10 Times Triple H’s Ego Ran Wild In WWE
A kid in his father-in-law's playground.
The duality of Triple H is fascinating.
On one side, there's the creator: the seemingly benevolent NXT architect who has built WWE's future on solid, workrate-centric foundations. Some believe that when Vince McMahon finally sails into the sunset, it's this version of Paul Levesque who'll steer creative towards a direction more in-line with WWE's most hardcore fans' desires, citing his transformative impact on developmental (and to a lesser extent, 205 Live) as evidence.
The destroyer is more problematic. At his worst, Hunter is among the most toxic personalities in WWE history. His ego's fragility is as legendary as his in-ring résumé, and his list of enemies reads like an airport novella. Granted, much of this likely comes from his lofty position in the company (everybody hates Goliath), but his political movements are legion, and he has used his father-in-law's business as his personal playground on countless occasions.
Triple H has, at times, been one of the most vainglorious performers WWE has ever seen, and while he deserves great credit for his run as one of the modern era's greatest heels, and for what he's doing with NXT, his catalogue of misdemeanours can't be ignored...
10. Video Game Vanity
The fragility of Triple H's ego extends beyond the physical realm and into the digital, as became apparent in the summer of 2008.
With two new single-player modes in Career and Road to WrestleMania, plus the debut of Create-a-Finisher, the SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 game should have been an easy sell. Yet WWE still handed publishers THQ strict instructions on how it should be marketed, extending to the states that various wrestlers could and couldn't be shown in.
The publishers were ordered not to distribute any footage or stills that presented Triple H in (or close to) a state of defeat. That included all materials showing 'The Game' getting beaten up or pinned, as he was WWE Champion at the time, and didn't want to be shown in such a light. It isn't just baseless gossip, either: several UK-based wrestling magazines reported the story at the time, as they themselves were told not to show Triple H in anything other than complete control of his digital opponent.
A petty move, and one that shows that the Triple H of 2008's vanity knew no limits - even in a digital world.