What did you think about HHH entering the main event in 99?

[Deleted]

As the topic states, what did you think? Could you believe it? Did you think he wasn't fit for the role?

Personally in the beginning it looked sorta weird for me. As a kid seeing it I was "well, he was just getting his ass kicked-" but a few months in I was used to it, it worked. In the beginning though it was just different.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

I largely agree. His initial push was too much telling and not enough showing for my taste. The announcers and Hunter himself would go on and on about how he needs to be champion and is willing to do anything he can for it. But while he did basic heel things, he never came across as sadistic and cunning as he would by the end of the year. He was also just not really developed as a character until he started going against Vince. He originally turned heel to join the Corporate Ministry and just sort of played second fiddle to Taker until the story called for him to go above him. It just wasn't very compelling.

[Deleted]

Being the leader of DX, he was always towards the top of the card for the past two years. Plus he came up around same time as Austin, Mankind, and The Rock. He had a been fighting them in the midcard, so it wasn’t that big of a leap.

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

As I recall him sledgehammering the casket the Rock was in was a major turning point in accepting him as a major heel (and was the firs time he used the sledgehammer I think). I can still hear JR. "There's a human being in there, damn it!"

The stuff with Mick Foley solidified it.

[Pushed to the Moon]

Jan 8, 2019 10:35:37 GMT -5 YAKMAN is ICHIBAN said:

As I recall him sledgehammering the casket the Rock was in was a major turning point in accepting him as a major heel (and was the firs time he used the sledgehammer I think). I can still hear JR. "There's a human being in there, damn it!"

The stuff with Mick Foley solidified it.

Yeah that casket smash was huge for me as a kid. I loved HHH's rise to the top.

[chronocross]

I bought him as a heel by late 99 and definitely took him more seriously with his feud in early 2000 with Mick Foley.

[TGM]

I'm watching this era currently on the Network. WWF needed a main event heel as Undertaker was going away with an injury so HHH is the only heel anywhere near ready enough to step up to this. Maybe Jeff Jarrett but he may have been reluctant to sign with WWF again with Russo leaving.

[stevec484]

I didn't buy him until a main event guy until Royal Rumble 2000. 99 WWF is the only year in my existence where I stopped watched completely

[Bub (BLM)]

As dumb as it sounds, once he made the switch from sparkly tights to black trunks, he became way more credible to me. He looked the part, which in wrestling is a big deal.

[auph10imitated]

I was fine with it, I would have been happy with a Jeff Jarrett push as well, some may say they were looked at the same at that point, midcarders 4 lyf. But as people have said HHH came up with Rock & Mankind but they were pushed while HHH was out with a knee injury so he was just a little bit behind them, he had to get the wheels back in motion in early 1999. However I actually would have preferred babyface DX leader HHH to get that push. He didnt look out of place in the main event when he was working Rock in Jan when Chyna turned heel on him. But I guess with Rock going face they pretty much had to switch him heel.

I still think Austin should have put him over clean at SS 99 without adding Mankind, but it is what it is.

At that point I was totally fine and all for a HHH push, it was new, we needed new heels, he was being groomed along side Rock/Mankind so it was expected. It wasnt until later years I began to loathe him. I would say 2002.

[The Thread Barbi]

I think it was time. My Time?

I had toyed with the idea of Triple H holding the Big one on video games and the like, and it felt well deserved and right.

[Toilet Paper Roll]

Felt forced... it was still an era where you expected guys to get pushed because they were hugely over, not because WWF wanted them to be over.

But they couldn’t rely on the same three or four guys forever so he made sense

[EvenBaldobombHasAJob]

It was well earned and an amazing heel run. Shame about what he did later though. Kinda overshadowed everything about how good he was. Not that he has anyone else to blame for that.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

I thought it was totally natural and well-done. I was a HHH mark from the get-go so all that “Midcard 4 life” shit he got rubbed me the wrong way. His ring-work was fine but it was a lot of the segments, the character work, angles and placement that I felt justifiably elevated him to the Main Event amongst behemoths like Austin, Rock and The Undertaker.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

It took me a bit to buy him as a main eventer. I would say it wasn't until the Cactus Jack feud that I accepted it.

[Ludwig Kaiser’s Walk]

I thought he was boring and I didn’t get him.

Now, I know he’s good, but I still find him boring.

[fw91]

I bought it

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Loved it at the time. Looking back, I realize I just really loved the guys he was working against.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I started watching just after that push started, so it always seemed completely natural to me that he was there. Maybe that's why I'll always have a bit of bias in favour of the guy.

[Ryushinku]

He'd had some good matches by the time he'd won the title, but I didn't really buy in to it until right at the start of January 2000 when all the pieces came together.

I mean, like, as well as the feud with Foley it was the music, the sledgehammer, the classic water spit entrance, the look, Steph by his side, the McMahon-Helmsley Era messing with the roster stuff and so on.

Those all came together properly between Armageddon '99 and the 2000 Rumble, so yeah, despite winning the heavyweight championship earlier than that, that's when things came together.

Zero doubt to me that the Foley feud pushed him over the edge. And 2000 up until his injury in mid-2001 were probably his athletic peak.