The HHH character during the reign of terror

[Greer]

As much as the reign of terror is destroyed and looked at as the point when the WWE became boring, it must be said that the HHH character was pretty awesome.

He was malicious, arrogant, snobby and a very dangerous man. If I dare say it, he reminded me of Ric Flair from the 80's.

Always had a plan, and a backup plan for his backup plan. I honestly think that was one of the best heel runs I had ever seen and remains one of the best.

This topic isn't about the title reign, but your opinion on the character of HHH during the reign.

[Mozenrath]

He always has reminded me of Harley Race more, but I can certainly see it.

My favorite Triple H is Triple H 2000, but that is probably because Reign Triple H had injury issues and lackluster feud opponents by comparison.

[millionurkle]

Yeah, Triple H's character was good. It was also well done when Shane Douglas did it in ECW. I'm not knocking HHH, it's a tried and tested character which HHH played to near perfection. He just had too many contenders buried.

[Arturo Classico]

the character wasn't bad the problem with it was they didn't have any strong characters that could make you think they could vanquish HHH, until Batista. First you had Booker T, if they could have made him a threat and give more promos and make him credible it could of been great, but was squashed and sent down the card again. Than you had Kane who as huge monster that could be really scary and have good matches but was made of a fool constantly by HHH in the past and.......than lost yet again and his last shred of credibility in his mask, thanks WWE! also to the list you could add RVD, Chris Benoit, and Goldberg.

So yeah the character wasn't bad but the booking of it.

[thuschongswing]

First off, let me start by stating that the reign of terror was by far the most least entertaining thing Triple H had been involved in, ever...but, despite that, the CHARACTER Triple H had was just awesome IMO. It was one part Ric Flair (think Triple Naitch), one part cerebral assassin, and one part Greenwich blueblood; in other words, it was the Triple H character coming full circle.

[Schattenjager]

He was really fat.

[Deleted]

I hate 2 admit this too....and I'm not sure if this was 2003 or 2004. When Triple H tried getting Eugene to do his bidding though, that was plain evil

I remember watching the video on youtube, where Hunter and Eugene are about to take a picture, and when HHH says "On 3, I want you to say Pedigree...", the audience reaction was absolutly priceless

[luiscurse]

Kayfabe good, real-life bad,
that reign of terror threw the WWE off, something it hasn't recovered from yet.

[jamielowndes {N}]

Plain and simple, Evolution HHH was a thing of beauty, and Evolution itself was just the epitome of awesome.

[chunkylover53]

I remember the IWC lynched him beyond belief, and I was rebelling against them. Good times.

[Wii M Punk]

I don't hate the reign of terror as much as majority seems to.

Look at his opponents throughout that reign.

- Steiner: Only move he could do was a Belly-to-Belly Suplex.... 100 times. Remember the match at Rumble 2003? Triple H had to work his ass off to try and carry Steiner through that match but it was damn near impossible. Steiner was way past his best and would not have made a good champion.

- Booker T: If there was a time to give Booker the title then it was then but in hindsight holding it back a few years till he was King Booker was actually more entertaining. No, this Triple H "burial" of Booker T doesn't bother me as much as most.

- Kevin Nash: Similar to Steiner in a way that he was past his best but he could still at least move in the ring. Match with Hunter at Judgment Day wasn't great but the Jacknife through the table, post-match, was super sweet. The HIAC match was pretty decent IMO.

- Goldberg: As a Goldberg mark, I was fuming when Triple H retained the gold at Summerslam 2003 in the Elimination Chamber. If I remember right, Hunter was carrying an injury in his thighs (hence the biker short attire) and hardly did a move in the Chamber, instead opting to hide in the pod. When it came down to Goldberg and Triple H, he used the sledgehammer when Goldberg went for the spear, got the cover and won. Yeah, I flipped out at that point, thought that was B.S. but then we got the payoff a month later anyway.

- Shawn Michaels & Chris Benoit: Yeah Hunter got the belt back but it allowed us to see an excellent World Title match between Shawn and Triple H on Monday Night Raw. Then a few weeks later an awesome Last Man Standing Match at the Royal Rumble against Shawn. Then of course we got the awesome payoff of the Triple Threat Match at Wrestlemania XX.

- Randy Orton: Ok, at the time this smelled of B.S. but think about it. Orton as the fresh, cool babyface? All smiles and good looks? OR Orton as the psychotic, cold, calculating tweener? What would you prefer to cheer? Orton wasn't really ready for a massive face run (especially in that persona) and definitely wasn't ready to be a long reigning World Champion.

- Batista: Well... he's given us a lot of Photoshop opportunitues, hasn't he?

Ok so yeah there was a few instances of "THIS IS F'N B.S." during the reign of terror but IMO the positives outweigh the negatives.

At the end of the day Triple H is a heel and when he's in this persona he's a damn good heel. You, as a mark, tune in to see the Heel get his ass kicked and lose. Hunter keeps winning, by hook or by crook, so it keeps you tuning in to see him finally get what he deserves.

That's how I view it all anyway.

[8.2.11/SAVIOR_NEZ]

Apr 20, 2010 7:55:18 GMT -5 Wii M Punk said:

- Randy Orton: Ok, at the time this smelled of B.S. but think about it. Orton as the fresh, cool babyface? All smiles and good looks? OR Orton as the psychotic, cold, calculating tweener? What would you prefer to cheer? Orton wasn't really ready for a massive face run (especially in that persona) and definitely wasn't ready to be a long reigning World Champion.

I think this was when I got sick of Triple H for real. I loved booing him as a heel during 2002-mid 2004, but by the time he beat Orton, I was done with him. The character was very stale by this point, and should have gone in a different direction, far away from the World Heavyweight Title.

But in 2003, he pretty much held RAW together by himself, and WWE could have done a lot worse having someone else in that position.

[metylerca]

My favorite character ever. I loved HHH and Evolution during this era, the best part of WWE at the time for me.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

Injuries and lack of speed in that period aside, I feel HHH was the all-around greatest heel of the last decade- including JBL and Hollywood Rock.

[Ben Wyatt]

With Booker, it's also important to note that:

A) Goldberg was coming in.

B) Booker was openly discussing retiring at that point.

[madness50]

Yeah did not like the HHH character at all at that time. Several angles and incidents they used in 2003 was rip-offs of Ric Flair's angles in the NWA. Like when Steiner came in and ripped HHH's clothes off, rehash from Flair-Steamboat Clash of the Champions V. Also the bounty he put on Goldberg, another damn rehash from the Race-Flair angle back in 1983. Made me sick and they tried to make him seem like he was Ric Flair in the 2000's, and he will never be anywhere close to that level.

[cobrafan]

I didn't like heel HHH back then. I thought he had some very boring feuds and pretty lackluster matches during this period. I can't think of one feud that I really enjoyed or much of anything else really. I especially didn't like the 20+ minute opening rants every week on Raw.

Heel HHH was at his best from 1999 - his first quad injury in 2001. His entire reign from Summer 2002 - early 2006 was a yawn fest for me.

[corndog]

I liked it, and it reminded me alot of the Four Horsemen, only this time HHH was Ric Flair and Ric Flair was Ole Anderson. Also I liked Randy Orton, but I stopped watching by time he turned face.

[Crazy Diamond]

Apr 20, 2010 0:25:51 GMT -5 Greer said:

As much as the reign of terror is destroyed and looked at as the point when the WWE became boring, it must be said that the HHH character was pretty awesome.

He was malicious, arrogant, snobby and a very dangerous man. If I dare say it, he reminded me of Ric Flair from the 80's.

Always had a plan, and a backup plan for his backup plan. I honestly think that was one of the best heel runs I had ever seen and remains one of the best.

This topic isn't about the title reign, but your opinion on the character of HHH during the reign.

If I wanted to watch Ric Flair or Harley Race, I could just go watch that classics show they had on Turner South. His character was played out to me by Judgement Day 2000 and became a lame parody of itself. I didn't even care if he won or lost, I just didn't want to see him messing up yet another episode of Raw. That title reign led to me not watching wrestling regularly for several years and I still don't watch that often anymore.

[The F'N Captain]

Besides the DX juvenile crap, most people rarely complain about HHH's character during any given time, it's usually his booking or how much time he can eat up.

He's a good heel, and CAN be very enjorable to watch, but when he didn't seem to lose for like 3 years and when DX was in every backstage sketch it just got to be too damn much.