Triple H Talks Athletes From Other Sports Transitioning Into Pro Wrestling

In recent years WWE has recruited several athletes from a variety of sports. They then attempt to convert those athletes into pro wrestlers and they've been highly successful with the likes of Roman Reigns, Baron Corbin and Mojo Rawley, all of whom played professional football.

Triple H talked about athletes like this having that crossover appeal when he joined Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast.

"I am a big believer in athletes. No different than you see Baron Corbin, I know he gets a lot of heat, but he's a phenomenal performer. He was an NFL player. He was a fan but came into this a little bit later as a performer," said Triple H. "You see Braun Strowman coming in from Strongman competitions, so you see athletes coming in from all different backgrounds.

"But I think that is one of the things that was the goal of the Performance Center when we did this 5-7 years ago when we started. The concept of this was to create a pathway for people. I would meet people all of the time in various sporting events or entertainment where they talk to us about saying that they have always dreamed about being in WWE. They are such fans and would love to do it but how would they get into it? There was no clear path to do this. I would meet guys that were in the NFL thinking that they had another year left to play but I'm 23 and I want to continue to be an athlete. I have always dreamed about two things: NFL, which I had done that and WWE. How can I get there? To create a pathway for them and create a place where they can go train so that they can make that transition.

"I don't know if you would have seen a Ronda Rousey make that transition or people like that make that transition successfully without that system."

It appears that Triple H and WWE aren't even waiting for athletes to finish up their careers in other sports before recruiting them to possibly becoming pro wrestlers. They are starting to recruit these athletes while they are still in college as evident by some Ohio State football players visiting the Performance Center recently.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Peter Bahi contributed to this article.