WWE Off The Top Rope Recap: HHH Talks Wrestlemania Moments, Working With Ultimate Warrior, Returning at MSG After Quad Injury

The following is a recap of highlights from tonight’s new ESPN WWE Off The Top Rope segment with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H:

Triple H talks about Wrestlemania 32 marking his 20th Mania match, and he says it feels like just yesterday where he was at Wrestlemania XI backstage. He talks about all of the pageantry back then with Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson and how it changed the next year with getting his own match against the Ultimate Warrior. Coach asks about their relationship, and HHH says it’s mind-boggling because of Warrior’s passing, but his Mania debut doesn’t bother him like most people think. He says Vince asked him to work with Warrior, and now they built a relationship 20 years later with Warrior coming back for the WWE Hall of Fame before he passed. HHH says he stays close with Warrior’s family like it should have been, then Coach asked about HHH’s favorite Mania moment. He says Wrestlemania 28’s “End of an Era” match stands out, especially the moment at the end where they were on the stage together at the end of the night. He talks about how much it meant to him personally, and he made up plaques to mark the occasion, but it’s a night he won’t ever forget. 

Coach asks about this Sunday’s crowd being bigger than the Wrestlemania III crowd, and Triple H says he’s just as nervous now as he was the first time. HHH says they may break the attendance record and him getting that type of moment one time is just really special. Coach talks about HHH’s quad injury and infamous return at Madison Square Garden, and HHH talks about how it all went down and fighting to come back. HHH says he stayed in an Alabama Embassy Suites and trained for nine months, and just worked to come back. HHH says they did return videos and hype his return, but once he made the return it clicked and it was one of the biggest nights of his career. He talks about being away for so long and having doubts, and you can’t get outside of your own and just hoped people would react the right way. He says WWE stars rely on the connection with the fans more than anything, and there’s nothing like it, so people keep coming back and hopefully that happens Sunday at AT&T Stadium.