Triple H: Redemption For The Worst Wrestlemania Performer Ever?

Now the dust has settled on another Wrestlemania week, it’s time to take stock of the incredible amount of content put forward by WWE. With the Hall of Fame, a seven hour long Wrestlemania show itself, Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live and NXT it would be easy for something to get forgotten and lost in the shuffle. One thing that has still got everyone talking, however, is the clash between Triple H and Seth Rollins. To say that the match has divided opinion would be an understatement, with reviews across the IWC ranging from “one star” negatives to match of the night honours depending on the review you choose. What hasn’t been discussed is the fact that this is the perfect conundrum to sum up Triple H’s entire Wrestlemania career – one that will go down as one of the most disappointing of any main event star in history.

Triple H, love him or hate him, will go down as one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time. Beyond that, the man clearly breathes, eats and sleeps professional wrestling, to the point where he has rebelled against many of the “sports entertainment” aspects of the business and essentially safeguarded its future with NXT. Looking purely at his in-ring career, The Game has been involved in some of the best feuds and best matches of this century with the likes of Cactus Jack, Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels. Why, then, does he seem at times incapable of delivering on the biggest stage of them all? His show-headlining snooze-fest against Roman Reigns last year further reinforced this reputation and to many his match against Seth Rollins did nothing to help the cause.

Triple H made his Mania debut in 1996 with the now famous squash at the hands of the returning Ultimate Warrior. Matches in the following three years against Goldust, Owen Hart and Kane were passable but certainly not show-stealing wonders in advance of The Game ascending to the main event. By the year 2000 that’s exactly where Triple H was as he defended his WWE Championship against The Rock, Big Show and Mick Foley in a Fatal 4 Way Elimination match. The contest, and the show in general, was hampered by overbooking. A match that should have been a one-on-one between Triple H and The Rock fell into chaos in a decent but largely forgettable affair. It would take until 2001 in a semi-main event brawl against The Undertaker before Triple H could say he had a contest worthy of the biggest show of the year. The two would face off again in 2011 and 2012 in two more of Triple H’s better Wrestlemania contests, with the Hell in a Cell match at Wrestlemania 28 a vast improvement over the solid but overrated Wrestlemania 27 bout.

2002 saw Triple H and Chris Jericho limp across the finish line for the Undisputed Championship, admittedly faced with the impossible task of following The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan, which clearly should have gone on last. In 2003 Triple H needlessly squashed Booker T in front of a dead quiet Seattle crowd to prove that “people like Booker T” don’t win World Championships (the less said about that entire angle, the better). 2004 at Wrestlemania XX is the site of Triple H’s greatest Wrestlemania accomplishment, tapping in the middle of the ring to allow the unlikely Chris Benoit to close out Mania as World Champion in a legitimate classic Triple Threat match, also including “Mr. Wrestlemania” Shawn Michaels. To those who didn’t see it at the time, this all-time classic could be lost to history given what was to come in Chris Benoit’s future.

In 2005 Triple H correctly put over Batista in an overly long, plodding affair before establishing John Cena as a main event star in 2006 in a match that almost entirely relied on the sensational Chicago crowd. The Game would miss Wrestlemania 23 in 2007 with a torn quadriceps muscle before returning to Mania in 2008 for another decent but forgettable match against Cena and Randy Orton. The following year, The Game would again be cursed by having to follow a classic – this time the match many consider to be the greatest match of all time with The Undertaker facing off against Shawn Michaels. Triple H and Orton simply couldn’t follow it and were hampered by bad booking to top it off – what should have been a wild brawl was forced to become a wrestling match and it bored the fans to tears.

In 2010 Triple H and Sheamus were buried in the midcard in an entirely forgettable match ahead of The Game’s back to back matches against Undertaker. Brock Lesnar would follow in 2013 but even a No Disqualification stipulation with Triple H’s career on the line couldn’t invest the crowd at Metlife Stadium. Lesnar was seemingly knocked out early in the match, which certainly didn’t help, but across the three matches the two men would have during their feud none fully clicked anyway. Wrestlemania XXX would see Daniel Bryan take down Triple H in easily The Game’s best straight up, one-on-one wrestling match at Wrestlemania. The next year, The Game and Sting would rely on all the bells and whistles in the book to put on an incredibly enjoyable but ultimately senseless match that still should have been Sting vs. The Undertaker instead. Finally, the dreadful main event last year against Roman Reigns brought us all the way to Orlando in 2017.

So what have the complaints been? Essentially the same ones that have marred Triple H’s entire Wrestlemania history – the match was overly long for some, featured too much work on a body part, tried too hard to be epic and failed to engage the live audience. Whereas these complaints, as noted above, can indeed be found across an incredibly disappointing Mania career, they simply do not hold water with arguably the match of the night against Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania 33.

The Non-Sanctioned match was the longest of the night at 25:30,  but justified just about each and every second. The story told in the ring perfectly balanced the story told in the build up. Unlike last year where Triple H decided to work Reigns’ arm for a large portion of the match, and ultimately for no reason, the focus on Seth’s previously injured leg was sensible and added to the match. Rollins’ selling was excellent, particularly the Sunset Flip spot from the turnbuckles as a call back to the legitimate injury he suffered in late 2015.

The brawling outside the ring, chair shots, announce table spot and Stephanie’s excellent and unexpected table bump played about as well to the stipulation as PG-era WWE would allow. The live crowd was a bit quiet at times but did rise for the big moments, in particular coming unglued for the aforementioned Stephanie table spot. The battle of the Pedigree, a forgotten touch in the much more personal build up which focused largely on Seth’s injury, and the repeated counters before the finish were brilliantly executed and highlighted the level of sheer wrestling skill on display in the no holds barred environment. Seth winning was obviously the right call and has now left Triple H with more losses (twelve) than any man in Wrestlemania history. From a kayfabe perspective, Triple H is literally the worst Wrestlemania performer of all time. The match itself may not have been a 5-Star classic to completely turn around The Game’s Mania fortunes but it went a long way to erase the memory of Wrestlemania 32.

So in the end, what does Triple H vs. Seth Rollins mean to The Game’s Wrestlemania career? The fact is that, even if it was an out and out stinker, it certainly wouldn’t affect Triple H in any way personally. The Game is as established a performer as anyone can be and is obviously entrenched in the inner workings of WWE.

What the match has done, to those who enjoyed it anyway, is to showcase exactly what he is capable of given the right story, build up, opponent, stipulation and placement on the card. All of these factors have negatively impacted The Game’s Wrestlemania past, so to see everything come together perfectly in Orlando was a sight to behold. From the ring entrances to the closing bell it was by far one of Triple H’s best Wrestlemania encounters, so from here the real question is how will he follow it? Will there be a return to mediocrity next year or will Triple H carry this momentum forward? Given that Wrestlemania 34 will almost certainly not feature The Undertaker, it could be up to this “part timer” to turn in another sensational performance worthy of the grandest stage of them all.