This week’s episode of SmackDown! would normally likely include a segment with Triple H responding to his loss to the Undertaker at King of the Ring. As luck would have it though, The Game was forced to travel to Birmingham, Ala., where Dr. James Andrews planned to perform surgery on Tuesday to remove bone chips from Triple H’s right elbow. WWE.com called Triple H Monday evening to get the story about his latest injury and his thoughts on King of the Ring, Vince Russo and the state of WWE’s locker room.

WWE.com: So tell us about the injury. How did it happen and what’s the prognosis?

Triple H: I really don’t actually know exactly how it happened. I had bone chips in my elbow. I think anybody in our business that’s been doing this for a long time has chips in their elbows and different things like that. I’ve had them there for a long time. They bug me sometimes, sometimes they don’t. A few weeks ago when I was working on TV with the Undertaker, he hit me with a chair and I think he hit me in the elbow and I guess one of the chips dislodged and went into the joint of my elbow. It basically prevented me from bending my arm all the way straight, so my range of motion is very limited. Basically, what you have to do is just kind of wait and see how the chip moves. At that point, I waited for it, but it wasn’t moving out and it started to affect my shoulder. It was affecting how I worked. I couldn’t throw punches well. Every time I took a bump it hurt because when you take a bump your arm snaps back. It was pretty painful and it was really starting to inhibit my work and it was starting to screw my shoulder up. It was changing how I did things and it was starting to take its toll on my shoulder so I had to get it fixed. It’s been getting progressively worse the last few weeks. Sunday at the Pay-Per-View it was really bugging me during my match, so I’m actually glad I’m getting it done now because I wouldn’t want to go too much longer with it.

WWE.com: So you’re back in Birmingham?

Triple H: Back in Birmingham with Dr. Andrews, but this is a simple surgery. It looks like they’re not even going to put me out. What they’re going to do is called a nerve block. They’re going to do is obviously sedate me, then they’ll put some sort of medicine up near my collarbone I guess; shoot it into the near the nerve and it deadens the nerve. So basically my arm will be dead for about 12 hours. They’ll just do the surgery, and hopefully all it is is going into the joint, removing all the chips I have in there. Worst cast scenario is there’s some screwed up bone in there that they have to shave and it might take a little bit longer to heal. As it stands right now, it’s just a chip so it’ll only be a couple of weeks. I’m planning on being back for the next Pay-Per-View.

WWE.com: But we understand you won’t miss any TV time until then.

Triple H: I will miss SmackDown! since it’s being taped while I’m having my surgery, but I shouldn’t miss any TV after that. I won’t be able to wrestle for probably a few weeks, but I’ll still make the TVs. I’ll make the towns that I’m booked on. Might not be able to wrestle, but I can do something. Hopefully, if everything goes well, I’ll be back for Vengeance, which is four weeks away.

WWE.com: What did you think about your match with the Undertaker at King of the Ring?

Triple H: You know, I’m a perfectionist. I wasn’t necessarily very happy with it. It’s one of those things. I hate to make excuses, but I was working with an injury that made me really slow the pace of the match down. It just wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I feel like I didn’t do the Undertaker any justice, give him the match he deserved to have. I’m kind of down on that, kind of disappointed in myself. I wish I could have put on a better performance, but I’ve got to understand I was limited. I’ve got a pretty good batting average. I can take this one with a grain of salt and just move on to the next one.

WWE.com: You were scheduled to throw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game next week. Are you still going through with that?

Triple H: Yeah. Because they’ve advertised me I’m going to be there. I’m still gonna go. I don’t believe I’ll be throwing any pitches unless I do it left handed, and that’d be very entertaining. But I’ll still go and do the appearance and they can figure out what they want me to do from there. Maybe I’ll just go out on the field with them or something like that. Maybe I’ll have my nephew do it. He’s 11 so he’d have some fun.

WWE.com: You grew up in New Hampshire. That’s Red Sox country. Are you a fan?

Triple H: I’m a fan, a casual fan. With our schedule the way it is, I don’t honestly follow any sports. It’s one of those things where you’d have to put effort in to follow it, and I just don’t have the time to do it. But I grew up watching those guys, and it’ll be fun to do. It’ll definitely be an honor for me to go do it. It’ll be a thrill to do so. I’m looking forward to going. Originally I was going to take batting practice with them and everything, but obviously I can’t do that. So I’m going to go hang out with them for batting practice. It should be fun.

WWE.com: You’ve worked with Vince Russo in the past, and now he’s back in some capacity. What’s your take on that?

Triple H: You know, I’ve worked with Vince Russo in the past. He’s a good idea guy. I guess it’s a team effort, and if he’s willing to contribute to the team, that’s great. I look forward to having his ideas and his thoughts and all those things. I don’t know the details. I try to stay out of that stuff as far as he was in, he was out, he wasn’t in; I don’t know what the hell is going on with it. But the way I look at it is, as long as everybody’s heads are going in the same direction, we’re all just trying to make the best product possible. So if he wants to contribute to that, that’s great. He’s had good ideas and he’s a smart guy and if he wants to contribute to that, tremendous. If he’s looking for it to just be about him or something like that, and that was a problem – he didn’t want to be part of a team or something like that – then that won’t work out because that’s what we are. It’s not a one-man show, it’s everybody’s show and we all work to make it right. I guess it’s up to him on what he wants to contribute.

WWE.com: What’s the status of the locker room in the wake of the Stone Cold situation?

Triple H: It seems to be fine. Obviously we’ve not had a boatload of shows since then. It doesn’t seem to be an issue. These things always make people realize – and everybody should always realize – that nobody’s bigger than the business. The business will not stop because one person leaves. Business will continue on no matter who leaves, no matter what happens. It’ll continue to be what it is, whether that’s good or bad. Right now, we’ve not missed a beat, just continued on. Things seem to be just fine. The one thing is, I think most of our guys realize we’re fairly privileged. We get to do something most people would kill to do everyday of our lives. That’s pretty much an honor. It’s like Rock said in that promo – and that was pretty much the truth – the guys in our locker room are there because they want to be there; because that’s what they want to do. If somebody doesn’t want to be there, that’s fine. Move on. But it’s not going to stop everybody from doing what they love to do.

WWE.com: Anything else going on we should know about?

Triple H: My video comes out this week, I think. My workout one I haven’t taped yet. Seemingly, every time I get close to taping it, something happens where I don’t tape it. I was going to tape it in July, but it looks like we’re probably going to have to tape it maybe in the fall. Just because obviously I’m not going to be able to train. I kind of don’t know what to expect from this surgery. It’s a minor surgery, but I don’t know how fast I’ll be able to snap back from it training-wise. I’ll do what I can and come back as quickly as I can and that’s all you can do.