The "Confirmed Stories of Triple H Being A Total Douchebag" Thread

[El-P]

Oh, and WRT Jericho, there was that item about HHH sarcastically going up to every wrestler on a house show tour and sarcastically gleaming about how Jericho was coming in and will be the savior who brings business up so much that everyone will be swimming in money.

HHH must have shited himself out of fear when Jericho came in. He wasn't fully established yet as a true star, and Jericho was coming with a huge buzz and awesome production behind him, arguing with the red hot Rock on TV.

Wonder why just a few months later he was feuding with X-Pac...

Seriously, Jericho had the potential to be a huge money maker and megastar for the WWF, maybe not on the Rock level, but well above HHH. If there was one guy to kill quickly, that was him.

[Marty]

Similar to the situation with Jericho's return, did HHH not hope that Bret Hart's storyline with Vince would fail?

 

Because of that, anyone else amused by the cover of the upcoming WM26 DVD? (The original advertising poster had HHH along with Cena, Batista, Taker and Shawn. The DVD has the four main matches on the cover: HBK-Taker, Cena-Batista, Jericho-Edge and Hart-McMahon. No HHH.)

[jdw]

I can never remember whether I'd told this story before, but in 2000 my dad worked with someone who lived in the same apartment building in Manhattan as Stephanie McMahon. At some point (Spring or Summer I'd guess) he saw HHH going up to Stephanie's apartment. It was long before it broke publicly that they were together and while he was still believed to be with Chyna.

Agree on this. I don't think it was too long into the Rape storyline, the feud with Vince and then the McMahon-Helmlsey alliance at the turn of the year before they were hooked up, at least quietly. I don't recall a definative moment when I'd been told and knew, but it was long before it was public.

 

John

[Eduardo]

Wasn't there a Smackdown Thanksgiving episode once, where Triple H out of nowhere did one of his shootish one liners about Jericho (possibly about Jericho's capabilities as a worker)? I can't remember exactly what was said and the context, but the two weren't even linked onscreen at the time and it just sounded so out of place. I'm pretty sure it was November 1999, or at the latest November 2000.

[jdw]

Oh, and WRT Jericho, there was that item about HHH sarcastically going up to every wrestler on a house show tour and sarcastically gleaming about how Jericho was coming in and will be the savior who brings business up so much that everyone will be swimming in money.

HHH must have shited himself out of fear when Jericho came in. He wasn't fully established yet as a true star, and Jericho was coming with a huge buzz and awesome production behind him, arguing with the red hot Rock on TV.

Wonder why just a few months later he was feuding with X-Pac...

Seriously, Jericho had the potential to be a huge money maker and megastar for the WWF, maybe not on the Rock level, but well above HHH. If there was one guy to kill quickly, that was him.

 

This was the period where Trip was his most paranoid. He's already been passed by three times: Austin took his spot, then Rock exploded and took his spot, then Mick suddenly got hot beyond what anyone could have expected. He did a hell of a job preventing another of those from happening. Folks could say that he didn't with Brock, but we also need to remember what happened after Rock put over Brock strongly to become the Champ: no more "unified champ" defending on both programs, and Trip literally getting handed Flair's belt.

 

Goldberg on the list yet? Trip really went out of his way to put Golderg over and help the company make a lot of money.

 

John

[kjh]

It killed the momentum of the finish, and probably let Hunter dodge ever jobbing to Cena ever again. After all, John is one of the few guys that Hunter just can't bury politically. So he ate this one loss, did it in a way which confused and pissed off the fans, and has most likely been using the "but I tapped out to him at Mania already!" excuse any time someone even whispers the idea of him losing to Cena at any time in the future.

To be fair to Hunter, he did do the job to Cena in a meaningless Triple Threat tag team match at Madison Square Garden on a Raw just before last year's Survivor Series.

 

Bring on the backstage stories, those are the ones I have trouble remembering. What exactly were Flair and Steamboat pushing for years, just to have Flair beat HHH one time?

Flair and Steamboast pushed for one last match between them at WM for years.

 

The other story was separate. Flair's last match in the Greensboro Coliseum (his home arena for years) on the retirement run was against HHH. HHH said he couldn't do a job because he had a match with Regal next the week that would be jeopardized or whatever if he lost to Flair, so the finish was some sort of shmoz. The Regal match the next week was a 3 minute nothing match.

Yes, I should have made that clearer. These were the two examples I could easily find on the Observer message board of Dave Meltzer giving examples of HHH burying his idol and best friend Ric Flair, but I get the sense it was a general trend and explained other strange creative decisions regarding Flair (not being allowed to Whooo anymore, not being given enough opportunities to talk, etc).

 

Wonder why just a few months later he was feuding with X-Pac...

And jobbing to his girlfriend Chyna like Jeff Jarrett did on the way out the door.

[Guest Cerebus The Aardvark]

Wasn't there a Smackdown Thanksgiving episode once, where Triple H out of nowhere did one of his shootish one liners about Jericho (possibly about Jericho's capabilities as a worker)? I can't remember exactly what was said and the context, but the two weren't even linked onscreen at the time and it just sounded so out of place. I'm pretty sure it was November 1999, or at the latest November 2000.

It was '99, and it was some vignette they were doing in the streets of random city. HHH came up to some homeless guy who had a sign that said "Will Work for Food" (or something very similar), and HHH said "You can't work, you're like Jericho!". At least, that is how I remember it, and I am pretty sure it's close to correct.

 

Goldberg on the list yet? Trip really went out of his way to put Golderg over and help the company make a lot of money.

Either you're really good at sarcasm, or I was asleep for that. My text sarcasm reader is currently broken, so I can't be certain which.

[Eduardo]

Wasn't there a Smackdown Thanksgiving episode once, where Triple H out of nowhere did one of his shootish one liners about Jericho (possibly about Jericho's capabilities as a worker)? I can't remember exactly what was said and the context, but the two weren't even linked onscreen at the time and it just sounded so out of place. I'm pretty sure it was November 1999, or at the latest November 2000.

It was '99, and it was some vignette they were doing in the streets of random city. HHH came up to some homeless guy who had a sign that said "Will Work for Food" (or something very similar), and HHH said "You can't work, you're like Jericho!". At least, that is how I remember it, and I am pretty sure it's close to correct.

 

That sounds right. Thanks.

[jdw]

My favorite douchebag Trip moments:

 

* pinning Austin *twice* in the three fall match on No Way Out (in the two tougher matches frankly) to set up facing Austin after Mania with Austin getting his win back. Trip stayed heel and drew Austin into a heel trio with him and Vince which made Austin look like a lesser heel rather than a stronger won cleaning Trip's clock

 

That put the company into another round of Austin-Taker with Kane mixed in that died. People love to blame this on Austin going hell, but lots of major faces have gone hell and done business, especially early on. See Hogan over in the other company. Austin bombed almost out of the gate. I chalk most of it up to Trip being a douchebag by not going opposite Austin and paying Austin back as strongly as Austin had put over Trip.

 

* being unwilling to go to the hilt on the Trip-Steph-Angle triangle

 

The storyline was over with the fans. It was adding an interesting element to the Trip-Steph storyline, and getting over Kurt strong than he'd ever been to that point. The Trip just quickly bigfooted it, tossed off Angle as being light in the loafers, beat him in the no DQ match the following PPV, which hilariously led into Angle pinning Rock for the Title on the PPV after that. Trip makes Kurt look like shit, then uses Kurt to undercut Rock. Mix in the element of not being willing to be cuckolded on TV by Kurt banging Steph. All of Trip's insecurities rolled into one douchebaggy run of fucking people and storylines over.

 

John

[jdw]

Goldberg on the list yet? Trip really went out of his way to put Golderg over and help the company make a lot of money.

Either you're really good at sarcasm, or I was asleep for that. My text sarcasm reader is currently broken, so I can't be certain which.

 

I was wondering if anyone mentioned Goldberg yet in the thread. Trip just fucked him up the ass royally.

 

John

[El-P]

And jobbing to his girlfriend Chyna like Jeff Jarrett did on the way out the door.

Oh, that's right. I had totally erased that from my memory. Feuding with Chyna and.... Bob Holly at the Rumble while Triple H was getting over Cactus Jack in a bloody hardcore match for the WWF title.

[Guest Cerebus The Aardvark]

Goldberg on the list yet? Trip really went out of his way to put Golderg over and help the company make a lot of money.

Either you're really good at sarcasm, or I was asleep for that. My text sarcasm reader is currently broken, so I can't be certain which.

 

I was wondering if anyone mentioned Goldberg yet in the thread. Trip just fucked him up the ass royally.

 

John

 

That's what I was assuming, but wasn't sure. And yeah, it's surprising no one has really brought that up yet. I think that definitely belongs in his personal Top 3 Douchebag Moments. I mean, I'm no Goldberg fan, really, but at least do what's smart for business (actually smart for business, not for YOUR business) ONCE.

[El-P]

I was wondering if anyone mentioned Goldberg yet in the thread. Trip just fucked him up the ass royally.

 

John

Yep. Much like he did Scott Steiner, who could have refresh the product as Big Poppa Pump was an excellent heel character and a WCW one to boot, so the WWF crowd would have surely hated him. So of course Steiner has to work face because god knows you don't want Big Poppa Pump to get actual heel heat because no one should be a bigger heel that Triple H. And of course Steiner gets to work those long "classic" Triple H style matches so he's exposed as a guy who can't work WWF style main event. Well done sir.

[kjh]

* being unwilling to go to the hilt on the Trip-Steph-Angle triangle

 

The storyline was over with the fans. It was adding an interesting element to the Trip-Steph storyline, and getting over Kurt strong than he'd ever been to that point. The Trip just quickly bigfooted it, tossed off Angle as being light in the loafers, beat him in the no DQ match the following PPV, which hilariously led into Angle pinning Rock for the Title on the PPV after that. Trip makes Kurt look like shit, then uses Kurt to undercut Rock. Mix in the element of not being willing to be cuckolded on TV by Kurt banging Steph. All of Trip's insecurities rolled into one douchebaggy run of fucking people and storylines over.

This has the added douchebag bonus points of Triple H in a creative meeting saying it wasn't credible for him to lose to Angle because he was too small or some other similar such nonsense, only for Gerald Brisco to pipe up that he's an Olympic Gold medalist in amateur wrestling.

[Jingus]

Yep. Much like he did Scott Steiner

Ooh, I forgot about that one! Steiner/HHH at the Rumble is one of the most blatant cases of sandbagging that I've ever seen, with one guy going out of his way to sabotage the other while still just barely putting forth enough effort so that he could say "hey man, I tried my best to get him over, he just doesn't know how to work".

 

This was the period where Trip was his most paranoid. He's already been passed by three times: Austin took his spot, then Rock exploded and took his spot, then Mick suddenly got hot beyond what anyone could have expected. He did a hell of a job preventing another of those from happening. Folks could say that he didn't with Brock, but we also need to remember what happened after Rock put over Brock strongly to become the Champ: no more "unified champ" defending on both programs, and Trip literally getting handed Flair's belt.

Trip has done this so many times that it's really quite shameless. You can tell how much he fears someone as a threat by exactly how he's booked with them.

 

He's most threatened by the top guys whom he's forced to get along with: Austin, Taker, Rock, Cena. With those guys, he often tries to simply avoid them as much as possible. Considering how long they were in the company together, it's remarkable that Stone Cold and The Game only had a grand total of four singles matches on PPV. (And one of those was in 1996 at an IYH.) Most of the time they've been in the same ring, it's a tag match or a three-way or a six-way or some other big clusterfuck to hide the fact that Austin is so far above HHH's league in every way that it's not even funny. Same thing with Undertaker, who I think has only had two PPV singles matches. And then there's Cena, who's only had one or two also. I can guess his justification: "That's a big dream match, let's not burn it out!" Totally ignoring the fact that Rock/HHH was a money-printing machine during their endless feud in 2000. And gee, look how many times HHH feuded with Rock after that: zero. Strange how that happened, once Trips had office power.

 

And then there's the others, the young up & comers. Jericho, Angle, Booker, RVD, and countless others. These are guys who get programmed into feuds with HHH and then somehow miraculously never seem to get a single meaningful win during the lengthy angless. What an odd coincedence! And that's not even counting the poor bastards lower on the totem pole, like the Spirit Squad or anyone else who Hunter frequently beat the shit out of during handicap matches over the past few years.

 

Wonder why just a few months later he was feuding with X-Pac...

And jobbing to his girlfriend Chyna like Jeff Jarrett did on the way out the door.

Actually, do you remember who Jericho's first official in-ring feud was supposed to be? That's right, Ken Shamrock. Huh, weird that he just so happened to be paired with the most-feared shooter in the company for his welcome party. Of course Shamrock got hurt, and Jericho got thrown into mini-feuds with Pac and Roadie where he never seemed to ever pin them. I know this is conspiracy theory territory, but don't forget that the Fed often did this kind of jumped-in gang initiation type shit with guys from other companies at the time. Like how the Acolytes were noticeably stiff and not terribly cooperative with the Dudley Boys in those guys' first WWF feud.

 

Funny you mention the Chyna thing, because I think that's where he finally got the office's attention. That was clearly supposed to be the gravestone on his young career, but Jericho instead carried her pimply non-working ass to the best matches of her life and made her look like a real wrestler for once. It was immediately after that (and a cup of coffee with Stiffy McStifferton, Bob Holly) when Jericho got bumped up the card to the Intercontinental level.

 

* pinning Austin *twice* in the three fall match on No Way Out (in the two tougher matches frankly) to set up facing Austin after Mania with Austin getting his win back. Trip stayed heel and drew Austin into a heel trio with him and Vince which made Austin look like a lesser heel rather than a stronger won cleaning Trip's clock

I do remember at the time how powerfully strange that was. World Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin was subtly treated like the bumbling sidekick to HHH's supervillain. Heck, even the name "Two Man Power Trip" implies that they're both supposed to be on the same level, and if you think you're on the same level as Stone Cold during the Attitude era and your name ain't Dwayne Johnson, then you're a goddamned idiot.

 

* being unwilling to go to the hilt on the Trip-Steph-Angle triangle

Heck, that reminds me of another one: the entire buildup to Wrestlemania 18. For this one, you have to go back to his injury. In storyline terms, it was technically Jericho who tore HHH's quad and put him out for a year. At least, if it was anyone besides HHH, that's how the story would have gone. Instead, we officially got the official story about how Trip injured himself and Jericho was just a bystander. When does that ever happen? When does the WWF ever say "yeah, this guy tripped over his own feet and got hurt" instead of blaming it on some worked attack? Strangely that's exactly what happened here, as if HHH was too paranoid to let anyone besides himself have the credit for putting him out.

 

Anyway, back to Mania. If they even mentioned that HHH got hurt against Jericho during the buildup, I certainly don't remember it. Instead, what was the buildup? Oh yeah, Hunter versus Stephanie. Jericho, the freaking undisputed champion of the world, was reduced to being Steph's lacky. And then there was the damn dog! It's stupid enough to include Hunter's never-previously-mentioned cute little doggy whom he supposedly loves to death. But if you're gonna do that, at least go the Matilda route and have the heel do something dastardly to it. They were too pussy to let the heel intentionally hurt the dog, leading to that incredibly retarded bit where Jericho accidentally backed into the dog with a car like a total moron.

 

And then there was the match, which Hunter seriously believed was more important than HULK HOGAN VERSUS THE ROCK. Trip starts super-selling his leg in like the first thirty seconds, sells it hard for the entire match like his foot is about to fall off, and then quite calmly just stands up and beats Jericho at the end. It took Chris eight freaking years to claw his way back to the world title after that.

[Bix]

He also really blatantly sandbagged Eddy Guerrero in their one singles match on the 2004 draft show.

 

Oh, and on the insecure as opposed to straight-up douchebag side of things, there was the story about how magazines were not allowed to show HHH "in a vulnerable or disadvantageous position" in photo features on of one of the SD vs Raw video games.

[jdw]

"... especially the ones who think HHH hate is so 2002."

-Dave

 

I think it's a sign of how gunshy about rolling out Trip Hate that so many are that it's taken until 2010 for us to open a Douchebag Trip thread. "Pro Old JR" has 19 pages, and isn't half as grouchy as Trip is a douche.

 

John

[S.L.L.]

He also really blatantly sandbagged Eddy Guerrero in their one singles match on the 2004 draft show.

Let's not forget the context of that: it happened on a draft special after Triple H had just been drafted to Smackdown (thus making the match possible), and then was almost immediately sent back to Raw for reasons that escape me. If HHH hate weren't so 2002, one might suspect that he saw that the hottest act in the company was on the other brand, got drafted to that brand for one night just so he could sandbag said hot act, and then go back to his original brand, feeling better about himself.

[jdw]

Let's not forget the context of that: it happened on a draft special after Triple H had just been drafted to Smackdown (thus making the match possible), and then was almost immediately sent back to Raw for reasons that escape me.

Trip was traded back to Raw for Booker and the Dudleys.

 

I know this is stupid because talking about making the WWE Draft better is useless: they're idiots and don't really have a clue how to make it work. That said, I don't think the "trade" concept is a bad one when having draft night. But I would make anyone drafted be ineligible to be traded. In other words, the GM's could trade, but it would be used to fill holes caused by the draft. Lose a young prospect? Raw might have one, but they'd like a tag team back. Lose a world title contender? Raw may have one who hs just finished his run on top. Etc.

 

The draft isn't too hard. But they're pretty ass backwards.

 

Joh

[Ditch]

RE WM 18: I was at the show and the main event had heat more on par with DDP vs Christian or Regal vs RVD than any of the important bouts. Way less heat than the sub-par Austin vs Hall. Not even in the same universe as Rock/Hogan.

[jdw]

Trip-Y2J laid a bomb. Folks should have known it going in, but perhaps ego made them make sure to put the Title on last. Which is strange since back in 1992, they put Hogan-Sid on last, and Savage-Flair for the title (and a face win) in the middle. My only thought is that Trip & Steph were delusional over the reaction Trip got for his "comeback" earlier in the year and thought he was more over than Rock or Hogan.

 

John

[Loss]

HHH/Jericho build to X-8 is really a big case of HHH shooting himself in the foot. His burial of Jericho served to also kill the momentum from his own comeback. HHH got an insane reaction when he returned that was pretty much gone within a couple of weeks. It seems like I've also heard that this was the beginning of Rock's falling out with WWE, as he put Jericho over for months, praised him as the best worker in the company to pretty much everyone, and then HHH gets him and undoes it all in not much time. I remember something about the Helms match in '03 -- that Rock wanted to put him over, but didn't want him doing a program or match with HHH after to make the win seem meaningless. HHH ended up squashing Helms the night after WM, and that's supposedly when Rock checked out of his feud with Goldberg.

 

HHH/Jericho had a natural built-in storyline, was a fresh match, and had a little backstory beyond the torn quad because the two had feuded before. Jericho paired with Steph would have been a pretty crazy heat magnet, which must be why it didn't happen.

[Strummer]

After reading this thread I read this at 411:

 

- According to Pwinsider.com, the latest edition of the WWE comic book is anything but PG. The second issue of the comic features a terrorist group taking over WrestleMania, and both HHH and Chris Jericho being murdered

[Ronnie]

In the early part of the decade a whole plethora of WWE performers with long, blonde hair, were compelled by the office to cut their luscious locks. One person didn't have to, and maintained "his image".

 

The worst thing about this wasn't that he was beaten so easily, but he was beaten so easily in a storyline where Triple H played a wink wink racist.

Wasn't it also the case that not only did he only require the one Pedigree to beat Booker, but he could also afford a 23-second power nap before making the cover, secure in the knowledge that Booker wouldn't kick out?

 

There was the opposite thing last night, where the fact that Sheamus only needs to hit his kick thing once against everyone else was irrelevant. Despite assaulting HHH with an iron bar and giving him nerve damage prior to the match, Sheamus still had to hit his kick four times. Four.

 

The glee with which HHH packaged the Spirit Squad off to OVW on live TV was a bit much for me to think that the writers just happened to write that into the script off their own backs.

 

And I thought that it was particularly galling that the retired Lilian Garcia came back as a one-off the other night to help resolve the problems of the Raw crew being stranded in Europe, only for HHH to acknowledge her return with a comment for the TV audience's delectation about her "horsing around".

[kjh]

I remember something about the Helms match in '03 -- that Rock wanted to put him over, but didn't want him doing a program or match with HHH after to make the win seem meaningless. HHH ended up squashing Helms the night after WM, and that's supposedly when Rock checked out of his feud with Goldberg.

I thought the story was Rock refused to put Booker T over in a singles match to make him the number one contender to HHH's World title, because he suspected HHH wouldn't put Booker over at Mania, so they did a twenty man Battle Royal instead. There may be something to what you say about Hurricane too though.

 

Jericho paired with Steph would have been a pretty crazy heat magnet, which must be why it didn't happen.

Same reason that Angle never paired up with Steph properly. It wasn't credible for super stud HHH to have his ex wife shacked up with another wrestler. He also might have been paranoid about fiction becoming reality again.