Triple H's In ring legacy.

[ThatDudeThatExsists]

Now that he's retired, where does his in ring career rank? Is he over rated? Under rated? One of the GOAT?

I personally think he's both over and under rated. WWE tends to put him on the same tier as Hogan, Rock, Austin, Cena. I don't think he's quite that big, but he's def in that Savage, Orton, Bret, Foley level. He's above HBK, Kane.

But, many fans never give him his credit. He's got a huge list of great matches, was one half of the biggest attended WM of all time and legit became a mega star.

So what say you?

[clifford]

Decent in-ring worker in the early years, then peaked in early 2000 to the quad injury in May 2001 when he was excellent, but never had the same crispness or ability when he returned, and by then he didn't really have to worry about performing well in ring and then became lethargic and plodding for the rest of his career, with occasional flashes of pre-quad injury Triple H when he was put in the ring with excellent workers (HBK, Angle, Benoit etc.)

Overall I wouldn't put him in the top 20 workers of all time for WWE/WWF. Definite top politicker though

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

2000 up to when he got injured in 2001 he was an elite worker, one of the best in the world. His in-ring work after that has been horrendously overrated and plodding though and the WWE themselves have acted like he was always at that level.

[Nosnorb]

Over and Underrated.

Between 1999 and 2001 dude was one of the best Heels of all time, he really was that damm good. Dude had incredible rivalries with The Rock, Foley and Austin. But when he blew out his quad and came back juiced to the gills, his in ring work suffered, the godawful feud with Scott Steiner would have been the low point if not for that feud with Booker T.

The biggest problem that Trips had though, especially in later years, was that no matter the story told, he would always wrestle his patented "BIGGEST BADASS EVVUUUURR-AH! style, which meant that matches that should have been brutal, all out brawls (such as his 'mania match with Orton, his 2011 Night of Champions match with Punk and the WM32 Main Event) were slow paced and he would often eat his opponent up. And there were times when he got a spot that should really have gone to someone else, like in 2006, Edge vs Cena should have main evented that year.

All in all, there were good times and bad times, and when he was good, he was great, but when Trips was bad, lord he was bad.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

That Quad Injury really slowed him down in ring, before that he was really good

The Reign of Terror really skews how I feel about him though because it was such a slog to get through. And then after that he was really just gassed up to the nth degree and WWE acted like that window where he was "THAT DAMN GOOD" was his whole career. I'd say he will go down as one of WWE's kayfabe best, no clue where to rank him on an all time workrate scale though there are a lot of guys I'd probably rank higher while acknowledging HHH was still y'know, good.

I will say in a recent Maven Youtube video, he said HHH's cardio was unmatched.

[Gerard Gerard]

One of my all-timers, can pull of an epic like few others but he really needed to be reminded not everything had to be a 30-minute odyssey.

[HMARK Center]

Oof, I could never rank him above Savage and Hart, though I get they kind of represent different eras and approaches.

Always found him really overrated, but I also wasn't watching much during his prime in 2000-2001. Still, as strong as they run might've been, it's just a couple years of his career, and for the most part the rest just does very little for me. He did have that strong WM 30 match against Bryan, though; felt like he was finally working a different pace, and it made things a lot more interesting.

[MrElijah]

When it all came together from 1999 to 2001, he was one of the best in the world. His chemistry with Foley & The Rock was off the charts and you'd be pressed to find a bad match between them. That said outside of the first Chamber, vs. HBK at SS'02, Cage match with Flair, series with Batista and vs. Bryan at WM30, Hunter wasn't that great after 2002. His Hell in a Cell against Taker at WM28 put my ass to sleep.

He's way better than his detractors says but he's also worse than how they present him. All in all, a better Shane Douglas.

[polarbearpete]

Aug 9, 2023 8:42:25 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

Oof, I could never rank him above Savage and Hart, though I get they kind of represent different eras and approaches.

Always found him really overrated, but I also wasn't watching much during his prime in 2000-2001. Still, as strong as they run might've been, it's just a couple years of his career, and for the most part the rest just does very little for me. He did have that strong WM 30 match against Bryan, though; felt like he was finally working a different pace, and it made things a lot more interesting.

He had a lot of great matches later in his career after he cut some of the bulk muscle off his frame. Bryan at WM 30, the mixed tag with Rousey and Angle at 34, vs. Ambrose at Roadblock 2016, the Evolution-Shield 6-man tags, the Taker Mania matches and the Lesnar cage match to name a few.

[SneakMan]

Aug 9, 2023 5:48:37 GMT -5 Nosnorb said:

Over and Underrated.

Between 1999 and 2001 dude was one of the best Heels of all time, he really was that damm good. Dude had incredible rivalries with The Rock, Foley and Austin. But when he blew out his quad and came back juiced to the gills, his in ring work suffered, the godawful feud with Scott Steiner would have been the low point if not for that feud with Booker T.

The biggest problem that Trips had though, especially in later years, was that no matter the story told, he would always wrestle his patented "BIGGEST BADASS EVVUUUURR-AH! style, which meant that matches that should have been brutal, all out brawls (such as his 'mania match with Orton, his 2011 Night of Champions match with Punk and the WM32 Main Event) were slow paced and he would often eat his opponent up. And there were times when he got a spot that should really have gone to someone else, like in 2006, Edge vs Cena should have main evented that year.

All in all, there were good times and bad times, and when he was good, he was great, but when Trips was bad, lord he was bad.

I still remember how WWE allegedly pivoted to HHH vs Cena for Mania 22 because Hunter thought Edge wasn't a good enough heel to get booed against Cena, and that he would show Edge how it was done.

Trips then spent the entire Cena feud being a cool heel, going for face pops and completely no-selling Cena's wrestling ability in promos.

[salz4life]

I think he was an EXCELLENT heel (not during DX, but when he truly became the "Cerebral Assasin"). I HATED him and loved when he got his come-uppance!

[tirtefaa]

Great as Hunter Hearst Helmsley, able to maintain relevance at a time when there's a lot of break out stars. It's funny to look back at and see how agile he was.

Didn't like him as HBK's lackey, but he was able to break out of that role and get over as a face, while leading DX.

His early main event run was incredible. Obviously he sacrificed his agility (and probably his long term mobility) for the look, but up to 2001, he was absolutely killing it.

Post quad injury, he definitely lost a step or two, but was still able to put together competent matches.

His run with Evolution and the WHC...I really think his reign of terror is underrated. I actually think this helped make the WHC credible at a time when they're introducing a new belt. Yeah the match quality wasn't the best, but you couldn't argue that Triple H wasn't absolutely nailing it with his character work.

Post Evolution...not a fan of the DX stuff. Definitely what felt like a midlife crisis.

The move to SD...this was awful. His run as champion while making others look bad, while having some of the worst matches ever...and just being the midlife crisis face when thr company needed something fresh. I hated this.

Sporadic appearances...again, he's no longer the week to week guy, so for him to come up every so often and make it about him...it was awful. The COO and eventual walk out was some of the worst storylines in the history of the company. Going on to beat Brock at WrestleMania was just gross. And the Curtis Axel stuff was so so bad.

Authority stuff was fine since he was a heel. He seemed to put people over when it was needed....except for Sting....which was stupid.

So overall...a lot of good stuff but was plagued with a lot of late career bad decisions when it was clear he was not going to be 'the guy'. Triple H was easily one of my favorites until 2006 where he should have been winding down faster and making sure he's not the center of the show.

[Bo Rida]

He's like one of those super successful authors that publishers stop editing properly and their books get more bloated and self-indulgent.

Still talented, moments of the old magic but would benefit from someone not afraid to challenge his excesses and everything being a bit more streamlined.

[tafkaga]

Never cared much for him. Always felt like a guy who got a spot because there were limited options, and then kept it because he was Steph's husband. I never bought into his presentation as one of the elites, and it just got more nauseating the older he got. By just about any metric, I think he's just average.

[06vwgti]

Aug 9, 2023 10:08:32 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

Never cared much for him. Always felt like a guy who got a spot because there were limited options, and then kept it because he was Steph's husband. I never bought into his presentation as one of the elites, and it just got more nauseating the older he got. By just about any metric, I think he's just average.

This is how I've always felt about him. Was never a fan of his slow and prodding ring work either.

I actually only liked him in wwf warzone bc of his moveset, but saw him on TV and couldn't stand him lol

[Fade]

Think he’s exactly where he should be. One of the greats but cemented as a heel who attempted or helped get others.

In ring? I don’t think he was great or crap. In-Ring? Ironically? I’d say he was one of the most solid B+ players of all time.

[msc]

He's the third wheel in the Attitude Era Austin/Rock/HHH big stars, but tbf that's no bad thing. Had a career longer than both eventually. One of the first heels I properly hated as a young fan.

My main feeling with him is a sense of the "could have been". In ring I mean, obviously his CV couldn't get more star studded in terms of titles or his future in a post-Vince landscape.

But, HHH had a lot of great matches with many opponents.

But I feel like he never learned that often less is more. He had a vast number of matches, including several WrestleMania main events, which were great 15-20 minute matches stretched out to 20-30 minutes. Of all main eventers, he has the most "if only they cut 5-10 mins in the middle, this would have been great" matches in WWE.

He also had a chip on his shoulder about certain wrestlers, but I mean, I was a Benoit fan for years, calling out any legend for that is a bit people in glasshouses!

[Jindrak Mark]

Good 97-98. Great 99-01. Mostly bad 02-03 outside of Summerslam 02. Mostly really good 04-09. Once he went part-time he had some great (Taker, Bryan, Shield, Ronda tag) and some bad (Reigns, the 2018 Taker/Kane stuff).

The one thing I'll always give him credit for is the match with Jeff Hardy at No Mercy 2008. Many have tried over the years but I don't think anyone ever got a better non-gimmick match out of Jeff. I've seen Jeff have clunky/mediocre singles matches with greats like Angle/Benoit/Styles/Edge/Jericho/Punk/Bryan/etc when he's not able to use ladders or chairs but this match just clicked in a way his regular matches rarely did.

[Gravedigger's Biscuits]

Good but not great.

I've made this point before but the vast majority of his best matches had stipulations attached where a lot of smoke and mirrors were used to enhance the match e.g. Street Fights, 3 Stages of Hell, Hell in a Cell, Ladder Match etc.

How many great regular 1-on-1 matches has he had?

[ThatDudeThatExsists]

Aug 9, 2023 10:08:32 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

Never cared much for him. Always felt like a guy who got a spot because there were limited options, and then kept it because he was Steph's husband. I never bought into his presentation as one of the elites, and it just got more nauseating the older he got. By just about any metric, I think he's just average.

.

That's exactly how I feel about Shawn Michaels. HBK to me is the single most overrated wrestler of all time.