Anyone else liked Ode to Joy 1996-97 Triple H?

[The Rick Jericho]

Once he changed the music and got Chyna. I thoroughly enjoyed his run pre-Dx. He was getting over as a good midcarder and he could've easily kept the IC title longer in 1997 without having to drop it to Rocky.

He seemed to be really freshen up as this act. I think the theme music change did him a lot of good during this period.

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

Yeah, absolutely. He really finds his footing in early-mid '97. He's bigger, still has the blue blood thing whilst also having an edge and swagger to him, and Chyna as his bodyguard definitely completed the package.

[Citizen Snips Has Left]

His summertime feud with Foley (that eventually featured the WWF debut of Cactus Jack and the first teaming of DX) was top notch. First time I really saw something in ol’ Hunter.

[the2ndevil]

I always appreciate when a wrestler’s entrance music is a piece of classical music.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

Aug 19, 2022 18:49:30 GMT -5 The Rick Jericho said:

Once he changed the music and got Chyna. I thoroughly enjoyed his run pre-Dx. He was getting over as a good midcarder and he could've easily kept the IC title longer in 1997 without having to drop it to Rocky.

He seemed to be really freshen up as this act. I think the theme music change did him a lot of good during this period.

It was a really to me the music change kind of ushered that HHH is really going to the next level. Compared to his first theme. It as more impact to get a crowd reaction the moment it started.

[Aceorton]

My HHH appreciation is kind of the inverse of what it should have been in the early years. I loved the initial snotty blueblood stuff and everything he did from his debut through roughly the end of '96. When he faced Austin in a heel vs. heel match at Buried Alive and swerved everyone with the Perfect alliance and winning the IC belt, I was 100% behind the guy and loved that things were looking up for him.

Then, starting around Royal Rumble '97, which happens to coincide with the music change, he just completely lost me. I suddenly found him painfully boring. HHH vs. Goldust was a feud that looked GREAT on paper, and I couldn't get into it. They had plodding matches a lot of the time. Mr. Hughes was lame. Chyna didn't intrigue me at all. The KOTR win felt cheap and the result of them not having a better candidate that year (HHH had even been eliminated once by Ahmed before getting a second chance). The Mankind feud mostly pissed me off because I thought Foley deserved better. Then the DX stuff started, and for the next two years I found HHH's act to be beyond lame. Even when he was supposed to be a babyface, he came off as the guy who thinks he's really cool and hip and funny but actually isn't.

When he became the Game in 1999 and got paired with Stephanie, it changed back. I thought he was a fantastic top heel feuding with the Rock, Jericho and Angle over the belt, and his matches didn't put me to sleep anymore.

[thecrusherwi]

One of my least favorite characters ever. When I heard that theme, I switched to Nitro. Obnoxious character (in a non-endearing way) who had some horribly boring matches. If you had told me that two years later, he’d be the best heel the business had seen in a decade, I never would’ve believed you.

Aug 20, 2022 20:01:46 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

HHH vs. Goldust was a feud that looked GREAT on paper, and I couldn't get into it.

I agree with most of what you wrote, but I want to touch upon this specifically. That might be my least favorite feud of all time. God those matches were boring. Their Wrestlemania 13 match made 15 minutes feel like two hours.

[Aceorton]

Aug 20, 2022 20:06:26 GMT -5 thecrusherwi said:

That might be my least favorite feud of all time. God those matches were boring. Their Wrestlemania 13 match made 15 minutes feel like two hours.

I always forget that match was on the show, and I was even there. They also faced each other on two separate RAWS I attended later that spring. It was the matchup I couldn't escape.

To be completely fair, I think a lot of it was Goldust being lazy. HHH had solid matches with lots of other guys before that feud, including Mero, who wasn't exactly Bret Hart.

[salz4life]

I actually do like the in-between Hunter (between the Blue Blood Hunter Hurst Helmsley and the DX HHH). He was a blue-blood with an edge.

[tafkaga]

I've always thought he was some degree of boring, but the blue blood Hunter was pretty bad... especially when he talked. That accent. He was like an unironic Earl Robert of Eaton.

[salz4life]

Was the music change about the time he got out of the "dog house" for MSG?

[Ozman]

I liked “Ode To Joy” HHH as well. The transition period between Ode To Joy and DX was a little weird, especially when HHH would come out to “Ode To Joy” accompanied by Chyna, Shawn Michaels and Rick Rude.

[Ben Wyatt]

Aug 19, 2022 19:48:22 GMT -5 Citizen Snips Has Left said:

His summertime feud with Foley (that eventually featured the WWF debut of Cactus Jack and the first teaming of DX) was top notch. First time I really saw something in ol’ Hunter.

That's a feud that did wonders for both guys

[Marvelous1LUFC]

I still believe "Ode to Joy" is his best theme, i believe it is Europes official anthem. But of course "ode to joy" Wouldn't have fit neither DX or The game.

The theme had before "Ode to Joy" was terrible

[Deleted]

I just remember the movie channel Starz was using Ode to Joy around the same time. So my group of friends who found him painfully dull started calling him the movie guy & wanted him to be like The Critic anything to make him passably entertaining. When I want movies I wanna see Starz!