermore, if Triple H did know the extreme details of the lawsuit (if they were really true), I would think he’d be repulsed by them in real time and show concerns to his wife Stephanie. I know the internet tried to push marital problems between Triple H and Stephanie, but if they did exist, it was regarding issues with Vince McMahon as both of their boss and being family.

Sorry folks, until you can show me evidence that Triple H was involved and joined in on these sexual affairs that Vince and Johnny Ace were having with WWE office staff members, then I will refuse to cancel him. Triple H has a spotless record when it comes to himself as a WWE employee and as a family man. Sure, Chyna made her allegations, but she made many claims as a former WWE employee. The evidence we see between HHH and Chyna was that they were in a loving relationship from 1997-1998, but just kinda grew apart as both became obsessed with growing further as WWE performers (Sean Waltman confirmed it got weird between the two during 1999). Then they broke up as Triple H began falling in love with Stephanie as they did their storyline together.

THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN FAMILY… You have at least 1 person in your family that has been up to no good, whether that something illegal was done, they drink or use drugs too much, terrible with finances, or they are awful with relationships. Not everyone has perfect parents, while there are often issues with in-laws after a marriage. You could have a creepy Uncle or an Aunt that is just a total b**** to the family she married into. Happens all the time, and nobody is spared. About 1 out of 100 people are in prison here in the United States, but again, someone can be a bad person but do things that won’t send them to jail or they haven’t been caught yet. That will increases the percentage to up to 5 out of 100 or a 5% chance or reduced down, 1 out of 20. At least 1 out of your 20 family members or even your friends has illegal or weird issues about them.

BUT THEY ARE FAMILY… And what you don’t want is bad news about your family to go public, especially if they are husband or father of someone you care about.

So when Triple H refuses to discuss Vince McMahon’s issues, think about why. That’s his wife’s dad, his daughter’s grandfather, and his mother-in-law’s husband. Vince also provided many professional opportunities for Triple H and has probably been like a Dad to him. Like most Dads, they don’t want to share in their sexual activities with family. Ewwwww.

And let’s make something abundantly clear… Triple H is NOT the President/CEO of TKO or wasn’t for WWE. Yes, he was a Board member… But Board members aren’t there for day to day workplace operations. The Board is elected there by Shareholders to ensure that WWE’s financials are profitable enough. It’s very likely that any legal costs that Vince McMahon was hiding was probably wrapped up in the many other lawsuits that the WWE corporation has. That’s a GREAT question for WWE’s Chief Financial Officers who would be overseeing expenses incurred and signed off by President/CEO Vince McMahon. They’ve had multiple CFOs for the past 5 years, too… Ask them! At these press conferences, HHH isn’t the President/CEO, unlike Tony Khan, to speak on these legal matters.

I’m sure that Triple H knew that Vince McMahon had the occasional affair, but not the details and probably assumed that most of it was consensual. More than 50% of marriages end in divorces, most of which are as a result of spouses getting bored with each other and beginning to look elsewhere. I’m not condoning this or what Vince does, but people do weird stuff sexually and get off on the thrill of getting away with weird behavior that nobody knows about. Vince is a weird guy and until the past 2 years, I still didn’t know fully on who Vince was. And I’ve read multiple books and columns discussing much of his bad previous behaviors or ruthlessness as a business man. In my 25 years, I’ve written extensively about the bad behaviors of Vince that I knew…

But Vince is good at keeping secrets and keeping his NDA signers mouths until he stops paying them the agreed upon settlement. Vince controls people with his personality and his money, but for some reason, he didn’t want to pay the money to an alleged victim who could have a major axe to grind.

Until you find out that Triple H joined in on the sexual fun with Vince McMahon and shared in the office workers, let’s keep the focus on Vince McMahon. WWE has been a great wrestling company for the past 40 years and there are many moments from these events that have enriched our lives as wrestling fans. Just because Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and others might be bad people in the WWE, doesn’t mean that the majority of employees and wrestlers who have worked for the WWE during the past 4 decades are as well.

From all that we’ve seen and heard, especially for anyone working for Triple H, he’s a good and caring guy to his workers. Just look at the pictures of him being so proud of his talents and any who works for HHH gives him their maximum effort. Wrestlers in the WWE have THRIVED since an experienced Triple H returned to control Creative and Talent during mid-2022. Unlike Vince who wants to control everything, Triple H is the opposite who wants to empower others to succeed with him and delegates authority. WWE is now a full team effort, whereas before, it was dependent on what the powerful Vince McMahon wanted and nothing else mattered.

Focus your heat on Vince McMahon, the CFOs who may have cooked books to hid his NDA settlement payouts, the HR department of the WWE who may have known about the affairs, and WWE’s legal department who hid and buried many of Vince’s skeletons. There is NO WAY that Vince McMahon shared all of the intimate details of his affair with his son-in-law. Why would Vince want Triple H to treat his daughter Stephanie badly? Makes zero sense to me.

Sure, if mounting evidence comes out that Triple H knew much more and actively participated in the cover-up, I’ll change my tune. Until then, he married into a family and Vince is the 1 creepy member of that family that makes you cringe. But he’s family and if you don’t know all of the fine details because the perpetrator is going the extra mile to hide things, then you have nothing for an intervention.

HHH has to play the game of being a loyal family guy, while also protecting a WWE company that employs hundreds of people. I guarantee that most of you reading this would FOLD under that pressure.

Once again, I’m the voice of reason on this stuff…

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