Paul Levesque supposedly wants to be positioned as the face of WWE.
On September 12, 2023, the merger between WWE and UFC was finalised, forming the new parent company, TKO Group Holdings. Following the departure of controversial former Chairman Vince McMahon, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque has assumed full control as WWE’s Head of Creative, and it now appears he’s drawing inspiration from UFC CEO Dana White.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that many within WWE believe Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque wants to position himself as the company’s biggest star, much like how Dana White is perceived within the UFC. Meltzer added that while Levesque’s growing public presence mirrors White’s approach, these efforts have had no negative impact on WWE’s product.
“Even those that have and still do solidly back [Triple H] have said that he wants to be Dana White, basically positioned to the crowd as the biggest star of the brand. TKO may want that as well, as fighters, like wrestlers, come and go, but Dana White is the constant in UFC, and he’s the only one who can be the Dana White. Nick Khan can’t be that guy. Rhodes is a wrestler and can’t be that guy. Dwayne Johnson’s schedule doesn’t allow him to be that guy. One person even used the term “Dana-envy” to us. But he has missed some television tapings of late, some of which have been reported and others of which have not. However, one person near the top did say that they did not believe his attempt to become the Dana of the group have hurt the product at all. They said the product would be no different if he was around 24/7 or micro-managed everything like Vince McMahon did. There is a major consensus that things are better for everyone with him and charge rather than McMahon. The basic deal is that we had a passive-aggressive leader (dictator was also used one person) who doesn’t like to micro-manage like his father-in-law did. Previously, we had a control freak dictator who micro-managed every single detail. But while he’s not there 24/7, he stays on top of everything related to the product. One person questioned if he cares more about how it will look on WWE Unreal than what is really happening, and it was also said that would be a very fair question. It was also noted that right now, he doesn’t have to deliver a super charged Oh My God product right now. He can hold off matches and build things slower because the answer to every question is to look at how much revenue the product is delivering, not just the TV rights but the live gates and the merchandise. He is getting zero pressure right now that he has to bring up the gates, because they are the biggest they’ve ever been, or bring up merchandise numbers, which are also at a high water mark. He doesn’t go out there and put everything out full tilt like many bookers would and have done historically that only cared about the houses on Friday and Saturday of this week, because there is no pressure in that regard.”
-Dave Meltzer
Elsewhere within the Observer Newsletter, Meltzer revealed that there is concern that Levesque’s political responsibilities are hurting the company. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque’s involvement with TKO and WWE as soon as we hear more.
