25 Years Of Triple H In WWE: That Damn Good For One Damn Year
The following paragraphs are all about 'The Game', not how you happen to play it.
His 1995 was understandably uneventful. The promise of his 1996 was infamously derailed by a Curtain Call punishment. 1997 arrived, as did Chyna, who finally got him over. 1998 followed and going from picking up Shawn Michaels' bags to the fabled "ball" he dropped kept him over. On to 1999 and notoriously keen-eyed talent spotter Stone Cold Steve Austin took a lot of convincing to put him over.
'The Rattlesnake' did it for real in 2001, and would have eventually had to yet again had Hunter not suffered a quad injury half way through. In 2002 he was awarded a title his work hadn't warranted. Throughout 2003 he masked the insecurity around that booking by going over every wrestler in existence. 2004's endless feud with Shawn Michaels was the worst of 'The Showstopper's comeback work before Randy Orton's babyface push was sledgehammered in the summer. Batista benefited from Hunter's 2005 but nobody sitting through the Ric Flair and Big Show feuds did. 2006 called and said John Cena was just "not a very good wrestler". 2007 was lost to another quad injury and another Booker T burial. Remember 2008? Pepperidge Farm's Jeff Hardy fanbase remembers. F*cking awful Randy Orton main events and f*cking DX again in 2009. Sheamus sure the felt the benefit of that 2010 feud.
He defeated Kevin Nash to win The Summer Of Punk in 2011. Nobody cried but Hunter himself when he pretended to retire at SummerSlam 2012. Curtis AxLOL, meet 2013 Triple H when he was somehow still a babyface. The Authority got their comeuppance at WrestleMania in 2014 but still won the feud because of course they did. Nobody got more time on 2015's 'Show Of Shows' than the COO. Put the belt on himself in 2016 but at least that WrestleMania match with Roman Reigns wasn't a dull dud. Put a bet on himself in 2017 but at least that WrestleMania match with Seth Rollins wasn't a dull dud. Antics with The Undertaker in Australia and Saudi Arabia in 2018 were all-timer bad. His 2019 WrestleMania match with Batista should hopefully finish just in time to get started with this 2020 tribute week.
So there they are, the two and a half decades of bland and below-average we'll be subjected to on television in much longer form than one slide of an artcle. But we’ve just ran the hard yards together.
We've earned these scant moments of joy 'The King Of Kings' deigned us worthy of, even if the rest of his run beat us to a bloody pulp. Let's all meet up in the year 2000. Won't it be strange when our feelings for Triple H were fully grown?
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