Ranking The Biggest Rivalries In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020

21. 2000 - Triple H Vs The Rock

The Rock Triple H Rebellion
WWE.com

With WWE reaching a commercial apex they'd not touch until television rights fees changed the game (and a creative one they'd never managed to hit again), the real magic of Triple H Vs The Rock was in just how little the recently-departed Stone Cold Steve Austin was missed.

The pair's hated informed every major main event programme for the first half of one of the company's greatest ever years. A four way at WrestleMania justified a singles rematch at April's Backlash, drawing one of the company's biggest ever B-show buyrates.

The money was earned - Hunter and Rock worked a magnificent hybrid style that merged the big fight feel with some extraordinarily good in-ring. This was celebrate in their absorbing 60-minute Iron Man match at May's Judgment Day. Neither were ever at the in-ring level of Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart respectively, but their chemistry and creativity crafted a far superior exhibition of the marathon stipulation.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett