Ranking Every WWE Title Match At Royal Rumble - From Worst To Best
5. Royal Rumble 2000 - Triple H Vs. Cactus Jack
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While the then-WWF had positioned Triple H as a bona fide main event player who had recently captured his second WWF World Title, the Game's Street Fight war with Cactus Jack at the 2000 Royal Rumble took Hunter to a whole other level.
Given Mick Foley's Hardcore Legend nickname, it meant Triple H was in for a true battle here. Tearing Madison Square Garden up, these two put on their greatest match ever - with some disgusting bumps, chilling visuals, and the story told that, yes, Helmsley could hang with someone as deranged as Cactus Jack, as he won via a Pedigree that slammed Foley's face into thumbtacks.
This was Mick Foley doing all he could to add a violent, brutal edge to Triple H as Foley prepared to hang up his boots; something that would famously be delayed. Going even further, the Micker would again bust his tail to make Hunter look like a badass the following month at No Way Out, where Triple H defeated Foley in a gruelling Hell in a Cell outing.
In the ascension of Hunter Hearst Helmsley becoming a genuine top-tier talent, nobody did more for Paul Levesque than Mick Foley, and it was matches like this Royal Rumble contest and the aforementioned No Way Out offering that were pivotal in giving a vicious, violent, visceral edge to the Triple H character.