Jim Ross Details Pat Patterson Resigning From WWE Over Triple H Issues

Former WWE announcer and VP of Talent Relations Jim Ross recently spoke about the issues that led to Pat Patterson temporarily leaving the company in 2004. 

It was widely reported at the time that Patterson opted to resign from WWE due to what he felt was the increasing backstage influence of Triple H. Addressing the reports on his Grilling Jr podcast, Ross confirmed that was indeed the case. 

"I think Pat [Patterson] felt jilted. He wasn't joined to the hips with Vince [McMahon] and Hunter [Triple H] wanted to be joined to the hips with Vince. Because he grew up in that WWE environment and saw that Vince was the boss. Look, it worked out pretty well for Hunter. Hunter was right along [and thought], 'If I play my cards right, I'll be in a pretty good spot here'. He was right. There he is - and Patterson resigned because of the hurt feelings and knew that Hunter was in a position where he wasn't going to be supplanted, so he took a walk. All of us knew that Pat wasn't going to be gone forever," JR said. 

The first-ever WWE Intercontinental Champion returned to WWE in a limited capacity in May 2005. He remained with the company until he passed away in December 2020 at the age of 79.

Though he may have had a contentious relationship with Paul Levesque, Patterson was a close friend and mentor to Dwayne Johnson and was, in fact, the person who suggested Johnson change his ring name from Rocky Maivia to The Rock.

H/T Sportskeeda