When Paul “Triple H” Levesque went out to the Money in the Bank post-show press conference to discuss WWE’s latest Premium Live Event, there was one question – other than about John Cena’s retirement -he just had to know was going to be asked by a member of the media in attendance: why didn’t Damian Priest kick out at two during his match with Seth Rollins?

Did “El Champion” suffer some sort of an injury? Was there a miscommunication? Or did someone in the back make a mistake, hitting Drew McIntyre’s music a few seconds too late in order to set the Judgment Day member up for an ugly outcome?

While Levesque didn’t get into specifics of what actually broke down at the end of the match, he did acknowledge that the botch did happen and that he felt sorry for Priest, as that three-second decision will forever color what he felt was otherwise a very good match.

“Human beings in a ring, mistakes happen, things happen, it is what it is. It’s funny for me now looking at that, if that was something I was involved in as a talent, I don’t care how good the rest of it was; that would be all I would think about. And to me, it’s a shame that that’s all people will talk about, and that’s all people will hit Damian Priest with while he had a phenomenal performance tonight,” Triple H told reporters after Money in the Bank.

“But a bunch of people will attack that, criticize that, comment on that. I don’t know why, that’s just the negative so outweighs the positive sometimes. And to me, I wish I could just go in the back, shut off his phone, have no one talk to him for a while, and just have him think about all the other great stuff that happened in that, and the roll that he’s been on, and how great of a job he has done as World Champion. And what he’s done to get there and deserve it, because he deserves all the credit in the world for all those things, and he has stepped up to a place where, when you see him as a performer now, I feel like I’m watching a champion come out. I feel like I’m watching a top-tier guy.

“That’s on him; that’s how he has handled himself and made himself own that position. He’s done an incredible job of it. I’m incredibly proud of him as a performer. Late in his career, right? To get to this level, something that no one thought he would ever be able to do, he’s got himself in incredible shape, done an unbelievable job. I hate for it to be like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re that guy that didn’t kick out the one time,’ that’s the shame part to me, because his performance tonight was off the charts, as was Seth’s, as was Drew’s, as was Punk’s, as was everybody else in this show tonight. It’s just the way the world works.”

On paper, this marked two straight PLE main events where Priest suffered a catastrophic botch, with “El Champion” getting his leg caught in the ropes on a botched Tope attempt in his Clash at the Castle match against McIntyre, a fact fans have been quick to point out. And yet, there is a human behind the mistakes, who has to go to the post office wearing multi-colored braids in his hair covered in tattoos, who will certainly hear about it from co-workers, fans, and random people who recognize him on the streets for the foreseeable future. Even if the outcome of the match was unfortunate, certainly no one feels worse about it than Priest himself… except maybe McIntyre, who was once again screwed by CM Punk.

Paul @TripleH Levesque addresses the retirement of WWE's Greatest of All Time @JohnCena.#MITB pic.twitter.com/bAM2kRQeAl

— WWE (@WWE) July 7, 2024

Triple H guarantees John Cena a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame

Elsewhere in his appearance at the post-Money in the Bank press conference, Triple H was asked about John Cena’s future in WWE, including how they will handle putting “The Champ” in the Hall of Fame. While Levesque wasn’t willing to go on the record regarding the promotion’s exact plans, as even he wasn’t 100 percent sure what direction Cena would want to take, he did guarantee him a spot in the annals of WWE history, as he’s a lock to make it into the Hall whenever he’d like to.

“Is [The] Hall of Fame in John Cena’s future? Yeah! We can build him his own. It absolutely is. I am of the opinion that and obviously myself, Nick [Khan] and others will discuss this but I’m of the opinion that John has earned the right to say when John wants to go in The Hall of Fame. When it works for his schedule, he’s a busy man. When it works for his schedule, when it works for his time when it’s right for him as a person,” Triple H told reporters via Sportskeeda.

“Sometimes performers wanna put some distance between what they did so that they can separate from it and have a return sort of moment and feel that again after it’s subsided. The answer for John’s Hall of Fame is absolutely yes. When? I would love to talk to him about that. As far as who? One of my first questions when I would talk to John about, ‘When do you wanna do it?’ and ‘Who do you want to put you in?’ Like that would be to me, that’s the respect factor. It’s always our first question to Hall of Fame inductees.”

Would it be cool to see Cena close out the back half of his final professional wrestling year as a Hall of Famer, or would he instead rather wait a few years to get some distance between himself and his career and return to recapture that feeling in the future? Fans will have to tune in next year to find out.