Stephanie McMahon Talks Vince McMahon – Sneezing Rumors, Early Days of Her Relationship with Triple H, More

As noted earlier, WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon recently appeared on the Barstool Sports Podcast with hosts Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz of Barstool and Alex Rodriguez. Barstool sent us highlights from the interview.

Stephanie talked about marrying Triple H back in 2003 and said they had a forbidden love at first.

“Forbidden love too, by the way,” Stephanie said. “I was forbidden to date, you know the wrestlers. And then for him to take the ultimate risk and you know go after me the way he did it was all or nothing.”

Stephanie also discussed Triple H selling the rattlesnake strike angle with WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin in 1999.

“Let me tell you how easy it is to sell a rattlesnake strike,” Stephanie said. “They put you in a room, a bathroom, and they just put a little piece of Plexiglass down. If you’re getting repetitively thrown into this bathroom and on the other side of a little Plexiglass is a bunch of rattlesnakes, and when you get thrown into it, they’re striking this Plexiglass. And it just… like yeah, you realize what they can do and the guy that is training them has like two fingers. Like, you see signs clearly this isn’t an exact science.”

One rumor on Vince McMahon from over the years has to do with how he hates it when people sneeze around him. Paul Heyman, former WWE writers and others have all discussed the rumor during interviews over the years, noting that Vince hates people sneezing because it’s something he can’t control. The rumor was brought up during Stephanie’s Barstool interview and they sent us the following exchange she had with Big Cat:

Big Cat: Have you ever sneezed around your father?

Stephanie: Totally. Yes.

Big Cat: Does he hate you for it?

Stephanie: He doesn’t hate me for it but it’s always with like a grrr, a grimace. But on the flip side I’ve been around when he has sneezed.

Big Cat: That’s got to be embarrassing for him.

Stephanie: A little bit that he can’t control. Well it’s just because he doesn’t like anything he can’t control the fact that he can’t control the sneeze is very… makes him upset.