10 Major Stars Who Escaped WWE Creative Jail
8. Triple H
Hunter Hearst Helmsley was a good act, on paper.
A snooty blue blood aristocrat with a footing in reality - as opposed to a f*cking minotaur - there was something to loathe about the character too, what with his superior attitude and hatred of us common folk. As opposed to a f*cking minotaur.
This didn't resonate. Perhaps because he wasn't yet a commanding ring general, his work didn't feel superior, and thus it was difficult to take seriously. He was incarcerated in 1996, following the Curtain Call incident, but this was only ever a reluctant ploy to placate the influential veterans backstage; he won the King Of The Ring tournament as planned, only one year later, but even the selfless, masochistic efforts of Mick Foley didn't get him all the way over.
It took years of graft to build his worker aura, but Trips was always preternaturally gifted at the political Game. When his offscreen alliance with Shawn Michaels found itself transposed onscreen, he found true upper card relevance. He knew exactly who to cosy up to, but then, so did Brutus Beefcake.
It takes main event talent to make a main event run, and Triple H had it - and he was clever enough, the cleverest ever, to guarantee his freedom forevermore.