20 Best Triple H Wrestling Matches Ever

The news of Triple H retiring from in-ring competition following major heart surgery wasn't unexpected, but it came as a sledgehammer blow nonetheless.

The Cerebral Assassin has been a part of WWE programming for as long as many fans can remember, since his debut as the pseudo-aristocrat Hunter Hurst Helmsley. As the Attitude Era came about, his character morphed into a more crass anti-establishment heel as part of D-Generation X, before becoming the man we know as The Game.

Out of the ring, his marriage to Stephanie McMahon has created one of the most powerful couples in wrestling (and media in general), and his turn running NXT made the Black & Gold brand WWE's crown jewel for a time. The present and future of the company was built by Triple H, and we are incredibly grateful to him for this.

Hunter's stranglehold on the main event scene in the early-mid 2000s is rightly criticised by some, but there's no denying that he became one of the best all-rounders in WWE, even well into the later years of his in-ring career. So on the month of the 28th anniversary of his debut, let's look back at the 20 greatest matches that Paul Levesque as been apart of until finally leaving his boots in the rings at WrestleMania this year.

It may no longer be about the Game any more, but he was certainly one of the best to ever play!

When Sting entered the WWE for the first time since WCW's buyout in 2001, everyone and their mother wanted him to battle the Undertaker at WrestleMania. Being the vigilante that he was though, it made sense to go after Authority figurehead Triple H at the 31st Show.

The build to the match was all over the place and Hunter picking up the win was a poor decision in the eyes of many. But it's unfair to say that the match itself was a bad one, because it was an absolute banger!

If we were only going to get one WrestleMania match out of Sting, then win or lose, this was a great one have. As both men performed their greatest hits on each other, there was some great character work throughout, including a great spot involving Sting snapping the sledgehammer in two with his trademark baseball bat.

Then, in true Attitude Era fashion, the run-ins near the end of the contest popped the crowd bigger than any near-fall, as both DX and the nWo attempted to make the save for their company-mates. It was the Invasion angle we always wanted. Yeah it was about 15 years late, but this nostalgic throwback pulled it off wonderfully.