1. Street Fight For The WWE Championship: Triple H Vs. Cactus Jack (Royal Rumble 2000)
There are few moments or matches in a wrestler's career that they can point to as a turning point, a defining moment if you will. For Triple H, one such moment came at the 2000 Royal Rumble, when he defended the WWE Championship against Cactus Jack in a Street Fight. Prior to the bout, he was enjoying a sustained push as the lead villain. He was still fresh off marrying Stephanie McMahon and forming the hated McMahon-Helmsley Era that terrorized bad guys and infuriated fans. Yet, as big as his push was, and as much television time as he had enjoyed to that point, he was still missing that one definitive match that let the world know that he was without a shadow of doubt the top dog in the sport. That all changed when he engaged the most dangerous man in the industry in a brilliantly bloody, and brutally violent Street Fight. At one point, champion and challenger called back spots from the previous year's Rumble match, where Jack (as Mankind) had been mercilessly pummeled with a steel chair while handcuffed. They used a barbed wire-wrapped 2x4 and, the coup de grace, thumbtacks. Both men bled, Triple H more so than his opponent, but in the end it was The Game that delivered the Pedigree onto said tacks and scored the win. For the first time in his career, Triple H had been taken to the edge and survived to tell about it. He was masterful in the match, bumping around for Jack and knowing when to express viciousness and ruthlessness, and when to be the coward. It worked to perfection. Triple H not only cemented himself as one of the elite performers in the business but someone deserving of carrying the WWE Title as the measuring stick for which all others would be compared to.
Erik Beaston is a freelance pro wrestling writer who likes long walks in the park, dandelions and has not quite figured out that this introduction is not for Match.com. He resides in Parts Unknown, where he hosts weekly cookouts with Kane, The Ultimate Warrior, Papa Shango and The Boogeyman. Be jealous.
