10 Times Triple H Proved He Was The Cerebral Assassin
3. Turning On Randy Orton
At SummerSlam 2004, Randy Orton became the youngest WWE Champion in history after defeating Chris Benoit. The next night on Raw after defeating Benoit in a rematch, his Evolution stablemates Ric Flair and Batista hit the ring for what appeared to be a celebration. Instead, while Batista had Orton propped on his shoulders in celebration, Triple H gave him a pleased thumbs up and then abruptly changed it to a thumbs-down. A vicious beat-down ensued that was followed by Triple H demanding Orton hand over his championship to him. Orton retaliated by spitting in Triple H's face and hitting him with the title belt. Triple H reclaimed the WWE Championship one month later at Unforgiven 2004. However, luring a stablemate into a false sense of calm only to have that turn into a ruse to have him hand over his championship to you? Diabolical.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
