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The worst thing about HHH between 2002-2004


NEWM

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His immense return at the Garden, the Royal Rumble match, cracker with Angle at No Way Out, under-rated matches with Hogan and then Jericho at Backlash and Judgement Day. Granted, a shit PPV blow off match, but an otherwise entertaining feud with Undertaker. Shawn's comeback match. The first Elimination Chamber. He was solid in all of that.

 

04? The first Raw of the year match with HBK that would probably be match of the year had they not overshadowed it at Mania 20. Good last man standing and Hell in a Cell matches with HBK. The aforementioned Mania main event, and Backlash rematch. Looking as cool as fuck all summer long with Evolution, with some classic 8man tag matches on Raw. His program with Eugene was all kinds of brilliant. His Iron Man match with Benoit was leagues better than the vastly over rated Angle/Lesnar one. His part in the Batista turn.

 

Triple H is one of the most underrated (by the IWC) of all time.

 

I suppose ultimately here this has shown there is more positivity than I thought about him then,and everything is subjective, because everything I've emboldened above I thought absolutely fucking hummed. I could quite happily never see some of those PPV matches again, particularly the HBK Rumble and Bad Blood ones. He turned it around in 2004 with Benoit, Eugene, and the eventual awesome Batista storyline, but that was pretty much an accident due to how horribly the Randy Orton push collapsed right after Summerslam.

 

2003 is almost wall to wall horror. I was an internet workrate megadweeb at the time, so when I thought back, I did wonder if it was that which had clouded my judgment. But I still hate so much of it. Evolution was okay, but WWE have done an amazing job over the past few years pretending it was some sort of Horseman/nWo type affair, when it really wasn't. Lots of boring promos, predictable beatdowns, and rotten Batista matches before he knew how to make the best of what he had. It played a role in two guys becoming superstars, but Orton would have made it by sheer will of the bookers, and Batista was pretty much Vince's favourite mistake come good.

 

I will say this though, I have absolutely no issue with his last few years, and actually think he was rather underrated at times. His match against The Great Khali at Summerslam for example, was a little miracle, and I thought he hugely put over Sheamus whilst defeating him at Wrestlemania 26. Where was that HHH in 2002?

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The only thing I can think of is; I didnt like it when he started to wear purple and red trunks on PPV events, or his white boots. Should have just stuck to black all the time.

 

Actually, I quite liked that he started wearing different coloured trunks. I do concede that the white boots were a bit excessive and made him look like a pillock though. I remember him wearing them in the triple threat at WMXX, but when else did he wear them? RR '04 against Michaels?

He wore them quite often on PPV. They became know as his PPV boots on here, and people who at the time were haters, but slowly coming around to him, joked that he needs the white boots to have a good match, as his PPV outings that year were awesome. He started to wear them at Mania 20, and wore them on each PPV for a good 5 months after. Definitely wore them for the Triple Threat rematch at Backlash, and the Hell in a Cell v HBK. I'm thinking he stopped around Summerslam v Eugene, but I may be wrong on that one.

 

His cycling shorts were the worst.

 

I

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The only thing I can think of is; I didnt like it when he started to wear purple and red trunks on PPV events, or his white boots. Should have just stuck to black all the time.

 

Actually, I quite liked that he started wearing different coloured trunks. I do concede that the white boots were a bit excessive and made him look like a pillock though. I remember him wearing them in the triple threat at WMXX, but when else did he wear them? RR '04 against Michaels?

He wore them quite often on PPV. They became know as his PPV boots on here, and people who at the time were haters, but slowly coming around to him, joked that he needs the white boots to have a good match, as his PPV outings that year were awesome. He started to wear them at Mania 20, and wore them on each PPV for a good 5 months after. Definitely wore them for the Triple Threat rematch at Backlash, and the Hell in a Cell v HBK. I'm thinking he stopped around Summerslam v Eugene, but I may be wrong on that one.

 

His cycling shorts were the worst.

 

I

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That almost every show opened with him coming out and doing the same promo every time.

Oh God, I remember a time when every show started with a thirty minute Triple H monologue in which he'd talk endlessly about absolutely nothing.

 

He looked cool in that leather jacket under a sleeveless denim jacket combo.

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That almost every show opened with him coming out and doing the same promo every time.

Oh God, I remember a time when every show started with a thirty minute Triple H monologue in which he'd talk endlessly about absolutely nothing.

That never happened.

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I suppose ultimately here this has shown there is more positivity than I thought about him then,and everything is subjective, because everything I've emboldened above I thought absolutely fucking hummed. I could quite happily never see some of those PPV matches again, particularly the HBK Rumble and Bad Blood ones. He turned it around in 2004 with Benoit, Eugene, and the eventual awesome Batista storyline, but that was pretty much an accident due to how horribly the Randy Orton push collapsed right after Summerslam.

There are people on here who do like pretty much anything Triple H related. Your not wrong thought in that there is quite a lot of negativity towards him. I joined here in 2003, and was pretty much the only Triple H fan on here for some time. I remember being over-joyed when a newly signed up Mr Seven was suddenly an ally in Triple H debates. So, now people like Ian, Butch, Green and Cleetus are all reasonably big Trip fans. I assume Seven still is.

 

2003 is almost wall to wall horror. I was an internet workrate megadweeb at the time, so when I thought back, I did wonder if it was that which had clouded my judgment. But I still hate so much of it. Evolution was okay, but WWE have done an amazing job over the past few years pretending it was some sort of Horseman/nWo type affair, when it really wasn't. Lots of boring promos, predictable beatdowns, and rotten Batista matches before he knew how to make the best of what he had. It played a role in two guys becoming superstars, but Orton would have made it by sheer will of the bookers, and Batista was pretty much Vince's favourite mistake come good.

I will give you 03. I already knew it was pretty much a given that 03 is universally hated, but I guess like others turn a blind eye to their favorites shortcomings, I turn a bit of a blind eye to 03. I consider it a blip year in an otherwise stellar body of work from HHH. He body was pretty beat up, and while there is an argument for him taking time off, or stepping down a bit, I think he may have felt like WWE couldnt afford to be without him for an extended period. HBK didnt want the belt and the schedule that would go with it. Steiner and Nash were more broken down that he was. Raw was pretty light on superstars during that year. They were trying to push Bubba Dudley as a title contender at one point. I dont really know what was going on with Jericho at the time, but he was totally unmotivated, for whatever reasons. Hardy was a mess. Granted, you can probably lay the blame at Triple H's door for RVD not being a bigger star in 03. I think WWE as a whole was a poor show in 03, Smackdown included. I know there was a nice Smackdown Six spell, but by in large, 03 was a pretty bad year.

 

And I know I've ignored Goldberg, but I think there was a lot of politics involved in that situation. WWE seemed pretty intent on doing as much damage to him as possible, even before his feud with Triple H. Even though The Rock laid down for him in his first match, The Rock did pretty much outshine him the whole way through their feud. They put him in a feud with Jericho were he was made look stupid each week, and despite winning the PPV outing, the match was way too long and exposed his weaknesses. There is a case to be made that the right decision was for Goldberg to pin Triple H clean, in a one on one fight. Hindsight clearly shows that the Chamber was the right moment, but I can easily see how on paper at least, teasing the win at the Chamber, to generate a buyrate for the one on one match a month later, could have seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

Evolution was real stop start in 03 too. Batista and Orton both picked up injuries a few weeks after it got started, and the group didnt really pick up steam until around the Survivor Series event/Batista coming back to claim the bounty on Goldberg's head. Orton's Legend Killer thing only really picked up by the time he got involved with Foley towards the end of the year. But Evolution in 2004 was exceptional. Orton was icebox cool up until they botch his face turn in September. Batista was pretty bad ass when they started to use him properly. Trips got himself back into decent shape and was tearing it up each week on Raw and PPV.

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Without question it was the Goldberg incident NEWM mentions. I pretty much stopped watching wrestling for years after that.

 

I personally didn't think Triple H was awful during that time. My biggest problem was the amount of time dedicated to him. Evolution was cool, but it meant more Triple H than was needed.

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I'm going to say it, he shaved his beard. I hated that look, it looked like he aged 5 years and got a double chin in the space of a couple of weeks. Plus his hair lost it's lustre and became very greasy looking. I'm not kidding, just go back and look at the photos of 2003.

 

I hated him mainly because he was there. No offence but The Rock had an amazing last hurrah with Hogan/Austin/ Goldberg, and after he left all that was there was HHH who just didn't have the same charisma. He to me was the face of Raw and Raw did alot of crap, Shane McMahon the monster killer, Scott Steiner and Test feud, Dance Lance Storm, etc. Plus his hair went to shit.

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Actually, I quite liked that he started wearing different coloured trunks. I do concede that the white boots were a bit excessive and made him look like a pillock though. I remember him wearing them in the triple threat at WMXX, but when else did he wear them? RR '04 against Michaels?

 

He wore them quite often on PPV. They became know as his PPV boots on here, and people who at the time were haters, but slowly coming around to him, joked that he needs the white boots to have a good match, as his PPV outings that year were awesome. He started to wear them at Mania 20, and wore them on each PPV for a good 5 months after. Definitely wore them for the Triple Threat rematch at Backlash, and the Hell in a Cell v HBK. I'm thinking he stopped around Summerslam v Eugene, but I may be wrong on that one.

 

 

 

I

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He could have had legendary matches with steiner, goldberg, nash, rvd erc. Instead everything was nothing more than ok. Hhh is therefor overrated. Even his match with hogan sucked. Er

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Oh God, I remember a time when every show started with a thirty minute Triple H monologue in which he'd talk endlessly about absolutely nothing.

 

That never happened.

 

Let's not let what actually happened get in the way of a good basHHHing. I've done this before, and I'll regret doing this again, because it's not worth the effort. Idiots only believe what they want.

 

 

In the year 2003 HHH was involved in the opening promo segment 10 times.

 

Of those 10, only 3 of them even went over 15 minutes. One was a giant plug for a Mick Foley book, before HHH came down and interrupted him, another was a Nash/HBK/HHH promo where they all got equal promo time, and the other was a 6 man promo for the EC.

 

9 of those segments involved at least two other people speaking.

 

The only one of those that involved HHH by himself speaking about "Absolutely nothing, with his big nose, because he's shagging Steph lolz". Was the night after the Royal Rumble 03, when he talked about how great he is and how Scott Steiner would never get another title shot. It lasted less than 10 minutes before he got interrupted.

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