9 Wrestlers Who Refused To Lose

New fans of WWE may look at Triple H as the creator of NXT and one half of the Authority as well as a guy that has been lionised by WWE as a legend and surefire future Hall of Famer. Fans who were around in the early 2000s, however, had to live through the Triple H Reign of Terror and have a different view of The Cerebral Assassin.

It was during this period (roughly 2002 to 2004) that The Game was the top man on Raw and usually the World Heavyweight Champion. If he wasn't WHC, he was still in the main events anyway, in the main events and on top at the expense of others, it would seem. It's generally accepted that the current WWE COO used his significant backstage power to hold down the likes of Rob Van Dam, Triple H and Goldberg.

In late 2002, Triple H was awarded the big gold belt on an episode of Raw (after WWE Champion Brock Lesnar jumped to Smackdown) and immediately started a feud with RVD, a feud which he won handily. He continued to beat Van Dam whenever the two had run-ins and after their programme, The Whole F'N Show began moving down the card.

It was a similar situation with Booker T, who caught fire as a babyface in the buildup to WrestleMania XIX. Despite Triple H claiming that 'people like' Booker could never beat someone like him and Jerry Lawler making overtly racist jokes on commentary, guess who lost cleanly on the big occasion? That's right, Booker T did, going down to a single Pedigree and just about ending his main event aspirations for the next few years.

Then there's Goldberg, who came into WWE in April 2003 and was Triple H's next programme once he disposed of real-life good buddy Kevin Nash. Goldberg had been considered a 'disappointment' (and was even called as much by Linda McMahon during a conference call) but finally started to catch on during his feud with the King of Kings. At SummerSlam, he looked like a proper megastar for the first time, steamrolling through the competition inside the Elimination Chamber with breathtaking power moves.

It got down to Da Ma and The Game and, against all conventional wisdom, Triple H prevailed. See, Goldberg was supposed to win, but Trips had opinions to the contrary - he was working with a knackered hamstring and was limited in what he could do and only felt right about dropping the strap when he was healthy enough to do so, which was a month later at the much less remarkable Unforgiven.

Triple H has done a lot of good in WWE and is clearly unafraid to job in this day and age, now that his legacy is secure, but he certainly used his connections to avoid staring at the lights back when.