Triple H Reveals When Negotiations Began With Ronda Rousey, How He Reacted to the Leak of the Los Angeles Dinner Photo

WWE star Triple H spoke with USA Today’s For the Win following Ronda Rousey’s big WWE debut at the Royal Rumble last night, and below are some interview highlights:

When did you first start having conversations about trying to bring in Ronda?

Triple H: It’s one of those things that happened organically. I had heard about her being a big fan. There were a few things we sort of inadvertently connected with each other on without actually meeting. She came and did the Ice Bucket Challenge with Steph [McMahon] when we were in L.A., and even then she kind of floated it out how much she loved [WWE].

And just her knowledge of what we do was so deep. She would mention at the time ‘oh I’d love to do this. When I get done, this is what I want to do.’ She would always say that, ‘this is what I want to do,’ you know, but you hear that a lot. But over the years it slowly morphed into things. She did the stuff with us at ‘Mania, and we’ve just had conversations over and over.

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And then this year it really escalated. We had not been in contact other than a little text here and there… She called to ask about coming to the Performance Center, if she could come in there and be with a few of her friends for a Bachelorette party. And we had a discussion about it, and during that discussion, boy, it really started to come up that this is something she was not just throwing out there or suggesting – it was something that she really wanted to do.

It’s something that she’s really wanted to do the whole time. She was dead serious every time she mentioned it to me. On our end, you hear that a lot, it’s usually just people saying something. She was dead serious the whole time.

Earlier this month TMZ snapped a photo of you after having a secret dinner with Rousey in Los Angeles. When you’re trying to plan a big surprise, does that kind of stuff drive you nuts?

Part of it is great because it fuels speculation, fuels conversation which fuels excitement. You just don’t want it to ruin the moment. It’s like trying to pull off a surprise party for your kids or something like that. They might suspect, but they don’t know. You just want it to be a surprise, you want it to be fun.

The dinner thing in LA, people made such a huge deal out of it…. I was in LA for a totally different reason. Was coming back, I had a series of meetings and my last meeting ended close to LAX. I was taking a red-eye, and I had a couple of hours. I just reached out and said ‘hey if you’re free, I’m going to be there, we can have dinner and chat and catch up on some stuff and see if we can get closer.’

We were able to make it happen, that’s all it was. I got a private room, and right before we were about to leave the restaurant people came in and said ‘wow there’s a ton of paparazzi and film crews outside.’ So we all tried to go out different doors and I three-quarters made it out unscathed before they caught a distant shot of me getting in a car. But it was all good, speculation creates things. It’s funny, people try to say ‘oh they lied to us,’ or something… we’re trying to create excitement and surprise you! Go with it.