Paul “Triple H” Levesque pulled back the curtain on one of his most iconic trademarks during an interview with Complex, revealing the origins of his long-running association with the sledgehammer and the surprising story behind the only time the weapon ever legitimately injured another wrestler.
Triple H explained that there was nothing particularly planned about adopting the hammer as his signature weapon—it simply happened during a storyline moment and stuck.
“To be honest, I just used whatever hammer was available,” he said. “I used it one time ’cause they needed—like, I ended up smashing a coffin with it that Rock was in, and it just became synonymous with me after that. Over the years I used various ones. Every now and then they’d have a prop one or something.”
Levesque then revealed the unexpected and ironic moment when a gimmick sledgehammer—created specifically to be safe—caused an accidental injury to The Undertaker.
“Ironically, the only time I ever injured anybody with the hammer was with Undertaker,” Triple H continued. “We were going to—I believe it was WrestleMania [17]. He was going to put me up for the Last Ride, and I was going to grab the hammer on the way up. But we were so afraid—could I get all the way up there and still use it? So we used a gimmick sledgehammer that had like a foam head, ’cause it was much lighter.”
The intended safety measure ended up backfiring.
“And when I went up top and hit him in the head with it, I held on to the foam part to protect him. And the handle went all the way through the foam part and cut him. I hit him—I had no idea. He went down. When I came up, he was bleeding. I was like, ‘Holy sh*t, what happened?’ He was just covered.”
Triple H and The Undertaker famously battled in one of the most physical matches on the WrestleMania 17 card, and the story adds yet another layer to their long history together.
