Brooklyn Brawlin’ 11.05.08: It’s Time to Play the Game… Evaluating Triple H’s Current Title Reign

I wrote a column back in early September about the “epidemic of the fluke title win.” This was right after Jericho had won it in the Scramble where champion CM Punk was not even in the match. In that column, I discussed how constantly switching the top belt in the company will devalue it and the fans will loose interest. Well here we go again. After the 800th edition of Raw, complete with celebration, Chris Jericho once again became the World Champion by defeating Batista in a Steel Cage. That makes 6 World Champions over the past few months. Every time the title has changed hands lately, its been with next to no build. Taker was stripper by Vicki, Edge was KO’d by Batista and Punk cashed in Money In The Bank, Jericho seized opportunity at Unforgiven, and Batista used tons of interference to win at Cyber Sunday. Now one week after that, Jericho is champ again with staring down the pike at Survivor Series.

Raw Thoughts –
– Wow, Stephanie, nice facelift!!! Holy cow, she looked creepy.
– I actually really liked DX vs. Miz & Morrison. I was fearing this would be a total burial, but DX sold like crazy for the young guns especially Morrison who came across as a total prick for hitting Sweet Chin Music on Triple H. Good match overall as they continue to push MNM 2.0 as the future of the business.
– I don’t quite understand the whole Adamle deal as the GM position is in the same state as the world title… constant flux.
– The main event was AWESOME. Overall one of the best cage matches in recent memory, with everything hitting nicely. Batista had plenty of chances to walk out and retain but never thought he could lose and paid for it. If I were booking, which I am not, Batista demands his rematch and works into the Survivor Series main event making it a triple threat. Batista can claim he beat Cena at Summerslam and thus deserves the shot and can slowly start inching heel. At Survivor Series he would win the belt back, and hold it till Wrestlemania where he faces Cena.
– Last week I made a big deal about what Punk & Kofi did to deserve a title match. Well, what did Cena do? He has had an AWFUL year barely breaking even on ppv, jobbing cleanly to JBL, Triple H and Batista this year on ppv. And now because of name recognition he jumps into another ppv main event? I don’t buy that. I would have preferred him as a team member on an elimination match.

While Raw’s World Heavyweight Title continues to play hot potato, Smackdown’s WWE Title has found a nice comfy home with Triple H. Hunter is currently enjoying his 12th Title reign in the WWE. For a man with all the political clout we know Hunter has, some of his reigns were incredibly short and non-important. So let’s take a look back at the 12 reigns of Triple H and vote in which reign defined him as THE GAME, The Cerebral Assassin, and HUNTOR the BARBARIAN.

# 1 – 8/99 – 9/99 – His first reign as champion began and ended on Monday Night Raw. One night after Summerslam, Triple H challenged newly crowned champion Mankind, in a precursor to their epic series in early 2000, and pinned him with the Pedigree. His first reign of terror ended in embarrassment when he challenged the boss Vince McMahon. After bloodying Vince and toying with him, Stone Cold darted out and delivered the Stunner giving Vince the Title. A one month reign ending with a loss to the boss is not the great beginning the Game would have liked.

# 2 – 9/99 – 11/99 – When Vince surrendered the title to the winner of the upcoming 6-Pack Challenge at Unforgiven 1999, things didn’t look good when Austin was named guest enforcer. But Austin would actually count Hunter’s pin on the Rock giving him his 2nd title. It ended when Austin was replaced in a triple threat match at Survivor Series by Big Show. The result, a shocked Triple H took a chokeslam and the pin. His second reign did work to legitimize him as THE TOP heel in the company. He beat Stone Cold one on one at No Mercy and also took out the Rock with a Pedigree. Despite the loss, it came against a surprise opponent who Triple H had not prepared for.

# 3 – 1/3/00 – 4/00 – The quintessential reign of Triple H came in early 2000 when he defeated Big Show on Raw to regain the title. From that point on, the McMahon-Helmsley alliance was formed and in control of the WWE. He would have 2 classic encounters with Cactus Jack, one in a Streetfight at the Royal Rumble (Best match I ever saw in person) where he won with a Pedigree on thumbtacks. In February, he “retired” Foley in the Hell in a Cell. He became the first heel to win at Wrestlemania before finally succumbing to the Rock at Backlash. His matches were always 4 + stars and he was an overall all-star for the company.

# 4 – 5/00 – 6/00 – Another one month reign for Triple H started and ended by the Rock. He beat Rock in an overrated but still classic Ironman Match at Judgment Day before dropping it back at King of the Ring in a bizarre 6-man where Rock pinned Vince McMahon to become champ.

# 5 – 3/02 – 4/02 – After tearing his quad in May of 2001, Triple H took off to recover the rest of the year. He returned in January and won the 2002 Royal Rumble and would go on to Wrestlemania X – 8 where he would defeat Chris Jericho, in a match totally overshadowed by Hogan/Rock. But despite the long trek back, Hunter’s reign was again shortened to a month as he dropped the belt to Hulk Hogan at Backlash after Chris Jericho interfered.

# 6 – 9/02 – 11/02 – On Raw, in September of 2002, the Undisputed Title was banished to Smackdown with Brock Lesnar leaving Raw without a title. Eric Bischoff, Raw’s GM needed a champion and he handed the Big Gold Belt to Hunter to be his champion. After turning away challenges from RVD and Kane at Unforgiven and No Mercy, Hunter stepped into the first ever Elimination Chamber at Survivor Series 2002. After nearly having his throat crushed by RVD early on, he lasted to the end before falling to a Shawn Michaels Superkick and dropping the title to his good buddy.

# 7 – 12/02 – 9/03 – Ah… The reign that made the internet hate Triple H began at Armageddon 2002 in a three stages of hell match where Triple H regained the strap from his DX running mate Shawn Michaels. 10 months of terrible matches and horrible booing would follow. This reign as champ was stained by a candidate for Worst Match Ever at the Rumble in 03 when he and Scott Steiner embarrassed themselves. They had a putrid rematch at No Way Out before Booker T entered the picture. Triple H made the infamous racist comment on Raw towards Booker, “People like you don’t win World Titles.” He went on to prove that at Wrestlemania XIX when he kicked out of all Booker’s big moves including a rare WWE appearance of the Harlem Hangover before hitting the Pedigree and laying around forever before rolling over and getting the pin. He would go to have 2 matches against his Clique friend Kevin Nash, and would even job out Goldberg before finally laying down for Goldie at Unforgiven. Modern hatred of Triple H started there and continue to this day for some.

# 8 – 12/03 – 3/04 – Who else could beat the unstoppable Goldberg? Why, Triple H of course! He regained the title at Armageddon in a triple threat involving Kane. He would go on to have a MOTYC against Shawn Michaels on Raw at year’s end, and his feud with Shawn continued through New Years into 2004. It came to a head at Wrestlemania when the two men joined with Chris Benoit to have the MOTY of 2004 in a Triple Threat where Triple H tapped to the Crippler Crossface.

# 9 – 9/04 – 1/04 – Unforgiven is a popular month for Triple H as Champion. One month after Randy Orton became the youngest World Champ ever, he was quickly dumped out of Evolution and beaten by Triple H for the World Title. This reign would last through Survivor Series where Orton’s team beat Triple H’s, and on Raw either in late 04 or early 05, a triple threat match between Triple H, Benoit and Edge left the title vacant.

# 10 – 1/05 – 3/05 – The vacant title was on the line in the first New Year’s Revolution ppv where Hunter was one of 6 men in an Elimination Chamber. It came down to Orton and Triple H, but Batista would destroy Orton allowing Triple H to win it back. Batista quickly realized he was being used by Evolution. After winning the Rumble, he made his target clear and went at Triple H in the main event of Wrestlemania XXI. One Batista Bomb later, and Triple H was out another title reign.

# 11 – 10/07 – 10/07 (SAME NIGHT) – After John Cena was injured forcing him to relinquish his year long WWE Title reign, Vince announced Randy Orton as his new champ to open the No Mercy ppv. Triple H called their bluff and challenged Orton “RIGHT NOW.” After a sneak roll up, Triple H was WWE Champion. Orton got his rematch later that night and defeated the Game in a brutal Last Man Standing match.

# 12 – 4/08 – Present – It was Game Night for the Age of Orton at Backlash this year when Triple H beat Orton, Cena and JBL in a Fatal 4-Way to become the champ again. Since he became champion he has 2 put down rematches from Orton (once in a cage, and once at ONS where he broke his collarbone). He won an overbooked mess with Edge, and went through the Khali test at Summerslam. He was the only champion to survive his Unforgiven Scramble. Since then, two close calls against Jeff Hardy set him towards an inevitable meeting with Kozlov at Survivor Series. Here is the main problem with the reign: He is no longer the top man on the top show but rather the leader of the B-Show in Smackdown. His competition just isn’t there. He had a great TV match with Taker that ended in a No Contest, and his other competitors are Big Show, Jeff Hardy, Kozlov, MVP, Shelton, and Kendrick. Not exactly a top level of super-heels there. Raw right now has Cena, Batista, Orton, Shawn, Jericho, JBL and more. Triple H needs Edge back and healthy and ready for a good long feud because otherwise, he will simply be a man without competition.

The final vote is in… Triple H’s Best Title Reign was… His early 2000 run when he was battling Cactus, Rock, Jericho and more all the while dominating the TV with his wife Stephanie. This was the Triple H as World Champion we all knew and loved.

That’s it for me. Lets see who the President and World Champ are next week. Till then, have fun storming the castle.