Triple H in 98/99 DX

[TGM]

I'm no HHHater but god did his crowd reactions suck during his DX tenure. The Outlaws were by far the act that carried DX and X-Pac gets great underdog face pops.

I was very surprised the night after Royal Rumble 99, Triple H was booked to dominate The Rock in that I Quit match which ended in shenanigans.

What did YOU think of 98/99 DX Triple H?

[Chestnutrice]

He was the shittiest member of DX, yet, he got more opportunities than the rest.

People rag about X-Pac heat, but X-Pac was so f***ing over in 99', and they pretty much killed everything about him when they turned him heel again for that horrible DX 2000. Which looking back, was the only time that HHH was over the rest of DX because he kept himself with Steph.

[The Rick Jericho]

Maybe HHH becomes that corporate commissioner and HBK becomes the face manager for DX?

Billy Gunn goes for the WWE title in the upper midcard.

X-Pac is your IC title contender.

Road Dogg is the European Champion.

Chyna is the Women's Champion.

Does this DX truly work better?

[Nickybojelais]

I've recently been watching this period chronologically on the network and I agree. In fact, when he took that time off for his knee surgery in late '98 his absence was barely noticed. The outlaws seemed to beat Trips in terms of popularity and even XPac seemed to be more popular.

He becomes an amazing heel by late '99, but watchingg him in '98 to early 1999 you'd have never guessed that he would reach that level so quickly.

[thegame415]

I think he was pretty over. I think he got overshadowed when he came back from his knee injury, which gave motivation for his heel turn.

[Renslayer]

I wasn't really feeling his DX run in late 99. He seemed beyond the group and bringing them back never made much sense to me.

[Deleted]

HHH was the fifth most over act in DX behind the Outlaws, Chyna, and Pac (who was legit over in 98-99). He got really lucky with the Stephanie McMahon storyline (in more ways than one), because he was awful before that.

[Deleted]

This was actually my favorite time period of Triple H. I was a big fan of his at the time. But by the time he turned heel... I was bored of him and everything he was doing Chris Jericho was doing better in WCW by himself. Now I've been a fan of Jericho's for the past almost 20 years, Triple I got sick of his shit a long time ago, and really only marked for him when he gets his asskicked by the right person.

[Aceorton]

Triple H in '98 was the epitome of the dude who thinks he's the funniest guy in the room but is actually not funny at all.

[mauled]

Aug 14, 2017 22:27:05 GMT -5 @conebone69 said:

HHH was the fifth most over act in DX behind the Outlaws, Chyna, and Pac (who was legit over in 98-99). He got really lucky with the Stephanie McMahon storyline (in more ways than one), because he was awful before that.

Not just Steph but Vince has always loved him even before that. It's because he was a body builder as well as a wrestler. That just made Vince Mark out.

[auph10imitated]

Actually this is where I tolerated HHH the most, yeah he was stil a bit of a dick but I think he was a bit more liable, maybe I am blinded by how great Rock/HHH Ladder Match at SSlam 98 was and his reaction there was awesome.

[Mozenrath]

I think he was alright, but he hadn't come into his own like he would in 2000. By then, he really seemed to get his character sweet spot of just loathesome, smug dick. (Cue "that's not his character, he's really like that" har har)

As auph10imitated pointed out, any notion he wasn't over is kinda bullshit if you watch the ladder match with Rock, where he's definitely getting strong face reactions, but it helped probably that was a really good match, and Rock was a solid heel.

[Deleted]

Aug 15, 2017 4:35:16 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I think he was alright, but he hadn't come into his own like he would in 2000. By then, he really seemed to get his character sweet spot of just loathesome, smug dick. (Cue "that's not his character, he's really like that" har har)

As auph10imitated pointed out, any notion he wasn't over is kinda bullshit if you watch the ladder match with Rock, where he's definitely getting strong face reactions, but it helped probably that was a really good match, and Rock was a solid heel.

Not only was HHH over and get a great pop when he won that SS ladder match, but it's also pretty cool seeing a heel Rock go into MSG and get the crowd to root for him as well.

[Mozenrath]

Aug 15, 2017 4:40:59 GMT -5 @dax said:

Aug 15, 2017 4:35:16 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I think he was alright, but he hadn't come into his own like he would in 2000. By then, he really seemed to get his character sweet spot of just loathesome, smug dick. (Cue "that's not his character, he's really like that" har har)

As auph10imitated pointed out, any notion he wasn't over is kinda bullshit if you watch the ladder match with Rock, where he's definitely getting strong face reactions, but it helped probably that was a really good match, and Rock was a solid heel.

Not only was HHH over and get a great pop when he won that SS ladder match, but it's also pretty cool seeing a heel Rock go into MSG and get the crowd to root for him as well.

I think it was approaching the point where Rock was having to put in a big effort to not turn face yet, so I will definitely commend Rock on that, as well as guys like Austin and Mankind for not getting overtaken by his whole catch-phrase machine shtick. Like, imagine how hopeless it'd have been to get a face reaction against Rock if you were a super milquetoast face.

I wish the Mark Henry and Chyna stuff wasn't part of the match or that they didn't have such a creepy vibe to it. That's probably my only complaint.

[Swamp Trout]

Just when he started to kind-of break through as an upper midcarder/potential main eventer at Summerslam 98, the knee injury set him back significantly

When he returned, he kind of started from scratch again, led DX into the feud against the Corporation and soon turned heel anyway

After WMXV, he oncs again struggled and looked lost and bland. His "I am the game" promo with JR helped getting him into the right direction, the Steph alliance got over well, the heel DX3.0 stuff was meh (they started looking like yesterday's news), then Foley MADE him

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

HHH was like when Scottie Pippen took over the Bulls when Jordan left.

Except he was more like Toni Kukoc or something

[wingedeagle]

People forget how popular he was before he went back to being a heel in 1999.

[Deleted]

Aug 14, 2017 22:54:28 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

Triple H in '98 was the epitome of the dude who thinks he's the funniest guy in the room but is actually not funny at all.

That's Triple H his whole career since DX.

[Pushed to the Moon]

I loved this period of HHH. Also his tights were awesome.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Aug 18, 2017 13:14:32 GMT -5 Pushed to the Moon said:

I loved this period of HHH. Also his tights were awesome.

Actually, I do also love the purple tights.

But still, I don't think there are that many people who look back fondly on Triple H in DX in this time period.

Triple H was always just in 'good midcarder' phase until mid-late 1999, and then sometime around then he suddenly became the best wrestler in the world, pretty much from then until his quad went in 2001.