10 WWE Superstars Who Recovered From Disgrace

7. Triple H

Shawn Michaels Triple H Curtain Call
WWE

There are those within this list for whom 'disgrace' relates mostly to their outside-the-ring exploits. Lost bouts with drugs, alcohol, sleaze and scandal that looked set to remove them from warm retrospective video packages and token Hall Of Fame gestures in later life. Triple H - the man most likely to reign over all of WWE when (if?) Vince McMahon swaggers off this mortal coil - committed his biggest crime slap bang in the middle of the ring.

Despite apparently gaining permission from Vince McMahon to share their final moments in WWE together at the climax of Shawn Michaels' Madison Square Garden main event with Kevin 'Diesel' Nash in May 1996, Kliq members Michaels, Nash, Scott Hall and Triple H met scorn when they returned backstage.

Wrestlers old and new were livid at the contravention of kayfabe, with McMahon forced into going back on his original assurances in order to remove the chance of a locker room revolt. Triple H was infamously instructed to "eat sh*t and learn to like the taste of it" for the remainder of the year, with few predicting a significant recovery in the aftermath. It was perhaps that period that convinced him to make Vince McMahon's backend a staple of his diet for the next decade.

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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