Please…Don’t Hate 5.18.08: Triple H

Posted by Julian Bond on 05.18.2008

In the conclusion of the “DX Flashback” series, we cover the man who has definitely had his fair share of fan admiration and on the same end a possibly equal amount of massive hate thrown upon him. We look at the former leader of DX/Evolution and the current WWE Title holder, Triple H.

Welcome everyone to Please…Don't Hate, the weekly column which takes a look at some of the most hated on and complained about wrestlers, companies, and topics within the wrestling world. This week we look at one of the most hated on and talked about wrestlers of the past few years, coming only second to John Cena, in the form of the multi-time heavyweight champion HHH. We will talk about the main reasons why people tend to hate on the man, and try to answer the question whether people hate him for his constant main event position or do people really hate him for his "family involvement", being married to the boss' daughter? But first…the readers.

Reader Reverb
This is the section where two reader comments, one being for last weeks topic and the other being against, are chosen and I give my two cents on them.

Last week's topic: B.G. James and Kip James (TNA Version)

Note to Readers: Someone pointed out that the New Age Outlaws actually first met the Dudleys in the WWE back in 2000, while I implied that the meeting of the two was a first time "dream match" in TNA. What I meant to say was that in TNA, it was really a "dream feud" to fans because when the WWE match did happen the company didn't really give the two teams a proper story or major lead-up due to Billy Gunn's (Kip James) pending injury and also because of the fact that it was before the Dudley Boys had established themselves as one of the greatest tag teams of all time, with their legendary TLC matches and adding on about 10 or so more tag team titles to their now 20 total reigns.

bighustle (Guest) comments:

I'd like them more if they put a little more effort into their matches. Not that they need to be running and doing flips or any of that nature, but guys like Sandman and Tommy Dreamer were for the most part immobile, yet there were still spots in their matches that were memorable. Their match at lockdown was nothing but right hand after right hand. Very basic. It was like there was no thought to it. Like they barely went over the match together. Other than that, i really like their promos and i feel like Kip could get over being the cocky arrogant heel, the MegaStar. And B.G. does a good job of the veteran, kinda like Terry Funk minus the violence.

And you're right, they don't dominate the tv time, so i don't know why people get bent out of shape.

I kind of have to agree with you on that one. While I do like the duo they definitely could step their game up a bit with their in-ring work. I know that they are getting older in age and move slower than they use to, but I think that they still have the ability to put on an above average match if they put their hearts into it. Pending this, both Kip and B.G. are master veterans with their mic skills and possess something that some wrestlers may not even come close to achieving in their lifetimes. With this ability, along with their long-time experience, they bring a unique perspective to the TNA roster that goes beyond the ring. And again, I argue that the duo are barely on TV in the first place and definitely aren't taking away anything from the other stars. If anything they are helping round out the already expansive roster of talented wrestlers on every show with their appearance.

Tom (Guest) comments:

The problem is they epitomize everything that is wrong with TNA. Old WWE workers essentially trying to piggyback off of their old fame and taking up space on the roster that could be better used for fresh home-grown talent. The VKM angle illustrated perfectly to fans that rather than trying to innovate TNA preferred to rehash old angles. The guys themselves aren't that bad, but what they represent sucks.

In regards to the above statement, I believe that the main thing that a lot of people don't understand about TNA is the fact that they are only using much known "former big star" wrestlers to help add credibility and visibility to their company. Love the ex Outlaws or hate them, when you turn on the TV screen you know who they are. If one is watching TNA and doesn't know about ANY of their homegrown wrestlers they'll turn in to see who they do know from the big companies (WWE, WCW) and then stay tuned to see what else TNA has to offer. People often complain about the duo (and other ex-WWE stars) taking precious time away from the other younger TNA talent or trying to rehash their former glory, but this is most definitely not the case. From what I've seen so far all the two have done was help put over other teams, help bring casual wrestling fans in with their known cred of being in the one of the biggest wrestling groups of all time, and sometimes just plainly stayed off of the TV screen until the writers found a good angle for them. Again, people think that all they want to do is hog up the screen when the case is that all they want to do is help the growing company succeed.

Now behold, the "King of Kings"…



Why People Hate On…Triple H
-Overstays welcome in main event spot
-Doesn't put people over/buries opponents
-Uses backstage politics and his status as WWE owner Vince McMahon's son-in-law to remain on top
-Too old to still be wrestling

My Reasoning for Not Hating On… Triple H
Let's get straight to it. Between his initial run as the leader of Degeneration X and his massive ovation with his return at Madison Square Garden in 2002, Triple H aka Hunter Hearst Helmsey (HHH) had been heralded as one of the best in the WWE and in the entire wrestling world. With the huge list of accomplishments he's achieved in this time, which include his stint in DX, his first runs as world champ, his popular feuds with the likes of the Rock and the Undertaker, his memorable fights against Cactus Jack (Street Fight/Hell In A Cell), his alliance with former rival Stone Cold Steve Austin as the dubbed "Two-Man Power Trip", and the notorious McMahon/Helmsey Era the man had gained only a handful of haters and tons and tons of raving and loyal fans. So at the height of all of this newly gained fame and notoriety Trips unfortunately suffered a horrendous quad injury that took him out for about half a year. Shortly after his return to the highly hyped Madison Square Garden and big title win at that following Wrestlemania the people slowly started to turn on good old H in the wake of his brief lackluster run as the WWE Undisputed Champ (which he won against Chris Jericho and lost against Hulk Hogan) and didn't want to cheer him as much as they used to. Even after rebounding a little bit with a pretty good Hell In A Cell match against Jericho, and a picture perfect feud and proceeding bout against the fresh out of retirement Shawn Michaels, the love for HHH faded just as the growing hate started to become more apparent.

The moment when things started going straight downhill with his fanfare was with the horribly unpopular decision of awarding him the Raw Brand's newly dubbed World Heavyweight Championship (ex-WCW Title) without any type of tournament or big match to back it up. Everyone and their mama hated the fact that there was a lack of build up to a major championship being created, and instead only saw the title being handed off to a guy like HHH. So with this domino effect for the next few years (and somewhat still continuing today), viewers have chastised Trips for hogging up the main event scene, constantly burying his opponents, and using his position as the son-in-law of WWE owner Vince McMahon to politic his way to staying on top. This is where I step in to say that it's time to let the hate go once and for all.

I admit that I was in the same exact boat as a majority of fans with their genuine hate for Triple H. I initially loved Triple H's character and the ass-whoopings he handed out to people like Mick Foley and Stone Cold as "The Game", but then I totally turned cold on him after he gained that World Heavyweight Championship. I slowly started to turn off Raw simply because the man would ALWAYS be on the screen and would ALWAYS have that belt around his waist. I ignored who his challengers were (HBK, Booker T, RVD, Goldberg, etc) because I assumed that they would lose to him. I ignored the following of his group Evolution (made up of Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Batista) just cause, and lastly I ignored every single angle, story, and match that Triple H was involved in because of his constant dominance and my continual hate of it. What didn't help rid me of this feeling was my reading of the book "World Wrestling Insanity: The Fall and Decline of a Family Empire", in which the author gave his opinion and reasoning on how and why Triple H essentially brought the WWE down in ratings and overall popularity due to his constant position in the main event. While meant to be a light-hearted read, the book came off as being grudge-ridden with the writer mostly harping on the theories of why Triple H buried each opponent he faced and going into the possible reasoning behind why Vince McMahon would allow this to happen.

So the thing that made me change my ways and see the light was HHH's match against John Cena at Wrestlemania 22. At the end of the match I was waiting for the scene of Triple H winning the belt, and the start of the same tiring cycle of being on top, only to be shocked when the man put over Cena cleanly by tapping out in the middle of the ring. While the match wasn't the best in the world that one moment totally changed my perspective on HHH. I saw that the man who was known mostly for burying others and winning every match totally put over the guy (Cena) who a lot of people hated (and still hate) at the time. This also reminded me of HHH doing the same exact task of tapping out to put Chris Benoit over two Wrestlemanias ago. So it all hit me…HHH wasn't so bad of a guy after all. I automatically flashed back to all of things that he did during the time that I hated him, and the things that he's done since then, and noticed that I didn't take a step back to look at any of the good work that he was involved in and instead just focused on the bad. With that, these are the reasons why I believe that the man shouldn't be hated on so much.

The first gripe with Trips was with his continually iron-clad grip on the World Heavyweight Title. The man had held it a total of five times in between Sept. 02 – Apr. 05 (which is almost 3 freakin' years), with his shortest reigns being 3 months and the longest lasting almost 10 months. As much I agreed with the viewers that everyone severely wanted ANYONE else but HHH holding the belt, I realized that there may have existed the argument of Triple H being the best and main viable choice for being the champ over his opponents, with only a few of them being in the right position to hold the belt. As much as I wanted his rivals such as RVD, Booker T, or Kane to win the big one I now look back and think that it might have not been as fun to watch Raw every week because no one would be in the position of FINALLY pinning Triple H when it mattered the most. I realized this when I thought of the few times that I did tune into Raw being pretty excited and noticed that they were right before Trips was about to lose the belt (HBK, Goldberg, Benoit, Batista). So not crapping on the other wrestlers (who are definitely amongst my personal favorites) the fact may have simply been that HHH's constant, but sometimes tiring dominance, was the best thing for business from the WWE's point of view. Even one of the main members of the WWE Creative Team who helped with the decision of HHH's first Heavyweight Title run stated, in a recent article read here, that he was initially against this but later looked back and totally agreed with the final say after looking at the facts.

The other infamous beef people have with HHH is with the accusation that he mostly buries his opponents instead of putting them over. Again, I would have agreed with this statement a few years ago with his tons of wins, but even with the victories he tried to put over his competition as much as he could during their matches. People are very quick to point out that he tried to go out of his way to go over his foes in his matches and angles, but I think that this is quite the opposite. A grand example of this is with his Wrestlemania (WM) match against Booker T. A whole slew of people were stating that the storyline building up to their match was only destroying Booker's cred as a viable #1 contender, but what I saw was that the swarmy comments and beatdowns that HHH delivered came back with a receipt from Booker in the weeks following as he beat him a few times in tag team competition and gave a hell of a performance at WM. In fact, in all of his big matches Triple H always seems to go out of his way to put his opponent over when it counted. He helped people like Benoit, Cena, and Batista with their big major wins and even helped push even younger talent at the time like Shelton Benjamin and Maven with near upset victories.

Further more, the man helped usher in arguably one of the best factions in wrestling history with the leading of the group Evolution. The team made up of himself, legend Ric Flair, and fresh faces Randy Orton and Dave Batista, was one of the most unique groups at the time with its "past, present and future" gimmick working to their advantage. With Evolution not only did Triple H help his fellow teammates Batista and Orton eventually move up to main event status with their involvement and subsequent feuds, he also helped bring out the best in Flair with his last run in the wrestling business. When Flair first came to WWE he stalled for a good while trying to find some of that old magic he had earlier in his career. But by being the "old guard" of Evolution and the right hand man to Triple H Flair had another stint of sweet promos and pretty good matches, particularly against HHH. People may still nit pick this fact but you can't deny that the man has put over a lot more opponents than he's been accused of burying.

Lastly, the biggest complaint of all from Triple H haters is the fact that the man is married to the boss' daughter Stephanie McMahon. Once again I was in the same boat as these complainers wondering if Trips' everlasting spot at the top was mainly due to his close relationship to the boss of all bosses. But then I stood back and thought, "No…he's just really that damn good". I thought about the fact that I honestly have not seen a wrestler (since the Rock and Stone Cold) constantly put on average to good matches on a constant basis. I may not have liked all of the matches, nor liked the fact that he won a majority of them, but you cannot deny that he was a freakin' machine month in and month out against various opponents. If you can perform like that in the ring then you don't need any family connections or politicking to remain at the top. Nobody can deny that he does also have a slight bias because he is close to McMahon, but if HHH stunk it out in the ring on a regular basis they would no doubt pull him away from the main event scene. Even on his newest DVD, the man said (taken with a grain of salt) that he knew that there would be questions and a possible conflict of interest rising from him dating and eventually marring Stephanie, but everyone talked it out to make sure that this wasn't the case.

Triple H is damn near 40 years old and still continues to kick ass like the rest of them. People still hate on him for still being on top and he just answers back with putting on good match after good match. Even with surviving multiple, MULTIPLE injuries, his recent bouts against the much younger Cena, Orton, and Edge prove that he still has it and will continue to dominate the main event scene until his time has past.

Good Reasons to Love…Triple H
Feud With Shawn Michaels

Without argument Triple H's long standing series of matches against his close friend Shawn Michaels were amongst the best in his entire career. Check out the Summerslam Street Fight, Two Out of Three Falls, Elimination Chamber, Last Man Standing, Hell In A Cell, the 2002 Year-End Raw Match. If you don't think that ANY of these matches are any good then I just don't know what to tell you.

(The infamous ending of the Street Fight from Summerslam)


The Rise of Evolution

While some, including myself, didn't really appreciate the simple genius of the group in its genesis, Evolution (made up of HHH, legend Ric Flair, and future world champs Randy Orton and Batista) was arguably one of the greatest stables of all time. To purposely have wrestlers from the past, present, and future together (with a cool theme song to boot) was a great idea and made it even more intense and legit with Triple H being at the forefront as the leader and World Champ.

(Post Match Promo w/Evolution)


Still Going Strong

Even after many career threatening injuries Triple H continues to have good match after good match. Nearly 40, the man can still hang with the younger generation of grapplers (John Cena, Edge). The truest evidence of this was his stellar MVP performance at the recent No Mercy PPV, in which he wrestled not one, not two, but THREE matches in the same night with the last being a brutal Last Man Standing bout against his former protégé Randy Orton.

(Last Man Standing vs. Orton)


Without a shadow of a doubt Triple H is one of most gifted and decorated wrestlers in this generation. While I and many others may not have agreed with the decision of him constantly staying on in every single main event for as long as he did, you cannot deny that it may have all happened for legit reasons and you cannot over look all of the good matches and feuds that he's had in this time span. The true die-hard Triple H haters just have to try to stop thinking so hard about the man's personal business and how it affects his every move. The man has no doubt worked very hard to get where he has in his career and shouldn't have his work judged by the merits of rumored politics and undeserved pushes. Triple H has earned the name "The Game" and should be given his due for it.

On The Next Episode of…"Please…Don't Hate"
Jumping from the King of Kings to whom some may call the King's protégé, we cover Triple H's former Evolution teammate and his opponent in the Steel Cage match at Judgment Day, the famed Legend Killer, Randy Orton.