100 Greatest WWE WrestleMania Moments
70. Triple H Makes History (WrestleMania 2000)
Time to tag-team that moment and double up on 'Mania 2000 goodness with a little history making from the current WWE boss. Triple H became the first heel in the event's rich history to successfully retain his WWF Title when he pinned The Rock to win that aforementioned four-way over Foley, Show and Rocky. Nobody had ever seen the likes of this before, and no-one saw it coming.
But wait, there's more! Hunter was also the first heel generally to score a victory in the final match at WrestleMania. Legends like Roddy Piper, Andre The Giant, Shawn Michaels and even The Rock himself (when a villain) had failed to do the same. Yokozuna did beat Bret Hart to hold onto his WWF Title at 'Mania IX in 1993, but that wasn't the last match of the evening - Hulk Hogan won an impromptu bout straight afterwards.
Yoko came close, but Triple H was technically the first.
That's worth applauding. However, critics of 'The Game' will trip over themselves to point out that he had a stronghold on federation booking by virtue of his real life relationship with Stephanie. Not so fast. That wasn't fully underway by the time 'Mania 2000 went down, which means Vince put a 'W' next to Hunter's name just because he thought it was the right thing to do for company creative at the time.
Triple H will always be able to look back on April 2000 as one of his finest hours. He was hardly the bookies' favourite to come out on top with his title reign intact.