How Good Was Triple H Actually?
9. Promos
Triple H’s delivery was good-to-great, if you ignore the content of his words and how many of them he said and repeated across a single televised promo.
His composure was excellent. He was practically unflappable. He was good at emphasis; as a student of the game who sought to learn every single aspect of the WWE system, Triple H more than most grasped the “art” of a soundbite for a video package.
Some of his best work was weirdly fascinating, which is a phrase one rarely associates with Triple H. He was so utterly self-assured in disposition and secure in his role that he’d often test his storyline rivals, either to show them up or see what they had in them.
Even then, it was maddening to watch, since Triple H was playing the game on easy difficulty. What were these guys (like Kofi Kingston) meant to say back to him? They knew of his reputation as a shovel-happy political shark. It was magic, then, when CM Punk embarrassed him throughout 2011. If Triple H wouldn’t show ass, Punk pulled his pants down for him.
As a heel, Triple H struck a very effective tone of smug, above-it-all disdain. Shame that he often refused to deliver the catharsis, i.e. the most important bit.
This is an attempt at balance, to say some halfway positive things about Triple H because he couldn’t have been that bad, could he? He sold various big matches that drew money. Definitionally, he could not have been “bad” - so why did it feel so often like he was absolutely awful?
Probably because Triple H, unlikeable as a babyface and too sensitive to show himself up as a heel, spent an eternity prattling on and repeating himself. Notorious for his Triple H-isms, which he’d use to gather his thoughts - “the fact of the matter is”, “but here’s the thing” - Hunter would drone on forever. It’s just as well the build to his WrestleMania 27 match against the Undertaker is remembered for the silent taunt-off challenge, because Triple H’s promo the following week was diabolical. Repeating every point with at least three slightly rephrased sentences, he also made sure to bury the entire locker room. “Everybody else sucks, we have to fight each other” was the thrust.
A great promo can get their point across succinctly and make you beg to see the big PPV match. Triple H spoke for so long that the match was over by the time he’d finished promoting it. Triple H could not cut a “hard times”-calibre promo if his life depended on it. If he was tested, and told to cut a promo in under two minutes, he’d struggle badly.
Triple H spoke well. Many politicians do.
5/10