9 Times Triple H Stole The Spotlight

9. Raw, 29 August 2016

When a shoulder injury sustained at last year’s SummerSlam forced Finn Bálor to relinquish the Universal title, it was soon decided that a new champion would be crowned on the 29 August showing of Raw.

There, in a Fatal 4-way elimination match, Kevin Owens outlasted Big Cass, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins to win his maiden world championship. But his big moment was somewhat overshadowed by Triple H’s timely interference.

In his first on-screen appearance since WrestleMania 32, Triple H came through the crowd, took out Reigns with a Pedigree and after seemingly setting his sights on Owens, promptly turned on his former protégé Rollins.

A bewildered Owens then crawled into the cover without even hitting his own finishing move. It meant that after 20 minutes of back-and-forth action, all it took was for Triple H to show up and hit a couple of moves and suddenly the match was over.

What should have been Owens’ defining moment instead became another stage on which to showcase Triple H. And while it did play into his eventual ‘Mania feud with Rollins, surely there were other ways of setting that one up.