The Rise Of Triple H | Wrestling Timelines
October 23, 2003 - Wedding Bells
Paul and Stephanie McMahon-Leveque tie the knot. The former is so entrenched within WWE that his ‘Reign of Terror’ is well underway.
Between 2002 and 2005 - the year in which Triple H finally grants the audience catharsis by definitively putting over Batista - he alienates the vast majority of hardcore fans by controlling the narrative of Monday Night Raw for his own gains.
He destroys tag teams by himself. The “Big Gold” World Heavyweight title is either wrapped around his waist or his when he wants it back - which is often. His opening Raw promos are rambling, circular, tedious - so much so that “opening 20 minute promo” enters the pro wrestling fan lexicon. It is synonymous with him; he is synonymous with boredom.
The matches are slow, dull, and self-serving. At times, it’s as if Triple H is actively trying to make his opponents look bad. He gives little to Randy Orton and even less to Scott Steiner. What he gives Booker T - whom he waits 23 seconds to pin after hitting him with the match-winning Pedigree at WrestleMania XIX - is less than nothing.
You have to go back to Triple H, if you can’t build new stars…
The man who on reality series Tough Enough begrudgingly praised an aspiring wrestler for his “good snap” has lost his own. Triple H is not the same worker he was before tearing his quadricep muscle on the May 21, 2001 Raw.
This singles push, which is relentless and overbearing, is not justified by his performance level (critically savaged) nor his box office (the numbers decline year-on-year).
He gets it because he has become, by some distance, the most intelligent politician in the history of the business.