Triple H Said 'I Gotta Beat This F***er' About CM Punk

One particular aspect of CM Punk's recent WWE return that has surprised many is his reconciliation with Triple H, especially given the history of such publicly-known friction between the two.

On the latest episode of the Kliq This podcast, Kevin Nash talked about the WWE Night of Champions 2011 No-DQ match between CM Punk and Triple H, noting that Triple H apparently told him 'I'm going to beat [Punk]. You're not going to wrestle him. I'm beating him.'

Nash explained:

"It’s funny, now that Vince has taken a backseat to this whole thing, that I see Paul, he owns it now. Like, he has ownership of that company as far as, when they say he’s creative. His demeanour, he is in completely control of that situation. There has never been anybody of his talent in the ring [...] he was with us [the Kliq] and we were all ruthless, and we were all very driven for our success. It’s such a different Paul now. When I was supposed to wrestle Punk, he got under Triple H’s skin so bad. Paul just came up to me and said, ‘I’m going to beat him. You’re not going to wrestle him. I’m beating him.’ Cool. That’s why me and Punk never wrestled. He made the call, ‘I gotta beat this f***er.’"

Triple H did defeat Punk at Night of Champions 2011, a match which also saw interference from Nash, John Laurinaitis, The Miz, and R-Truth. The bout's stipulation dictated that had Triple H lost, he would have resigned from his position as COO of WWE.

On his now-famous appearance on Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling podcast in 2014 - where he aired several grievances about his time in WWE - Punk spoke about his frustration regarding the storyline, feeling that the loss did nothing for his momentum coming off the back of a hot feud with John Cena.

H/T to Fightful.