Triple H 2002-2008

Without doubt he moved a lot faster in the ring. Prior to him putting tons of bulk muscle. 

When I was a kid I HATED Ric Flair. I wanted him to lose the title so badly that I could taste it. And when he finally did, he gained it back shortly after. Luger, Nikita, Windham (just to name a few) were all talents I wanted to get a clean victory over Flair. It drove me nuts.

But then as I got older, I got it. I finally understood what they were doing. So when Triple H started what I like to call his "Ric Flair" run, it never bothered me. You could easily see they were trying to mirror Flair's reign down to a tee. From Evolution, to Triple H being stripped down to his underwear, even down the colored gear he was wearing at the time. Even his insensitive promo to Booker was a rehash of Flair's feuds with JYD & Tony Atlas.

I do agree that some of the names you mentioned should have had a reign as champion. Especially Kane. But much like Luger, Nikita, and Windham, it didn't happen. And in many ways, that made the moments it did all that much better. IMO Benoit winning at WMXX was the equivalent to Sting's GAB 90 win. Both magical and well deserved.

If you listen to Bruce Prichard's podcast he mentions how they had plenty of issues with Goldberg from the get go. But they still wanted to put the title on him anyhow. But Goldberg refused to go on an overseas tour, so they kept the title on Triple H. Because even though he was hurt and needed time off, HHH volunteered to go in his place. So that is why Triple H won in the chamber without doing a whole lot.

Booker could have won and it would have been a nice moment. But Prichard has said that they never intended to have Booker win the title. And he was only in that spot because of all the other talent already having matches planned out. And as I said above, the promos were insensitive and did not belong in a wrestling ring. They were living in the past and crossed a few lines.

Jericho and Triple H always had good chemistry. But Jericho REALLY wanted that HBK feud, so I don't think he was willing to switch back to being a face anytime soon.

HBK I don't think still knew how long he'd stick around. Judging by what they have said, it was only supposed to be temporary, but one thing kept leading to another. Next thing ya know, HBK had been back several years.

Kane as I said should have won it. But to be fair, Kane has always been misused and mistreated IMO. No idea why.

RVD was fun and very popular. But I don't know how reliable he was. I mean look what happened when he finally did win the title! He blew it.

Orton's one month reign was a botch to say the least. They say they did it to get Orton over as a sympathetic face and build him up to regaining it at WM. It didn't work.

And when people say Steiner should have won it, I laugh. He was a PR nightmare and didn't have the stamina to last. It's shame, but it's true.

And last thing, people always complain about his 20 minute promos to start RAW. But as we've learned over the years, WWE is going to do that no matter who is around. Austin, Rock, Roman, Stephanie, Kurt, Vince, etc etc, always start RAW off with way too much talking. It's obviously their formula whether we like it or not. So I see no reason to pin that solely on Triple H.




That was my longest post in 30 years.

I will use a very generic sell out point, but I would rather watch a 2003 Raw then one today by far.

Steiner SHOULD NOT have went over....BUT? The matches were poorly mapped out knowing what they knew. They could have done heaps better.

Prichards insights into the Goldberg chamber loss were revelation to me. No wonder the title was left on a hurt HHH. I knew the reason wasn't to build it for the next ppv. Bills an ass for not doing that your. He missed out a magic career moment slaughtering everyone to win the strap.

Bah.

I really have to come dislike Goldberg more and more as years go on.

I like Goldberg. I enjoy his stuff...but he pulled a lot of asshat shit. A LOT.

I watch his match vs Steiner @ Fall Brawl 2000 about twice a year. It's such a novelty to see either guy get manhandled....and this match is full of it. Very intense.

I would agree whole heartedly - and Smackdown was of course amazing at that time.

I'm in the minority on this...I feel at the time in 2002, Triple H was the best heel on Raw and therefore should have been on top. For Smackdown from September 2 2002 - April 3, 2005 they had Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Eddie Guerrero, JBL, and John Cena. I would argue that 4 out of those 6 could be considered baby face champs. I know that they may have tried to portray some of them as heels at certain points but it's hard to boo a guy like Kurt Angle. When JBL took the belt on Smackdown, Benoit was already in the middle of his run on Raw, so the roles were reversed for the shows. On Raw they had to get the belt back to Triple H to get the Mania switch with Batista.

As far as his feuds for this time, and I know I'm in the minority on this as well, I always hated Goldberg and Steiner so for me personally I found it hard to go against Triple H in these feuds. The booking for Jericho was terrible. The match they had should have been amazing at Mania but it wasn't.

From April 3rd, 2005 - October 7 2007, Triple H wasn't the main champion. And on Oct. 7th, he held the title for less than a day, it was No Mercy 2007. He wouldn't win a major title again until April of 2008. So when you take out that single event title reign, Triple H didn't have a main title from April 2005-April 2008.

I can't speak for others here, but I have always liked Triple H. Triple H in 2002 was a very old school heel that could work and I liked that. I wasn't a fan of everything he did, he had questionable and terrible storylines here and there. And I liked three out of the 4 members of Evolution, Randy being the odd man out.

I don't know Jinder or Roman enough to comment about them today but a lot can change. If Jinder goes on with an incredible career and multiple main title reigns then people could say that his first title reign was a little premature or wasn't ready for that spot. Think of it like Bret Hart. Bret Harts first WWF title reign was pretty uneventful, but he proved later in his career that he was a headliner. Again 15 years can do a lot. In 2003 the WWF produced a DVD bashing Warrior. 15 years later and he is in the hall of fame with an award named after him. And yes, you still have people saying "Oh Warrior was terrible" but because the WWE narrative has changed, the majority of wrestling fans views on him have changed as well. So again a lot can happen.