7. He Doesn't Draw The Crowds
Triple H's first WWE championship run came in 1999 at the height of the Attitude Era. For those of you not in the know (blasphemy) this was considered quite possibly the greatest period of wrestling in history and cemented the legacy of many a current and future Hall of Famers. But at the time WWE could do no wrong, something happened. The ratings dropped. That's right my friends. In the do no wrong era of the Attitude circa '99 they had a ratings scare, all while Trips was on his first championship run. So Vince McMahon & Pat Patterson (more on him a little later) decided that to quickly salvage what they were losing to WCW the decision was made for Triple H to drop the belt to Vince himself. Ratings went back through the roof and with the inclusion of the "Radicalz" and Chris Jericho to the roster, went on to post their highest ratings ever and the rest is history. Can you see what I am getting at here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2ajT1dgKsE And if you think this is a one off, let me enlighten you. Once Triple H had got his foot into the McMahon family household circa 2002 (more on that also later) there suddenly seemed to be a shift in direction with Trips smack bang right at the forefront. The now Undisputed Championship was un-unified and sent to "the B show" & Trips was awarded the returning "Big Gold" World Championship without a single match. That alone not only ignored the rich history and legacy of this beloved title (just behind David Arquette and the finger poke of doom) but although the WWE had seen a drop in ratings at this time this was nothing on what was about to come upon this decision. The Ratings for RAW went straight to the bottom of the pile, falling under .4 for the first time in a while and ending up under .3 as his title run dragged on, and on, AND ON. I don't care what people say about the "pg era", it has nothing on the monotonous one dimensional drivel that was RAW circa 02-04. Even the return of Shawn Michaels and the formation of Evolution couldn't stem the tide that to this day the WWE has yet to regain. Oh, did I mention, once the ratings dropped, Pat Patterson suggested to Vince the same thing he said in 1999. The result, he got FIRED. AFTER 30 YEARS in the company. Are you serious bro? Speaking of Evolution....