10 Wrestlers Who Returned From Injury Better Than Before
3. Triple H
On 21 May 2001, the night that Triple H first tore his quadriceps, he was one of the biggest bad guys in the company, teaming with the recently-turned Stone Cold Steve Austin as part of the Two Man Power Trip.
Next time we saw him on WWE television, though, he’d done a complete 180. Now, he was more over than ever before, and a firm fan favourite when he returned from injury on the 7 January 2002 Raw in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd.
Tearing his quad and spending nearly seven months off of television had allowed the audience to actually miss Triple H, while it had also allowed him to get himself in even better shape than he had been before the injury. By the time he came back in the New Year, fans didn’t care about storyline continuity or tying up loose ends – they just wanted to see him back in the mix.
That MSG ovation was the first step on a road to WrestleMania that culminated in a world title win in the main event, the first of ten more top-tier title runs that would arrive in the coming decade-and-a-half.