Would you have been happy with HHH going over at Mania 22?

[ChitownKnight]

Half the Crowd wanted him to win back then, and this was only a year removed from his reign of terror. I def think they made the right choice with Cena winning, cementing him as the Man.

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

Trips going over could well have killed Cena, especially with as much of the audience was clearly happy to see it happen.

[Chiral]

If HHH didn't turn the storyline into "You're a shitty wrestler" maybe, but he tanked it with the "If you say I'm a terrible wrestler and lose, you just lost to a terrible wrestler, if you beat a terrible wrestler, you didn't really accomplish anything" rule.

[mc74]

Honestly, I'd be much more happy had Edge walked into Wrestlemania that year as champion, but I'll save that for another discussion.

On topic, they made the right call with having Cena win. With Triple H already spending the better part of 2002-2005 as the World Heavyweight Champion, it wouldn't make much sense for him to win the belt again.

[Muskrat]

At the time, I would’ve been fine with it but in hindsight Cena going over by tapping out Hunter was absolutely the right call

[Starshine]

f***. No.

I sat through a good chunk of WWE with Triple H on top, the pain was still very fresh. I felt like the only sane man when the audience was cheering for Trips to win.

Plus I was still sour they didn't go with Cena/Edge, which was easily the more interesting angle. But no, we so needed super-duper-megastar Triple H in the main event again. I mean, can you imagine the havoc if WWE hadn't gone with him in the main event?! They might have had to close the company a year later!

[ChitownKnight]

Feb 7, 2022 23:57:43 GMT -5 Starshine said:

f***. No.

I sat through a good chunk of WWE with Triple H on top, the pain was still very fresh. I felt like the only sane man when the audience was cheering for Trips to win.

Plus I was still sour they didn't go with Cena/Edge, which was easily the more interesting angle. But no, we so needed super-duper-megastar Triple H in the main event again. I mean, can you imagine the havoc if WWE hadn't gone with him in the main event?! They might have had to close the company a year later!

Edge vs Cena at Mania would of been dope, but Cena needed that crowning win which he didn’t really get with JBL. Edge was white hot but Cena def needed that win over Hunter to be the man

[A Platypus Rave]

Nah Cena was the right choice, having HHH win just cuts Cena off at the knees... especially after the you are a bad worker worked-shooty comments from Triple H...

It also shut HHH up about people being bad heels or whatever that they couldn't get Cena universally cheered.

[Starshine]

Feb 8, 2022 0:01:12 GMT -5 ChitownKnight said:

Feb 7, 2022 23:57:43 GMT -5 Starshine said:

f***. No.

I sat through a good chunk of WWE with Triple H on top, the pain was still very fresh. I felt like the only sane man when the audience was cheering for Trips to win.

Plus I was still sour they didn't go with Cena/Edge, which was easily the more interesting angle. But no, we so needed super-duper-megastar Triple H in the main event again. I mean, can you imagine the havoc if WWE hadn't gone with him in the main event?! They might have had to close the company a year later!

Edge vs Cena at Mania would of been dope, but Cena needed that crowning win which he didn’t really get with JBL. Edge was white hot but Cena def needed that win over Hunter to be the man

No he didn't. He'd spent a chunk of 2005 pinning Kurt Angle. Triple H was on about the same level of star power as Kurt, despite how WWE tries to convince us otherwise.

This is like arguing that Steve Austin needed to wrestle Undertaker at Mania 15 instead The Rock, who was on a similar main event trajectory as Edge at that time.

[mc74]

Feb 8, 2022 0:01:12 GMT -5 ChitownKnight said:

Feb 7, 2022 23:57:43 GMT -5 Starshine said:

f***. No.

I sat through a good chunk of WWE with Triple H on top, the pain was still very fresh. I felt like the only sane man when the audience was cheering for Trips to win.

Plus I was still sour they didn't go with Cena/Edge, which was easily the more interesting angle. But no, we so needed super-duper-megastar Triple H in the main event again. I mean, can you imagine the havoc if WWE hadn't gone with him in the main event?! They might have had to close the company a year later!

Edge vs Cena at Mania would of been dope, but Cena needed that crowning win which he didn’t really get with JBL. Edge was white hot but Cena def needed that win over Hunter to be the man

On the contrary, there's the argument that Triple H was featured in the title picture just about every single year since 2000, with the exception of 2001. As much as I like Triple H, I have to say this from an unbiased viewpoint: Cena vs Edge would've no doubt been the more interesting program, and their feud throughout the summer of 2006 is an indication of that.

[CMWaters]

Hell no.

I would have lost the bet I had at the time when there were people SO sure Trips was gonna win.

[ChitownKnight]

Feb 8, 2022 0:15:47 GMT -5 mc74 said:

Feb 8, 2022 0:01:12 GMT -5 ChitownKnight said:

Edge vs Cena at Mania would of been dope, but Cena needed that crowning win which he didn’t really get with JBL. Edge was white hot but Cena def needed that win over Hunter to be the man

On the contrary, there's the argument that Triple H was featured in the title picture just about every single year since 2000, with the exception of 2001. As much as I like Triple H, I have to say this from an unbiased viewpoint: Cena vs Edge would've no doubt been the more interesting program, and their feud throughout the summer of 2006 is an indication of that.

Maybe it’s because I was a 13/14 year old mark at the time but I was hyped for Cena vs HHH after Cena won the title, so maybe it was just a dream match for me lol

[wendytorrancev1]

Considering that I can't stand Cena for the life of me, I really wanted Triple H to go over. By this point, though, I had zero dog in that fight.

[eJm]

If they didn't go with the story they did, possibly.

But HHH burying Cena and Cena basically going "Yes sir, I do suck" and losing against him has real "Booker T loses to HHH after HHH was essentially being racist" without the racism.

[The Ichi]

That would have been beyond stupid.

Of course, most HHH wins were, so it'd have added up.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

I have never been happy with HHH going over

[Feyrhausen]

Mania 21 was set up as the next generation taking over. You had 2 new top stars and the next year should have been used building up new heels for them. Main events of Mania 22 should have been Cena/Edge and Batista/Henry. With Batista injured Rey/Orton would have been a good substitute.

[S-Chrome]

Feb 8, 2022 10:53:10 GMT -5 eJm said:

If they didn't go with the story they did, possibly.

But HHH burying Cena and Cena basically going "Yes sir, I do suck" and losing against him has real "Booker T loses to HHH after HHH was essentially being racist" without the racism.

In Re: to that, does anyone else notice that the JBL-Cena feud leading up to WrestleMania 21 was essentially a mea culpa of the Triple H/Booker feud leading up to 19? You know, including the right guy getting the win?

And yes, Triple H had been top heel running on 7 years at that point. Enough was enough. Cena going over was the correct call.

[eJm]

Feb 8, 2022 14:05:32 GMT -5 S-Chrome said:

Feb 8, 2022 10:53:10 GMT -5 eJm said:

If they didn't go with the story they did, possibly.

But HHH burying Cena and Cena basically going "Yes sir, I do suck" and losing against him has real "Booker T loses to HHH after HHH was essentially being racist" without the racism.

In Re: to that, does anyone else notice that the JBL-Cena feud leading up to WrestleMania 21 was essentially a mea culpa of the Triple H/Booker feud leading up to 19? You know, including the right guy getting the win?

…yeah, actually. Especially when JBL destroyed Cena’s US title to give the “proper” one to Orlando Jordan after he won it.

[thegame415]

At the time, yes. Looking back, no.