10 Times Triple H Was Actually As Good As He Said He Was
The Game, The Cerebral Assassin, The King Of Kings, and the times those terms were actually true.
Here's the rules of this...ahem...game.
In light of the fact your writer already penned a love letter to Triple H's year 2000 several days ago, that year is out of bounds here. The multi-time World Champion and future inheritor of the earth has been talking himself for a quarter of a century so there's obviously got to be more than just 12 months to mine from, right?
It was harder than it should have been.
There are plenty of reasons why 'The Game' has always been just okay rather than "That Damn Good", with his bell-to-bell output being chief amongst them. Wrestlers old and new have told us - the consumer - that he's easy to work with, but what about when that simply doesn't translate to how easy he is to watch? He's rarely been bad, but wrestling isn't about absolute opposites and "good" would be generous for a lot of the slogs he had during his extended run on top.
You can't flog t-shirts saying wrestler X was "quite good on occasion if he was in the mood or the stars were aligned or there were other stars in there", though if anybody was going to try and turn overlong sentiment into something of substance, it'd be the king of the 20 minute promo. Sorry, "King Of Kings", this is the positive piece after all.
He was good sometimes. Look, here's proof...
10. Vs The Great Khali - SummerSlam 2008
A common and relatively well-evidenced criticism of Triple H as a tippy toppy guy has been his repeated failure to carry opponents far less skilled than him beyond his 2000/01 peak. SummerSlam 2008 - and thank f*ck for this - was the mother of all throwbacks.
The Great Khali was a bit of a busted flush as a devastating top line heel, his mystique as good as vanquished following high profile losses to The Undertaker, Batista and John Cena. His size was fortuitous one last time here though, not least with 'The Game' midway through his bizarrely brilliant SmackDown vacation.
Separated from John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista and others he'd had more than his fill of on Raw, Hunter was gifted a raft of new and diverse opponents on the blue brand, with Khali somehow slotting into the "success story" column opposite a failures one headed up by Vladimir Kozlov.
Perhaps because he never highlighted enough (or maybe his rank insecurity stopped him from flexing it), Hunter the babyface could sell, and make fiery comebacks and everything! Khali's limited offence looked limitless in the presence of the so-called 'King Of Kings', and and this must-see minor miracle emerged.