10 Times Triple H Was Actually As Good As He Said He Was
7. Vs Shawn Michaels - Raw, December, 29 2003
Don't believe the hype.
Don't believe anything WWE have ever told you about their matches. Don't believe what you remember about their matches, if you're the age where their matches were some of the first things you ever watched. Skip SummerSlam 2002 and watch the rest of their matches and believe what you see. Shawn Michaels and Triple H had something of an anti-chemistry.
Fuelled by a mutual love of the Flair/Steambaot classics they were incapable of recreating and their own shared vanity, they always went long, always lost sight of what their characters were, and always fell short on expectations.
Except, somehow, here.
30 minutes in 2003. The pair went half an hour in Hunter's worst ever year, without a decisive finish, and absolutely smashed it, the b*stards.
A crotch chop to the critics, this was an immaculately worked fireworks display that started with a couple of rockets and ended up looking like the London Eye on New Year's Eve. The San Antonio fans, sh*tfaced on eggnog and a Christmas wish of the Champion being dethroned by their hometown hero, bought a potential title change and craved it. Michaels' selling was sublime, 'The Game' - looking himself for the first time in years - cut things off and scaled them back with impeccable aplomb.
Thier Three Stages Of Hell match a year prior had sucked. The Royal Rumble rematch sucked. The Hell In A Cell rematch to the rematch su-u-u-cked. This blew everybody away.