What WWE WON'T Tell You About Triple H's Legacy
Where Trips once projected himself as a deliberate technician with full, sadistic control over his opponents in big-time epics, the pace he toiled at subsequently felt decidedly less like a choice. It was as if he was reaching for greatness and not radiating it, something brought into very damning focus by the fact that it wasn't as if he was transitioning through age into a slower style.
His style was always slow, and by 2002 and particularly 2003, it was, simply, boring. There was no snap, no intensity, no sense that he could, to use the latest weird WWE phrase, impose his will on his opponents. And it failed - WWE plunged in popularity and acclaim at precisely the time Triple H was at his most dominant - because it failed to convince. This was Triple H playing the role of the best wrestler at his worst. He barely had to cheat to win, and if Ric Flair did interfere, it was lip service to the opponents who could kiss his ass. Flair interfered at WrestleMania XIX, right, but did Triple H capitalise with flash desperation roll-up, knowing it was only chance to put Booker T away?
No. He crawled for 19 seconds before making the cover.
Triple H recovered some of that big match form after his objectively f*cking sh*t Reign of Terror years, it should be noted. His work leading up to the End Of An Era deal was superb, as an example. But the sheer volume of major matches Triple H worked to abject silence is not so much revealing as astonishing. This isn't all that subjective. The purpose of pro wrestling is to draw money and reactions.
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