Hunter Hearst Helmsley

[Superstar Sleeze]

Triple H has always been someone who was just there. When I was younger, I just accepted he was "great" because they told me he was. No doubt, Triple H has been in great matches. For example, I consider the Royal Rumble street fight one of the better matches in WWF history, but even then I never had a really strong attachment to him. When I got back into wrestling in 2003, I believed the story that it was not HHH's fault that 2003 sucked something fierce, but it was his opponents. In retrospect, he definitely needs to take a lot of the blame for 2003 with his long, long promos. The reincarnation of DX was pretty friggin' awful, but still I never really hated HHH. Maybe, I gave him a pass because he was in some matches I liked. Maybe it was the Kliq sense of humor. I know that Kliq's humor ain't over in these parts, but I have always enjoyed their sense of humor. I have watched like 8 million Nash and Hall shoot interviews because they always make me laugh. One of my favorite pick me ups is just to watch Shawn Michaels in late 1997 and just laugh at all his silly antics. Hell, the funniest thing of this past year was HHH singing "When you wish upon a star" to Daniel Bryan. That being said HHH can fall flat on his nose in promos see 2003 and D-X reunion. Everyone always seems to have a strong opinion on him and I don't, which is weird because usually I have pretty strong opinions. He just seems like a solid B wrestler. A solid B Now, this was inspired by the great HHH Debate on The Place To Be, but I am not a total masochist and I will only be watching "prime" HHH from 1999 to his quad injury in 2001. For those braver than I, they can tackle 2002 on.

 

My one running hypothesis is that HHH being a "student of the game" actually hurt him in the ring because he became a wrestler that understood "how", but not "why"

 

a. He saw something he liked it, but did not fully understand why it worked and thus caused half-ass implementation

b. Made him more mechanical. He knew that a babyface should shine, take heat and make a comeback, but this caused him to go through the motions rather than feel it.

c. He tried to emulate others and especially tried to be everyone at once. God, I love Ric Flair, but damn being invincible like Hulk Hogan is pretty cool so why choose, why not be both.

I don't doubt that HHH watched and watches as much or more wrestling than all of us. He just interprets it a lot differently. I would love to talk to him about 80s wrestling because I want to be able to pinpoint where that departure is from how I view wrestling.

 

WWF World Champion The Rock vs Triple H w/Chyna - RAW 1/25/99 I Quit One night after my pick for the 1999 WWF MOTY, The Rock has another "I Quit" match, but this one is against the leader of the babyface D-X, Triple H. The main takeaways from this match was HHH understood what he had to do, but did not connect as well to the crowd whereas sometimes I would question The Rock's decisions, but he had such undeniable charisma that he came off as such a natural. Also note to Cena, track pants >>> jorts, just saying dude. The beginning of the match is some really well-timed HHH offense, his punches look great, he uses the high knee really smartly and punctuates the corner punches with a crotch chops. Even with Rocky bumping and selling the chin, there was not a lot of popping and I think HHH needed to go that extra mile. My biggest fear of going back to this era will be the "tour of the arena" segments, but this was kept short. I did not like some of Rocky's cutoffs, but he had a good one ringside when he used HHH's trunks to pull him into timekeeper, he talked some trash on his monkey ass and then delivered the Corporate Elbow with the bell hammer onto the bell onto HHH. That was a fun spot. The Rock berates HHH to get him and HHH tells him to "SUCK IT". Big pop for that and atta boy, Trips! Rock feeds and bumps for Triple H like a champ, facebuster on knee into the Pedigree. HHH says it ain't over and Pedigrees him on the floor and now he is talking some trash to The Rock is about to do it on the announcer's table until the Corporation hits the ring. Bossman (it is so weird to think how high up the card he was in 1999 WWF) tells HHH to say I Quit or else his chicky poo gets it. Triple H bows down and says I Quit. Of course, Chyna promptly gives him a low blow and she is in the Corporation so that kinda sucks for him. Thus begins probably the most complicated WWF storyline Russo ever ran with 8 million turns between HHH, Chyna, X-Pac and Kane. As for the match, I enjoyed the hell out of The Rock with his selling and bumping. He was a great stooge in all of this. HHH held up his end of the match was starting to show some fire after he told him to "Suck it". Maybe there is some hope for Mr. Helmsley. It was a pretty entertaining short RAW match. **3/4

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Triple H vs Kane - RAW 2/1/99 Steel Cage Match

 

Do you believe in miracles? It is not a MOTYC (well it is 1999 so it might be), it is not great, but gosh darn it these two had a good match. No wrestler elicits apathy from me quite like Kane, but seeing him back in his original costume definitely made me nostalgic for my childhood. They treated him like a monster the whole match. Kane was booked way stronger in this match than HHH to the point where it was almost shocking that they would book any babyface (HHH is the face in this match) like this. You had HHH crawling for the door just to escape the monster and X-Pac liberally interfering at the finish. Yes, HHH wins the match, but as wrestling fans we know it is whether you win or lose, but how you are presented and HHH was presented as escaping by the skin of his teeth. At first glance, I thought this was a disconnect from the story as HHH should be fired up to get revenge, but his heat is not with Kane it is with Chyna so it is easier to explain why HHH just wants to survive. Short of drawing blood, Kane did a pretty good job being an imposing, invulnerable force of nature. Hell, he kept things moving as well. He had his working boots on for this mauling. HHH did well to time and escalate his hope spots. He realizes that wrestling moves were not cutting it and he became focused on ramming Kane's head into cage, or using a steel chair (nothing has changed the zombie sit-up is still badass) or he kicks Kane's leg out during a top rope chokeslam attempt to crotch him. HHH had to use tricks to get out from underneath the monster. He actually showed some good fire once he had Kane crotched ramming him into the cage, the big high knee, but Kane back body drops out of the Pedigree and hits the Chokeslam. This triggers X-Pac slamming the door in Kane's face and holding him at bay while HHH climbs over the top (has to kick Chyna off first). My issues with match were that Kane sometime forgot his role as a monster and would act like a normal wrestler just trying to win. Kane should want to destroy HHH before leaving because he is a sadist and eviscerates people for his own personal pleasure (Big Pop! ) and sometimes he would make attempts while HHH was still up. HHH did not sell very well for Kane, who from an offensive standpoint looked great. HHH could have really taken this to the next level if he made you believe he was fighting for his life in there against the Big Red Machine. The way the match was laid out with Kane in control for the vast majority, HHH escape attempts to the door, X-Pac interference it is clearly the story they are telling, but HHH needed to go that extra mile and really sell it. I came in expecting the most boring match ever and came away thinking maybe there is hope for 1999. I know for a fact that I do like the next match I am going to review: HHH vs. X-Pac so this may not be so bad. ***

[Matt D]

These two were in response to other reviews on DVDVR, but I cleaned out some of the references to post them here.

 

Triple H vs Chris Jericho -Last Man Standing Match Fully Loaded 2000.

 

I think the video package before the match is really well done. I don't remember too much of this stuff, to be honest, but one of the knocks against Hunter in general is that he didn't "make" too many people, and I realize at the time the entire internet was enamored with Jericho due to his 98 WCW run, so the idea that someone had to "make" him was probably considered absurd, but that's exactly what Hunter did in this build. This was set up with Jericho getting one over on him three times before he fell into the numbers game and a Horseman-Style Beatdown. From the looks of it, it was really, really good pro wrestling and allowed for the escalation that made a Last Man Standing match necessary. Hunter let himself be humiliated in order to get Jericho over as a fiery worldbeater, and it worked.

 

Jericho brought real fire to the opening stretch and all of the stuff on the outside looked good. The fans completely buy it. If I had any critiques on him they'd be that the mounted punches on the inside were pretty weak and I would have loved to see some selling of the injury after the flying back elbow off the top, especially since that came right before Hunter started on the ribs. That could have been a really great overzealous moment leading to the transition. As for Hunter here, I think he was good at fighting back just enough. I didn't like his clothesline bumps at all. They looked terrible but he more than made up for it on the bump to the outside and the super stylized bump from the shoulder thrust into the ring.

 

Hunter should have worked a loaded knee gimmick since so much of his offense is centered around that. Anyway, a lot of the match is centered around the rib-work. It was set up so well in the angle leading up to the match. The transition is pretty awesome as Hunter uses his usual reversal to the back body drop but does it to the ribs instead. They tease a little hope spot of Jericho immediately fighting back, but then Hunter drops him right on the rail and then the stairs and he doesn't really look back. His kicks on the inside are vicious. His shoulder thrusts are good. The image of Hunter rolling Jericho around the ring with the tape is pretty memorable.

 

When it comes to bodypart work it's all about keeping it interesting and believable by the person on offense and the selling by the person taking it. Hunter does a pretty good job of varying what he's doing (stomps, knee drops, kicks, knee lifts, the thrusts, the abdominal stretch w/ clubbering, etc), breaking it up a little bit with gimmicks (the tape choking, and the Stephanie slap, the suplex on the floor, grabbing the rope on the abdominal stretch, the ref pushing). I think maybe there are too many gimmicks actually. Jericho does a solid job selling the pain. He's no Ricky Morton but he has both the story to lean on and the fans behind him. He has a decent amount of hope spots that are logical (generally based off of him getting enough space due to rolling into the ring or Hunter arguing with the ref) and okay but really not milked enough to really get the fans really into them. Hunter's cut offs are good though, especially the lionsault counter. I don't think he executed the Stretch well at all but it almost didn't matter too much since it still looked painful on the midsection. It was noticeably weird however. The bodyscissors during the sleeper is extremely smart and plays into both the story of the match and the LMS gimmick (Steph doing the Daniel Bryan YES hand motions at each count is great).

 

Then we shift into WWE storytelling mode. The key stretch is when Jericho gets up post Sleeper/Body-scissors and shows defiance leading into the super-mean Pedigree and then Jericho getting up again. There are parts of this I like: just how mean the Pedigree is, the crotch chop, Hunter hanging out on the corner arrogantly, Steph being pissed off during the post-Pedigree where she was jubilant on the post-sleeper one. Obviously the getting up from the Sleeper is a tease for the real moment, Jericho getting up from the Pedigree, but I think it might have worked better if he was in it for longer. The one major issue so far is that we haven't had enough time with Jericho in pain. Hunter's two submissions were ones that covered up his face and Jericho's body language hasn't quite been up to task. Anyway, I don't think he quite nails the "getting up at 9" moment with the right body language either. He's just sort of meandering towards the ropes as Hunter rushes out of the ring pissed off to get the chair that he kills Jericho with. We needed some blood out of Jericho's mouth or something here. Were they leading to some sort of ref strike gimmick or something? I forget. It seems weird that arguing with the ref in a NO DQ match would lead to two Jericho comebacks, including the big one; maybe if it was a special ref but whatever.

 

Jericho's low blow is really good for what it's worth. Very glad he went with that and not just a double leg takedown or back body drop. Jericho's chairshot on Hunter is huge, right in the middle of the ring with a giant noise. It had to be big enough to completely turn the match around and I think they frame it well Jericho sells excellently on his comeback and it lets Hunter almost get back in it a few times which is really good stuff. I think Jericho's offense is okay but sort of out of touch for the point of the match they're in. This isn't the part of the match where you want to see so much light, flying stuff, if that makes sense, even if it's done onto a chair. There's a bit of meandering once Hunter takes a powder too, until we get the slightly contrived ribs (execution issue. There wasn't the sense of Hunter aiming him) into the steps spot.

 

I like the consistency of Hunter trying to Pedigree Jericho on hard objects and this time the backdrop works and Hunter takes a big bump off the stairs. The double video monitor shot is pretty silly but it works for a double tease. I kind of like how they entered the match into an environment where the Spanish announce table was already busted.

 

Anyway, they head back into the ring and we get the Walls and the visual tap. I feel like Jericho needed more offense in his comeback to get to this point, to be honest. He had that one stretch but other than the chairshot I wasn't super happy with it. Hunter's shouting and body language is actually extremely effective here as was the rope stuff. We get the big Steph moment to break it, another mini rib transition which sets up the missed sledge hammer spot and I don't totally love how all this is laid out but I do like the high concept at least. It goes back to the over-gimmicked nature of the earlier part of the match. I think that comes into play here too. There are almost too many "moments." It starts diluting everything. Jericho gets to get up from the Pedigree, gets the tap, gets Step, gets a sledgehammer shot in (though one that's ultimately meaningless). etc.

 

And what was up with that kind of lame suplex finish? I think after the two attempts to hit a Pedigree on something, he should have just finished it with one on the table.

 

Alright, I think that Hunter did a lot of good work here and Jericho mostly held his own but both guys' had flaws (micro and macro) that hurt the match. I especially liked Hunter's bodypart focus. Very strong middle section. That said, I think the match was a little too clever for its own good when it could have been tighter and more primal with only a few changes. I'd call it bloated but with a lot of strong elements that didn't fully come together.

 

I had come in thinking I'd be bored by Hunter's offense and that wasn't the case at all, though he did make some choices I didn't totally agree with. No, if anything the problem was big picture excess. It was still a pretty interesting match.

 

Hunter vs Rikishi - Smackdown 1/4/2000

 

Fink sounded so earnestly excited announcing Rikishi out of the rigged lottery and all the faces are chanting his name. It's not just Rikishi at this point but Rikishi Phatu. He has Too Cool leave from the start and it makes it all seem a little more special for some reason. Hunter's entrance has become so much of a parody of itself, culminating in the peeing-himself moment from a few months ago, that it's easy to forget how primal and potent it was in 2000.

 

Hunter is Bockwinkelish in his gameplan attacking in the corner and i agree it was a good start. It makes him seem potent and dangerous and in doing so, it make Rikishi seem all the more of a force in coming back immediately. I don't know about a legdrop on the outside in the first minute of the match. I think other guys (Show/Henry, for instance) might have taken that stairs shot more spectacularly. He really does throw himself into the announce table, etc, though.

 

Hunter has to keep shifting his offense as Rikishi is just too much for him. He goes for a pin after the knee-counter on the back body drop which I've never seen before, but I think he just wants to get out of there despite his aggression. He's wrestling this as desperate but not chickenshit. This is the opposite of Jericho match which was very focused for the most part. This is a vulnerable heel champion match and Trips is no Tully. Nothing Hunter does through most of this is particularly smart, but that can be played up with him not being prepared (And in fact being actively surprised) and also his exhaustion post Big Show. The end result is that Kish ends up looking like a million bucks. I didn't love the banzai drop kick out but only because it didn't look particularly believable. It might have been a camera angle thing.

 

Steph actually does a great job as a distraction, giving the chair to Hunter and then running around the ring to distract the ref. The kick out afterwards is what makes the match as the fans explode. I've never seen a heel get an asshole chant after getting himself disqualified like that before and that's an lement of the crowds from the era but it's also proof positive of how the match was effective.

 

I've seen this match better a bunch of times, but I would put a check mark on the "Good Year" category for Hunter here. The match did exactly what it was supposed to do; Rikishi came out looking better and it elevated him a ton and the Hunter-Steph pairing came out looking almost as strong as before for surviving it under the circumstances.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Thanks Matt, I'll respond in turn when I get to them.

 

Triple H w/Chyna vs X-Pac - Backlash 1999 Backlash is a lone beacon of light in the tempest of shit known as 1999. The best Rock/Austin match of 1999, a surprisingly good Undertaker/Shamrock match and a strong fundamentals match between the Kliq members. For those keeping track at home, Triple H & Chyna have gone corporate and X-Pac is fighting the good fight to change the world one crotch chop at a time with his new BFF, Kane. Since they worked this pretty straight, the Attitude Era crowd did get a bit restless at times, but X-Pac gave a great babyface performance and is such an excellent worker. He really was one of the few great workers the WWF had in the Attitude Era. Helmsley slaps him early and X-Pac is on him with full court press and HHH cant escape his wrath. The kids start an "X-Pac" chant, which warms my heart even though X-Pac and kids should not mix, but then the adult males chime in with "Sucks!". X-Pac, two previous neck surgeries under his belt, takes a ridiculous bump over the top rope. Sit down and shut the fuck up while a master works. HHH looks to come off the apron and still X-Pac catches him with a punch to gut. They are working a great shine sequence establishing X-Pac is pissed off and came here to fight. Chyna trips him up going for the Bronco Buster and that gives HHH time to dodge and the impact causes the fragile neck of X-Pac to be injured. Helmsley immediately rocks him with a clothesline. He is just equally relentlessly as X-Pac was in the shine on working over the neck. He lets Chyna get a lick in to draw some more heat. I loved his punches to the back of head/neck area because you know how fragile that part of the body is. JR is on fuckin point selling this match and the risk to X-Pac career and how HHH is a sadistic son of a bitch. Those moments of righteous indignation towards Lawler were awesome that's how you "Think shoot, but work" on commentary. The crowd does get restless when Trips works the neck holds (I enjoyed HHH asking the ref loudly for a time check), but I thought they kept things moving with X-Pac timing his hope spots and HHH using cutoffs like pulling him down by the hair or sending him out for Chyna to press slam neck-first on the barricade. Neck psychology is not the easiest to work, but I thought this was one of the more effective efforts. HHH grabs a sleeper and X-Pac reverses into his own, but this did not get the pop that it would have even just two years earlier in 1997. It must have been strange wrestling in the Attitude Era. HHH rams X-Pac's back into the corner, but X-Pac is firing up and hits a tornado DDT. Chyna distracts the ref while X-Pac goes low with a headbutt. HHH uses a leverage move to send X-Pac crashing back to the outside, but you cant deny X-Pac and he sends HHH into the steps, but in his overzealousness wipes out the ref with a baseball slide. He is able to hit the X-Factor, but there is no ref. Chyna hits the low blow and the Slop Drop (NECK PSYCHOLOGY!) this triggers Kane. Chokeslams for everyone and he sets up both of the heels for the Bronco Buster, which is the feel good moment before HHH hits the Pedigree and wins. HHH going over is clearly the right call, but I would have loved a better finish. They were working this great fundamental match with X-Pac the plucky overachiever with the bad neck versus the sadistic bully that may have underestimated his opponent, but was now showing no remorse in dissecting him. You slap a finish on that story and you got yourself a MOTYC, but with the Attitude Era finish it is just feels disjointed. ***3/4

 

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Triple H w/Chyna vs Mankind - RAW 5/31/99 Falls Count Anywhere No one is going to confuse this with their classic '97 RAW Falls Count Anywhere match, but it was fine. I actually thought HHH was a lot better in this than Foley. Foley just kept no selling to get to the next spot whereas Helmsley sold the wear and tear of the match. Helmsley also out-bumped Foley in this match which is saying something taking flat back bumps on chair and his trademark corner bump (which got the biggest pop outside of the finish). I did like Foley's backslide on the floor even though the crowd did not bite. Is this first appearance of the sledgehammer? I know Foley mentioned that HHH Tonya Harding'd him at the at last PPV, but sounded like he used a pipe in that match. Foley no-sells a chair shot and a sledgehammer low blow with the endgame being to put Socko on Chyna (Chyna had been checking on Mankind's Manhood in the shower) to pop the crowd. HHH blasts Foley's knee with the sledgehammer to win and the comes back beats up the officials and further works over the knee only to have The Rock make the save. Is that the birth of the Rock n Sock connection? This was a pretty good Triple H performance that continued to his trajectory to being the top heel in the company.

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Triple H w/Chyna vs The Rock vs The Undertaker - RAW 6/14/99 This is a glorified handicap match as Corporation and Ministry of Darkness have merged to form the awkwardly named Corporate Ministry. I cant wait for the Wyatt Authority and the inevitable Randy Orton & Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan match. The more things change the more they stay the same. Ten year old Martin was deathly afraid of The Undertaker (and The Brood for that matter) and was not happy that his hero, Vinny Mac was in cahoots with the Lord of Darkness. I love Steve Austin now, but at the time he seemed so mean-spirited, loud, unruly to me while Vince was just trying to keep decorum and run his company in peace while Austin kept ruining things. I was an interesting ten year old. Anyways, beyond reliving my childhood, this match is pretty fuckin boring. I will say The Rock being so friggin' over is the only thing that saves this because this is ten minutes of clubbering and random brief hope spots for ten minutes. I will say HHH does not get enough credit for his high knee. It is up there with Jumbo Tsuruta's it is a really nice looking high knee. Undertaker does the ropewalk (finally a highspot!), but HHH inadvertently crotches him. Mergers can be so difficult. The Rock finally has isolated HHH and unloads, but the ref gets caught in the crossfire. Now Taker accidentally bumps HHH out of the way and he takes the Rock Bottom and People's Elbow, but Chyna pulls out the ref and HHH breaks it up. The endgame sees Chyna accidentally trip Taker, who is hot at her and gozzles her so HHH does not take too kindly to that (he did quit for her when he had the WWF Title in hand back in January so this is internally consistent) so Taker gives him a Stunner via the ropes and HHH walks into the Rock Bottom so that Rocky can face Taker for the title at KOTR. It was the first real boring Attitude Era style match with lots of clubbering and a little bit of arena touring. The takeaway was The Rock was really fuckin' over.

[Ryan Faulconer]

For someone who takes so much pride in mastering the game he has a really poor way of showing it. His matches were almost always too long. Some of the best have had that problem over the years with Kobashi/Punk/Hero/Danielson being examples. I don't think their matches ever stretched out and became boring like HHH's. He doesn't understand how to use his own signature prop. When he used the sledgehammer it always looked like crap. He will go and "big league" younger talent from smaller promotions but the stupid goof doesn't know how to portray exciting violence in the ring. Huge hulking body builder types don't make for good heel champions - especially when they do most of their action with the microphone...and that "action" is drawwwwn out and not actually anything that can hype up a crowd.

 

His finishing move is not exciting like Austin's or The Rock's or even Foley's finishes. He can pretty much only set it up one way and that way is the wrong way if you are going for drama and excitement.

 

He can make an entrance with a great sounding theme song. Skinnier and bump-happy HHH was probably what suited him best. After 2001 the party was over and he has bored me enough to go out of way to watch other wrestling. Shoehorning in "king of kings" as a nickname is something a backyarder would do. Almost everything he does (excluding all those steroids) is something a backyarder or even a recently hired guy from the indies would be something that would bury them as a talent.

 

Triple H - Main Event Body - Backyarder's Brain.

 

That should be the title of his next DVD.

[jdw]

Triple H - Main Event Body - Backyarder's Brain.

 

That should be the title of his next DVD.

He's a backyarder who got to live the ultimate backyarder's dream: effectively running creative to book himself on top for a decade, and marry into the family to take over the promotion after he's done being a fulltimer. Trip in the end is the biggest, and most successful, mark in the history of the business.

 

John

[Superstar Sleeze]

Triple H is a lot of things, but a mark aint one of them. The McMahons are his marks. O I think I get what you mean now, he has gotten high off his own supply, so to speak. That's meta on meta in meta, baby!

 

WWF World Champion The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer vs. Triple H w/Chyna - RAW 6/21/99

 

You can say what you want about this era of TV, but I always enjoyed the episodic nature of the TV with strands of continuity connecting each episode. Too often, now, the episodes feel like standalone shows. Triple H and The Undertaker butted heads in their match against The Rock last week and ultimately Triple H wants to be the Champ so it is natural for them to have a match even though they are both heels. That is the appropriate booking in my mind. This match shocked the hell out of me. I came in with the preconceived notion that 1999 Undertaker was absolutely awful, but he wrestled great from underneath with great selling for HHH. Taker plays the babyface because he is the more natural face and that HHH is being positioned to be the new ultra-heel. Undertaker wins an early slugfest, but HHH slipped in a kick to the knee during a goozle that has Taker favoring it. Taker seems to further jam it off his Ropewalk and HHH is all over it. He wrenches the knee and even Chyna gets in on the action. Taker attempts to mount a comeback nasty headbutt, all this hair adds to the match. HHH tries to stymie him by attacking as he returns to the ring, but to no avail he goes for the ride and takes his corner bump. Taker still moving gingerly so HHH scoops his legs up and wraps his leg around the post. HHH applies the Figure-4 on the CORRECT leg can this man do no wrong? Taker goozle in the figure-4 and I am getting excited for this closing stretch, but it is 1999. Chyna get nervous and is in with the chair Taker stops her and here comes The Rock to lay the Smackdown on his Dead Roody-Poo Candy Ass. HHH hightails out of it. The Rock and Bossman (they teased a Bossman face turn!?!?!?!?) beat off the Ministry and tie Paul Bearer to the Brahama Bull symbol and Rocky has some choice words for the Lord of Darkness. It is too bad they went with that finish because this match was well on its way to being the best RAW match so far. It does set up the reason for HHH to cost Rocky the World Title because he cost him the title here and one can argue Trips was in pretty good shape having softened up Taker's knee. It is surprisingly good match until the Attitude Era finish.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Here are a couple turds for the HHHaters to feast upon.

Triple H w/Chyna vs The Rock - RAW Steel Cage Match 7/5/99

 

What a piece of monkey crap this was! The only thing saving this match was the fact The Rock was just so damn over it didn't matter that this match made no sense because the crowd just wanted to cheer for The Rock. There is a real disconnect between the angle and the way the match is wrestled, which is a pet peeve of mine. Rock cost HHH the title and then HHH cost Rocky the title and JR is blithering how this is so damn personal so Rock tries to escape three minutes in after he punches HHH a couple time. WHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT???? HHH knocks him off and he does a great bump off the turnbuckle. Also, I don't know if 1999 in general has short shine segments, it was the evil HHH holding people down that caused short shine segments or the fact Rock preferred taking heat right away, but HHH is in control pretty quickly. Then there is weird bit with handcuffs. HHH is in control so it is not like he desperately needs the handcuffs. So I guess he wants to really kick the Rock's ass, but he never uses them and at the first sign of trouble (low blow by The Rock) he heads to escape (HHH cutoff via swinging neckbreaker) and the handcuffs are never used. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT??? Rocky throws HHH off the top turnbuckle and this levels the playing field. Chyna, who is the best worker in this match, knocks Tim White out with the cage (finally someone used the cage) and drags HHH out. Rock follows and catapults HHH into the cage, who does a pretty good sell. Rock drags him back in and shuts the door. I was half-expecting that he would just start climbing give the rampant non-psychology at this point. Rock actually starts throwing him into the cage and hits a Samoan Drop. He tries to escape again?!??!?! Seriously dude that's all the anger you could muster. Chyna actually sells her anxiety better than Rocky is selling anything (anger or injury). HHH hits a facebuster and sends him into the cage and levels the playing field again. They battle on top of the cage and HHH with the spot of the match pokes Rock in the eye and cracks him with a chair. To be consistent with how inane this match has been, Triple H decides to go through the door which is diagonally opposed to him and he staggers and crotches himself of the ropes and tied himself up albeit stupid it was a good heel spot. The race is on and Rocky wins. Personally, I think the onus for this pile of shit needs to fall on The Rock as the avenging babyface he needed to be the one that wanted to stay in that cage until he kicked some ass, but he never seemed too inclined to kick ass as he was ready to leave as soon as possible. Triple H was adequate as a heel he did some things well like show ass at the finish and worked good cutoffs like his high knee, but he too needed to show better aggression, but I think Rock is more to blame. There you have it Chyna out worked the both of them.

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Triple H w/Chyna & Vince McMahon vs The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer - RAW 7/19/99 No. 1 Contender's match

 

The winner faces Austin for the WWF Title at Fully Loaded in a First Blood: End of an Era Match. It is an End of Era because if the Corporate Ministry member loses then Vinny Mac is off TV and Austin loses he will never get a shot at the championship again. This angle got me off WWF TV until I started watching again for HHH/Steph marriage because I was such a huge McMahon fan at the time. Then Russo ruined my beloved WCW and I had to start watching WWF simultaneously (I never gave up on WCW until about Fall of 2000). So McMahon is having this match to see which Corporate Ministry member is best fit to defeat Austin. I don't know based on what I have seen from Taker this muthafucka could still go in 1999. I know he had a rep for being lazy in this era, but he was flying around and that was an excellent shine sequence (Taker was the de facto face). I thought they did a good job using Chyna to transition to HHH's control. HHH using the high knee as a cutoff is just fantastic. Seriously, I think these two had a kickass match in them in 1999 it is too bad we never got it. Steve Austin hits the ring after Taker chokeslams HHH and a melee ensues with Rocky joining the fray. Austin locks Taker in an ambulance and busts McMahon open for old time's sake. Taker comes back and busts Austin open to sell the stip for Fully Loaded. I wish Taker/HHH had a chance to have a match in 1999 because I think they could have rocked it. This was solid, fundamental angle building, which I enjoyed.

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Triple H vs The Rock - WWF Fully Loaded '99 Strap Match No. 1 Contenders

 

HHH has since cut the famed My Time "shoot" promo. I didn't think it was that shooty. It used some real-life backstage stuff to feed the fire of HHH's rise, but it was not a super shoot promo or anything. The last Rock/HHH match was just nonsensical this match was plain fuckin boring. It was a typical Attitude Era brawl and there just so happened to be a strap connecting them. Even Lawler was begging for someone to use the strap either to choke or whip somebody. The Rock cuts a promo and with promos like that there is a reason why his in ring work could be shit. Rock does not even get strapped in he just lays the Smackdown on HHH's candy ass. He even takes a picture of this with a hot broad's disposable camera (damn she had nice toned arms). HHH, having been disrespected, takes over with punches and it is all down hill. There is some boring brawling by the Spanish Announce Table. Then some boring brawling in the ring. Then some boring brawling in the crowd. Then some boring brawl by the entrance area. Hey HHH finally whipped The Rock! I don't care if this gimmick was arbitrary and capricious for the feud the onus is on the wrestlers to use it. Rock starts to mount a comeback, but HHH high knee stymies him. The high knee cutoff is the best spot in HHH arsenal at this point. Chyna is out to signal that finish is starting. Thank God! HHH is all like "I want to do this myself" and Chyna is all like "That is not what you said last night in bed, tune changer". Rock Bottom! Rock is all like "Let me take a deep breath through my nose for the umpteenth time" and HHH cracks him in the People's jewels. This apparently the first time People's Jewels was coined because Lawler found it hilarious. HHH throws Rock to outside and says to hell with the strap. JR's indignation about this is hilarious. To paraphrase his tone: "That's not right. That's just not right. The ref should give him a stern talking to. I am going to write a polite, but tough letter about this." Rock hits the DDT, but Billy Gunn in see through tights is bethonged and hits Rock's head with a dong. Ok it was a club, but I couldn't miss that rhyme. HHH is pissed that he has had all this help! I bet he is going to be super passive aggressive about who should clean the hotel room that night. Rock somehow manages to find and hit HHH's shrunken testicles so that he can hit the Most Electrifying Move in Sports Entertainment. Gunn pulls Rock off via the strap and HHH hits the Pedigree to win. The first half was wicked boring. HHH was just punching and punching. The Rock's go to move was to breathe deeply through his nose. The finish was pretty funny with all the Attitude Era hijinx. Total dogshit match and one of the worst matches I have watched in a real long time.

[Ricky Jackson]

Hilarious reviews Sleeze.

[jdw]

Matt - can you edit / clean up your first review on 2/5? The match run together after the board update, creating a Big Block Of Text.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Hilarious reviews Sleeze.

 

Humor is the only way to get through the pain.

 

WWF World Heavyweight Champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs Triple H vs Mankind - Summerslam 1999

 

Yep, this is the first thing I watched on the WWE network. Judge away. Besides the fact that you have to guess where the match would begin and the incessant buffering throughout, the better video quality over youtube was worth it.

Jesse "The Body" Ventura is the special guest referee for the match since it was held in Minnesota where he was governor at the time. The Body reads HHH and Foley the Riot Act and he won't be putting up with any bullshit tonight. I have head different reasons for why Mankind was added to the match: 1. Austin did not want to job the title to HHH 2. They did not want Ventura to have declare HHH (a heel) the new Champ. If it really is reason #2, then why Austin have to lose anyways other than because Austin did not want to job the title to HHH. Feel free to present new information because I am unsure of this, but based on the information I know this seems to be the reason. In the storylines, it did make sense because HHH put Foley on the shelf back in May so it only makes sense that he would want to exact some vengeance. I watched this match about a year ago and did not think much of it. This time around I thought HHH really outshone both Austin and Foley in this match. Austin was clearly hurting and needed time off. Foley was coming back from an injury was still shaking off that ring rust. Based on what I have seen, HHH is clearly the best WWF main event worker and it is not really close. He bumps big, he shines a babyface up real nice, he heels pretty well. He needs to work on his heat segments, but overall he is a pretty solid performer at this point.

 

At the beginning of the match, HHH bounces around like a pinball for the broken down Austin and ailing Foley. Mankind goes in for the hug with Austin and Austin gives him the big 'ol FU. Austin whoops both their asses. Chyna, who has really impressed me on the outside, shoves Mankind into the post, which draws Ventura's attention so that HHH can wrap a chair around Austin's knee. This incapacitates Austin and HHH and Mankind go at it. I thought they did a pretty good job with the hardest part of triple threat matches the transitions from pairing to pairing. Mankind gets the Mandible Claw, but no Socko, so it is not as potent without his special junk juice (alliteration is just too damn tempting). Chyna trips up Foley and posts him. The Body throws Chyna out. In their protest (Chyna did a great job,), Austin makes a beeline for Hunter and floors him. Helmsley is able to wrap Stone Cold's knee around the post and now HHH/Foley double team Austin. Mankind calls for HHH to do the Figure-4, but goes for the cover himself. WWE network censors HHH's audible "What the fuck are you doing". I wonder if they will censor all his spot calling. Mankind hits the Cactus Clothesline, but crashes and burns on the somersault plancha onto the floor. O Foley. Austin is back up, but HHH goes back to work on the knee, but Austin pulls his legs in and HHH goes nose first into the post. Austin's mindless brawling is really tiresome. Foley and HHH take two really good back bumps for Austin. It is painfully obvious how badly Austin needed a year off at this point, but given the crowd reactions he gets it is so hard to pull the trigger on that. I am glad doctor's orders finally reigned supreme. Austin catapults HHH into Mankind and STUNNER to Foley!

 

HHH breaks it up with chair and wallops Foley in the head unprotected with the chair. O Foley. The Body refuses to count for Triple H. The crowd pops huge. They tease HHH/Body confrontation (should have milked it longer) before Shane O Mac comes out in the glorious "I just passed The Test" shirt. I had forgotten about that. Austin hits a weak ass Stunner on Shane that still draws a pop and Ventura gets a bigger pop for throwing the little bastard out of the ring. In his excitement, Austin nearly toppled over the ropes and got caught in them, which had me laughing heartily. Mankind applies the double Manible Claw, but only one has the special junk juice soaked sock. HHH was not choking down that sock so he had the wherewithal to break out of it and go for the Pedigree. Austin clobbers him. Austin STUNNER TO HHH. PEDIGREE TO AUSTIN! DOUBLE ARM DDT TO AUSTIN! And Mankind wins?!?!?!?!??!?!

 

I think the current 8 million false finish/finisher/finisher reversals/finisher steal style had me all fucked up because this seemed downright abrupt after only 4 finishers! Even though, I full well knew that Foley won this match I was still taken by surprise and that crowd sure was too. I actually enjoyed this match just fine and thought HHH was really good as the glue. Austin was running at 25% and his brawling was tepid and tiresome. Foley brought a couple bumps, but not much else to the table. Still, whoever called this match got it right because there was no downtime, everything kept moving, and transitions were well worked. ***1/4

[Superstar Sleeze]

First fifth of the HHH project is completed with this match...

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Mankind vs Triple H - RAW 8/23/99

 

HHH threatened to break JR's arm in order to get a championship match and then broke it anyways so Foley denied him then Shane O Mac forced Mankind to defend anyways. It was actually a great douchey start because HHH knew he could get away with it all because he had Shane O Mac in his pocket, The Rock is out to do some guest commentary and is mostly enjoyable on commentary. Chyna is out with HHH because she is selling Double J's guitar shot from earlier. HHH is rocking some chain mail before the match. Did I miss chain mail being really in between 1999-2000 that both HHH and Steiner were rocking it. O finally, Shane O Mac is your special guest ref. They actually do an early spot to establish that Shane will be biased to HHH when Foley goes for an early cover and Shane O jaws with Rocky. Psychology! The match gets really weird as they put what usually is the finish stretch in the beginning as Mankind's shine segment. He Socko's Shane, HHH and an ailing Chyna (who sells throughout the match and post-match.) HHH did not love Chyna for her body, he loved her for her beautiful wrestling mind. Triple H Irish whips Foley into Chyna who hiptosses him so that he does his usual leg bump onto the steps. Outside of the high knee cutoff, HHH really has nothing during his heat segments. He is much better at bumping at this point. Foley's comeback is weak. Cole mentions that Mankind is fired up because the injury to JR and really I did not feel that at all. Mankind was just wrestling. I would have loved so bigger HHH pinball bumping, but I don't blame HHH because it is not like Mankind was giving him anything to bump off of it. Shane awakes and hits Mankind with a chair and he no sells it. However, Triple takes advantage to paste Foley with a chair and might as well clobber The Rock for good measure. He hits the Pedigree for the victory. Chyna grabbing her head celebrates with Triple H. It was a pretty anti-climatic victory.

This match is really strange. You have Mankind taking out Shane and busting out Socko like they were going to finish early. Then they had a tedious heat segment followed by a quick finish. It just does not build towards anything. Given the amount of investment they put into HHH's push, they really would have busted out the big fireworks.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW US Champion Ricky Steamboat vs. Jean-Paul Levesque - WCW Saturday Night 9/3/94

I do believe this is Steamboat's last televised appearance until his mini-comeback run and I think is actually Levesque's (Triple H) first major TV match. Given the video quality and his hair-do, Levesque looks like a skinny version of Lex Luger. You can really tell how tall he was in this match. Steamboat did a great job carrying him through the match and he sold his arm really well for the green as grass Levesque. I felt that Levesque gained a lot of confidence as the match progressed. He started off very tentative in his actions you could just tell he was not yet comfortable. Steamboat was working basic stuff and once they got into the arm work (Steamboat charged and should rammed into post) I thought Levesque did a great job working the arm in a convincing fashion lots of different holds and moves. You could tell he knew what he was doing, but he was not totally there in terms of interacting with the crowd and doing with confidence. He was still thinking about it instead of feeling it. Steamboat was making him look great with his arm selling and the finish really put Levesque over as he was in command, but Steamboat grabbed inside cradle out of a bodyslam. Levesque even got a post-match beatdown on Steamboat's arm. WCW, as usual, was in a time of transition and outside of a Starrcade match against Wright, I don't he got much out of his WCW run. Still, a very good performance given how new he was to the big time. Between his size and work, I would definitely picked him up and developed him as a talent. It is fitting in Steamboat last TV appearance he is left selling the arm as that's where his bread was buttered selling and making everyone look great.

[W2BTD]

With the Network, i've been cleaning up some blind spots (mostly Attitude Era stuff, which turned me off of the WWE product and I stopped following as closely as I have the rest of my life), which has included going back and watching lots of Triple H matches.

 

Triple H is a guy that i've always tended to skip when I got a hold of shows over the years, because I almost never liked his stuff and decided to stop wasting time on him. So being older and more open minded, i've decided to go back and watch the stuff I blew off in real time.

 

My conclusion is that now I remember why I skipped his stuff for all of those years.

 

His matches feel like they should be good, but they almost never are. Two good examples of these "epic" Triple H fights/brawls are vs Jericho at Fully Loaded 2000, and the Last Man Standing vs HBK at Royal Rumble 2004. Both matches are long, and supposed to be intense, but for me they are just...boring. I often have to go back and rewind when watching Trips, because I find myself zoning out and not paying attention.

 

I know it's not the most fresh opinion, and comes off super smarky, but he just might be the most overrated performer of recent vintage.

[Timbo Slice]

When I went back to look at HHH matches, I had a similar opinion. I felt like he was cherry-picking his favorite 80s stuff and trying to make it his own, but ended up failing because it wasn't nearly as compelling. The idea behind those epics is that we're supposed to care that he's the guy having them, but he never gives you a reason to get behind him. If anything, it's his opponent you feel more for, either because you don't like him and you'd rather see HHH win out of spite or you love him and therefore make Triple H that much more of a heel. He's bland as all hell.

[(BP)]

I just mentioned in another thread his character, his work, and his push in 97 were about where he belonged for the majority of his career. All of that played to his strengths. He threw in the ass kicker/cerebral assassin/JCP tribute stuff, and it never rang true. A lot of Indy guys catch flak about, "playing wrestler" as opposed to actually seeming like one, and that's how he normally came off.

[El-P]

Totally agree with what's been said above. I always enjoyed Hunter's 96/97 work the best. He was exactly where he belong then, and was efficient and quite good at it.