The Top 20 Matches of Triple H: The Results

[Waffel113]

And so we've come down to our final two. 19 points separated #1 and #2 on this week's countdown, with the matches taking place about 13 months apart. Both matches are remembered for brutality, but just one was a title match. The other? The culmination of a near-two year long build. Without further ado...



2
Triple H vs. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin - Three Stages of Hell Match - No Way Out 2001 - 47 Points (Listed #1 twice)

At Survivor Series 1999, somebody ran over Steve Austin with a car as he was set to challenge for the WWF Championship. 9 months later, Austin returned and found that the perpetrator was Rikishi, who said that he did it "for The Rock...for the people." An incensed Austin would eventually brutalize Rikishi in a No Holds Barred Match at No Mercy, which was declared a no-contest as he was about to run Rikishi over with his truck.

A few Raws later, Austin was facing Rikishi and Kurt Angle in a Handicap Match when Triple H hit the ring, ostensibly to tag with Stone Cold. Triple H cleared the ring...and blasted Austin with his sledgehammer! A week later, The Game proclaimed, "Your search is over, Austin. It was me all along, you dumb son of a bitch!" The Game had paid Rikishi off to attack Austin, in the hopes that he would win the WWF Championship at Survivor Series. At the next Survivor Series, Triple H would attempt to do the job himself, but Austin would lift Triple H's car with a forklift, and drop it from twenty feet in the air.

There followed a series of one interfering in the other's title match and vice versa. Vince McMahon finally had enough after Royal Rumble 2001 (where Austin cost Triple H the WWF Championship and won the Royal Rumble), and made the two have a Three Stages of Hell Match at No Way Out to put the feud to rest.

Match 1 was a standard match, with Austin would win. Up next was a Street Fight. You'd assume Austin would have the advantage there, but apparently Triple H's encounters with Cactus Jack gave him the experience he needed to edge Stone Cold out, setting up the third and final fall: a Steel Cage Match.

The two rivals went back and forth inside the cage, but Austin would eventually fall victim to a Pedigree, putting their feud to bed once and for all.

[Waffel113]

1
Triple H vs. Cactus Jack - Street Fight for the WWF Championship - Royal Rumble 2000 - 66 Points (Listed #1 four times)

A list of foreign objects and/or weapons used during this match: steel chairs, barbed-wire, 2X4s, barbed-wire wrapped 2X4s, the ring steps, handcuffs, pallets, trash cans, The Rock (really), and last but not least, thumbtacks.

The Helmsley-McMahon Factgime had ruled over the WWF with an iron fist, and nobody fell victim to this more than Mick Foley. Assaulted several times and finally fired, Foley would vanish until the entire Raw roster, led by The Rock, demanded that he be reinstated, or they would walk out. Foley was reinstated and requested to face Triple H in a Street Fight. Triple H accepted, and promptly laid Foley out with two Pedigrees.

A few weeks later, Triple H was boasting when Mick Foley came onto the screen. He said that he, Mick Foley, probably couldn't defeat Triple H in a Street Fight, but he knew a guy who could. Triple H could only look on in terror as Foley unbuttoned his shirt and revealed the CACTUS JACK WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE T-shirt underneath. 

And so we get to the match itself, and it is brutal as advertised. We're talking unprotected chair shots, low blows with the aforementioned barbed-wire wrapped 2X4, stump puller piledrivers through announce tables...if you could think of it, they probably did it.

Alas, Jack fell victim to the Law of Thumbtacks: to wit, if a wrestler breaks out thumbtacks in a match, they will inevitably become a pincushion by the end of the match. One Pedigree wasn't enough, and it looked like Trips was about to go headfirst onto the tacks, but he countered with a backdrop onto the pile of tacks. A second Pedigree would make Cactus the pincushion, and Triple H's WWF Championship remained around his waist.

[Hulkshi Tanahashi]

Triple H
10. Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin VS Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, WWF World Tag Team Title Match, RAW 5-21-2001 (23)
9. Triple H VS Chris Jericho, Last Man Standing Match, Fully Loaded 2000 (22)
8. Triple H VS Ric Flair, World Heavyweight Title Match, RAW 5-19-2003 (24)
7. Triple H VS The Rock, Ladder Match For The Intercontinental Title, SummerSlam 1998 (9)
6. Triple H VS Kurt Angle, WWF Title Match, Royal Rumble 2001 (18)
5. Triple H VS Shawn Michaels VS Booker T VS Kane VS Chris Jericho VS Rob Van Dam, Elimination Chamber For The World Heavyweight Title Match, Survivor Series 2002 (10)
4. Triple H VS Cactus Jack, Street Fight For The WWF Title, Royal Rumble 2000 (1)
3. Triple H VS Cactus Jack, Hell In A Cell For The WWF Title, No Way Out 2000 (6)
2. Triple H VS Shawn Michaels, Street Fight, SummerSlam 2002 (3)
1. Triple H VS Stone Cold Steve Austin, 3 Stages Of Hell Match, No Way Out 2001 (2)

[Waffel113]

I'll put up a three topic poll tomorrow afternoon. From there, you can vote on what you want the next topic to be. Deadline for that vote will be Friday.

[Crappler El 0 M]

1. Triple H v. Steve Austin (3 Stages of Hell) – No Way Out (02/25/2001) [2]
2. Triple H v. Cactus Jack (Street Fight) – Royal Rumble (01/23/2000) [1]
3. Triple H v. Cactus Jack (Hell in a Cell) – No Way Out (02/27/2000) [6]
4. Triple H v. Shawn Michaels v. Chris Benoit (Triple Threat) – WrestlMania XX (03/14/2004) [5]
5. Triple H v. Shawn Michaels v. Chris Benoit (Triple Threat) – Backlash (04/18/2004) [T-15]
6. Triple H v. The Undertaker (Hell in a Cell) – WrestleMania XXVIII (04/01/2012) [4]
7. Triple H v. Batista (Hell in a Cell) – Vengeance (06/26/2005) [8]
8. Triple H & Steve Austin v. Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit – WWE Raw (05/21/2001) [T-21]
9. Triple H v. The Undertaker (No Holds Barred) – WrestleMania XXVII (04/03/2011) [T-26]
10. Triple H v. Shawn Michaels (Unsanctioned Street Fight) – SummerSlam (08/24/2002) [3]

[bytor]

1. vs. Cactus Jack- Royal Rumble 2000
2. vs. Steve Austin- No Way Out 2001
3. vs. Cactus Jack- No Way Out 2000
4. vs. Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels- Wrestlemania 20
5. vs. Shawn Michaels- Summerslam 2002
6. vs. Rock- Judgment Day 2000
7. vs. Rock- Backlash 2000
8. vs. Batista- Vengeance 2005
9. vs. Chris Jericho- Fully Loaded 2000
10. vs. Shawn Michaels- Raw 12/29/03

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

1. Triple H vs Cactus Jack - Street Fight - Royal Rumble 2000
2. Triple H vs Batista - Hell in a Cell - Vengeance 2005
3. Triple H vs The Rock - Backlash 2000
4. Triple H vs Randy Orton - Last Man Standing - No Mercy 2007
5. Triple H vs Daniel Bryan - Wrestlemania 30
6. Triple H vs Stone Cold Steve Austin - 3 Stages of Hell
7. Triple H vs The Rock - Ladder Match - SummerSlam 1998
8. Triple H vs Shawn Michaels - SummerSlam 2002
9. Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista vs Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins - No Holds Barred Elimination - Payback 2014
10. Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista vs Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins - Extreme Rules 2014

[MikeyMania]

1. Triple H vs. Cactus Jack – Royal Rumble 2000 – January 23, 2000 (1)
2. Triple H vs. The Undertaker – WrestleMania XXVIII – April 1, 2012 (4)
3. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels – SummerSlam 2002 – August 25, 2002 (3)
4. Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan – WrestleMania XXX – April 6, 2014 (7)
5. Triple H vs. Kurt Angle vs. Rikishi vs. Steve Austin vs. The Rock vs. The Undertaker – Armageddon 2000 – December 10, 2000 (T-15)
6. Triple H vs. Booker T vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kane vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Shawn Michaels – Survivor Series 2002 – November 17, 2002 (T-10)
7. Evolution vs. The Shield – Payback 2014 – June 1, 2014 (T-15)
8. Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Cactus Jack – Raw – September 22, 1997 (T-24)
9. DX vs. Rated RKO – New Year’s Revolution 2007 – January 7, 2007 (T-26)
10. Triple H vs. Batista – Vengeance 2005 – June 26, 2005 (8)