25 Years Of Triple H In WWE: That Damn Good For One Damn Year

Triple H started 2000 as he'd finish it - he was the best in the business and there was absolutely nothing any of us could say or do about it.

As well as defeating Mick Foley in two match-of-the-year candidate classics at the Royal Rumble and No Way Out, the WWE Champion showed about as much a*s as Rikishi himself in a match that made the rebadged Headshrinker a money midcarder early into his alliance with Too Cool. This lost January 6th SmackDown classic was the one that highlighted about how he'd grown into his hybrid role of killer technical heel and money-drawing headliner. The booking wasn't ideal but the fact that his win over new arrival Chris Benoit on February 3rd felt like a contemporary dream match was testament to his better-late-than-never ascent. They'd have a scorcher at October's No Mercy with the heel/babyface alignments reversed that was even better than the original.

WrestleMania season was all about 'The Game' and The Rock, with the pair's midas touch extending beyond the 'Showcase Of The Immortals' to Backlash, Judgment Day and SummerSlam. Their title trades were white f*cking hot, a license to print money, and elite level Sports Entertainment Pro Wrestling. This was the consistent case too - 2000 Triple H was so good, he could do it all. They bookended the annum and were back to warring ways around December in time for the star-laden six-man Hell In A Cell at Armageddon. It's a cluster, but one that Hunter noticeably carries the in-ring brunt of away from big daft sh*te featuring The Undertaker, Rikishi, Vince McMahon and a sawdust truck. The noise his 2002 Madison Square Garden return made was being generated and bottled here, as was the real life affection of Stephanie McMahon. Hard to argue with her taste - he was the best around.

There's proof elsewhere and everywhere - in a DX reunion special tag team match on Raw in November, in two separate screamers with Chris Jericho (April 17th Raw and July's Fully Loaded pay-per-view) and across a summer's worth of amazing love triangle vignettes alongside Stephanie, Kurt Angle and sh*t-stirring commissioner Mick Foley.

Christ almighty, the company used to be incredible at this. As did, with one remarkable piece of evidence, Triple H...

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