3 WWE Superstars Triple H personally fired and 3 he hired

Triple H is a 14-time World Champion and one of the most well-known WWE Superstars of the last 25 years.

However, in his current role as WWE’s Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development, he is much more important to the company behind the scenes than he is in front of a camera.

As well as running the NXT brand, the WWE Hall of Famer also deals with talent on the RAW and SmackDown rosters, even though he no longer appears regularly on either show as an on-screen character.

In WWE’s storylines, Triple H and Vince McMahon have abused their power as authority figures by firing plenty of Superstars over the years, but did you know that “The King of Kings” also has the difficult responsibility of firing some people in real life?

Here are three WWE Superstars who have confirmed in media interviews that they were informed of their releases by Triple H, as well as three who were hired by the NXT founder.

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#6 Triple H told Austin Aries he was being fired

One of the strangest WWE firings in recent years came in 2017 when Vince McMahon told Triple H to release Austin Aries.

At the time, the former 205 Live roster member had just started his rehabilitation at the Performance Center after planning to take a month away from the ring to deal with some injury problems.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Aries revealed that Triple H called him and passed on the bad news.

“That was Thursday [start of the rehab] and then Friday I get a call from Hunter [Triple H] just to tell me I’m being released. He said he was really shocked. He was as shocked as I was. It was per Vince.”

Aries, who was told that he had been fired because the creative team did not have any ideas for him, said he would have happily returned to 205 Live as a heel if the company wanted him to.

“They just didn’t have anything for me and that was it. I asked him [Triple H] some questions if it was because of some contract things that we were negotiating. I literally was surprised because there were no issues. I hadn’t had any issues with anybody.”

#5 Triple H hired Cedric Alexander

As you will find out throughout this article, Triple H does not just hire Superstars when WWE’s cameras have stopped rolling.

The first high-profile example of Triple H essentially hiring a Superstar on-screen came in August 2016 when an emotional Cedric Alexander watched on as the Full Sail crowd chanted “Please sign Cedric! Please sign Cedric!” following his defeat against Kota Ibushi in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament.

Much to the surprise of the fans in attendance, Triple H walked out onto the stage area and shrugged his shoulders as the crowd reacted to his arrival. The NXT founder then shook hands with Alexander and gave a thumbs up to the fans to all but confirm that he was going to sign the up-and-coming Superstar.

Alexander later told the Charlotte Observer that he was emotional enough after facing Ibushi, let alone when Triple H made it clear that he intended to hire him following the match.

“That really threw me off. I was already full of emotion from wrestling Ibushi – who, ironically, when we were doing interviews that is the guy I wanted to wrestle. When the brackets worked out, that was enough to make me tear up. But hearing the crowd… my trainer, George South, used to say, ‘Sometimes when you lose, you really win.’”

#4 Triple H told Alberto Del Rio he was being fired

Triple H phoned Alberto Del Rio in August 2014 to inform him that he had been released from his WWE contract. The Mexican, who had been with the company since 2009, was fired for “unprofessional conduct” after he slapped a WWE employee who allegedly made a racist comment towards him.

Speaking on Keeping It 100 with Konnan, Del Rio explained that he was initially told “everything was going to be fine” by people within WWE. However, he then received a call from Triple H, who delivered the news of his release.

“Everyone knows that when I talked to the important people in the company they told me that everything was going to be fine, just go and shake hands. Several days later, Triple H called me and said that they had to let me go. I was shocked. He [WWE employee] made fun of me and disrespected me, yet I'm the one being fired?” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]

Del Rio added that he put the phone down on Triple H after telling him that he would work for another wrestling promotion if WWE fired him, even if it hindered his chances of one day making a return.

As it turned out, the former WWE Champion returned in October 2015 before leaving the company once again in September 2016.

#3 Triple H rehired Drake Maverick

WWE released over 20 Superstars in April 2020 as a cost-cutting measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including Drake Maverick. Unlike the other Superstars who received their releases, Maverick had already been confirmed as a participant in the Cruiserweight Championship tournament on Triple H’s NXT brand, which meant he still competed in matches despite his contract coming to an end.

Maverick gained a huge amount of support from fans when he posted an emotional video on social media after finding out the news about his release. This led to him becoming one of the most popular Superstars in the tournament, which culminated in him losing against El Hijo Del Fantasma in the final.

As part of the Maverick storyline, which blurred the lines between fiction and reality at times, he had to win the tournament to keep his job. However, despite the defeat, Triple H appeared after the match to hand the Superstar an NXT contract.

Triple H later explained in a media call that Maverick was originally supposed to be released, but he decided to rehire the former 24/7 Champion after he “captured people’s hearts and imagination” during the Cruiserweight Championship tournament.

#2 Triple H told Hulk Hogan he was being fired

In July 2015, WWE released Hulk Hogan and removed him from the Hall of Fame after audio emerged of him using racial slurs in a recording from 2007. Hogan later revealed in an interview with Sports Illustrated in September 2015 that he received confirmation of his firing after he made a phone call to Triple H to warn him that the recording had been leaked.

“Triple H said, ‘Okay, thanks for calling. Let me talk to Vince [McMahon].’ He called me back a half hour later and he goes, ‘I’ve got some news and it isn’t good. Vince said that you need to resign.’ I never heard from Vince or talked to Vince. In the middle of the night, they just fired me.”

Three years later, WWE reinstated Hogan into the Hall of Fame and he returned to the company’s programming as the host of the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia in November 2018.

He has appeared sporadically on WWE television since then, most notably when he led a team of babyface Superstars to victory over Team Ric Flair at Crown Jewel 2019.

#1 Triple H hired Mia Yim

Much like the Cedric Alexander situation, Triple H sprung a surprise on Mia Yim in 2018 when he informed her in front of the WWE cameras that she had been hired by the company.

The backstage conversation, which you can view in the video above, came after Yim was knocked out of the 2018 Mae Young Classic tournament in the quarter-finals by Toni Storm.

Triple H approached Yim after the match and casually gave her the good news.

“They were just chanting, ‘Please sign Mia. Please sign Mia.’ It was like a huge thing. ‘Please sign Mia.’ And then I said, ‘Okay,’ so welcome aboard. We were gonna tell you anyways, but they forced the issue! Welcome aboard, okay? Congratulations. You had a hell of a night.”

Yim has since gone on to face the likes of Shayna Baszler and Candice LeRae in storylines on NXT, while she went one-on-one with Charlotte Flair for the first time on an NXT episode in April 2020.

Her first NXT TakeOver match came in August 2019 when she unsuccessfully challenged Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship at TakeOver: Toronto.