10 WWE Mega-Pushes Fans Hated BEFORE Roman Reigns & John Cena

5. Triple H

Triple H
WWE.com

There's been all sorts of takes on Triple H either side of the recent 25th Anniversary celebration but here's a bit of objectivity in amongst some opinions - he wasn't it, chief.

With absolutely nobody else around in the wasteland that was WWE's post-Attitude Era identity crisis output between 2002 and 2005, he was a memory of a once-beloved product more than the centrepieces of one folk still cared about.

Vince McMahon, through bias or creative blindness or panic or whatever f*ck it was couldn't do what Tony Hayers was brave enough to when Alan Partridge begged him not to take his chat away. Hunter was the never-commissioned second series of Knowing Me, Knowing You. With him as longstanding steward of Raw, ratings started badly and they got worse.

He had a history of having bad programmes by the time he actually got Batista over in 2005, so much so that some dared to question his peerless 2000 period. Gaining control of the narrative as the decade wore on appeared to be as important to 'The Game' then as pretending to be the best in the business had been years earlier.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett