Oba Femi doesn’t want Triple H protecting his feelings when something goes wrong—he wants to hear exactly what he screwed up.
Femi opened up about that mentality during an interview about his WWE career with ABC 33/40, where the conversation turned to footage from WWE Unreal showing him speaking with Triple H after his Royal Rumble debut. The interviewer pointed out that Femi had just entered the Royal Rumble at No. 1, lasted more than 40 minutes and made a major impression, yet one of the first things he wanted afterward was coaching. Femi said that reaction comes naturally to him because he grew up around extremely direct criticism.
“Yeah. Uh, I’m Nigerian, so I’m very used to doing things and coming back and they’re like, ‘What was that? That was ugly or that wasn’t good.’ Like Nigerians are very blunt and straightforward. ‘You’re getting fat now. Stop eating.’ You know, it’s like things like that. So that’s how I’ve always grown up.”
That upbringing shaped how Femi approaches feedback in WWE. Instead of wanting Triple H to tell him everything went great, Femi specifically told him to point out the mistakes and make sure the message landed.
“So I told Triple H, I said, ‘Listen, if I go out there and I mess up or it’s not up to par and it’s not, you know, what you wanted it to be, like, let me know and really let me know so I can so I can know.’”
That mindset is especially notable considering how quickly Femi has climbed through WWE. He went from NXT standout to making an immediate impact on the main roster, but he clearly isn’t treating that success as proof that everything he does is automatically right.
Instead, Femi wants the criticism straight from the people running the show. Plenty of wrestlers want praise after a major performance. Femi seems far more interested in hearing what went wrong, and that approach may explain why WWE has trusted him with increasingly bigger opportunities.
What do you think about Oba Femi asking Triple H to be completely blunt about his mistakes? Is that kind of mentality part of what separates future main-event stars from everyone else? Leave your feedback in the comments and let us know.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
