Bobby Roode is being groomed to eventually take over Michael Hayes’ backstage duties in WWE.
The idea came from Triple H, who asked Hayes himself to train Roode as his successor in producing matches and segments.
Hayes appeared on Stephanie McMahon’s What’s Your Story? and said Triple H came to him about the need to prepare someone to take his place once he leaves the job.
“But yeah, I just made up my mind that this is your new path, and go for it,” Hayes said. “And I’ll tell you, Trips came up to me one day and he goes, ‘So Michael, you know you’re not gonna be around forever.’”
Hayes recalled responding to the comment with a joke.
“What does that mean, life or work?” Hayes said.
Triple H then compared Hayes’ role to the one Pat Patterson filled in WWE for many years and made his request.
“You’re our Pat Patterson,” Triple H said. “I need you to make Bobby Roode Michael.”
“And I said, ‘Okay, that’s a really good point, because I’m not gonna be here forever,’” Hayes said. “And boy, has he come along.”
Stephanie also voiced confidence in Roode’s future. Hayes agreed but said Roode still needs to get better at handling decisions made by others in the company.
“No, I see great things for him,” Hayes said. He added that Roode has to get past something he found hard to categorize. “This stuff happens in this industry that’s just out of your control, and it’s just gonna happen,” Hayes said. “And you just gotta kind of let it go and say, ‘Okay.’”
Stephanie said complaining about a decision that will be carried out anyway is a waste of energy.
“Yeah, so much energy about bitching about doing it, because you’re going to do it,” Stephanie said. “It’s happening anyways. So save the energy to do it and find a way to do it.”
Hayes ended that part of the conversation by recalling advice he received from Vince McMahon about finding ways to carry out ideas that come from management.
“I still have problems sometimes,” Hayes said. “You actually told that story too. You said, ‘Find a way to make it work. Don’t tell me how it doesn’t work.’” Hayes said Vince told him he had “many people out on the street” explaining why something wouldn’t work and needed someone to explain how it would.
Triple H had already addressed the plan in April. As previously reported, he revealed he had asked Hayes to guide Roode’s development as a producer.
But Road Dogg offered a different account that same month. During a virtual signing, he said Triple H trusted Roode but denied that Roode was being groomed to replace Hayes.
Hayes and Roode already share producing duties on WWE shows. On the October 9 episode of SmackDown, the two produced the segment involving CM Punk, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, as well as the match between Bron Breakker and Trick Williams.