The "Confirmed Stories of Triple H Being A Total Douchebag" Thread

[Marty]

The ladder match was released on the Ladder Match set, as well as the RR Anthology, both of which were just before Benoit's murder suicide.

 

I don't know if the quad tear match ever got a full release. They did a Best of 2001 release, but I never saw the DVD version, so I don't know if it's in full (televised full anyway). Oddly enough, HHH of course references it in his last DVD release (produced just after the Benoit murder suicide) and even gets to say, "Steve and I were wrestling Benoit and Jericho" complete with clip of Benoit and Jericho.

But the TLC3 match with Benoit was released on the Best of Smackdown DVD in 2009 which included Benoit, and was rated quite highly in the countdown. Even showed him entering the ring on a solo shot.

 

With Jericho and Benoit being interlinked, I strongly agree. For years the two went hand in hand for me. In 2000 they produced some classic stuff, mainly an absolute belter at Backlash 2000, and a great match at Judgement Day 2000. Although I was super let down by the 2/3 falls match at SummerSlam.

 

Old post of mine there...so it took me a second to remember what the discussion was about.

 

Anyways, TLC3 was used in the SD 1999-2009 set, but only clips, not a full match. TLC3 did get a full-match release, but it was on the very same Ladder Match set mentioned earlier, which was released before the double murder-suicide.

 

The only times they do release full Benoit matches is when they're, for lack of a better term, "forced" to. I say "forced" because they choose to release what they do, which includes the Anthologies he winds up on (SummerSlam, Elimination Chamber, War Games). This seems to be, at present and at best, their policies with the guy for these things. Hunter's set coming up seems to be your doc/set of matches sets, which won't be out of the ordinary. I can't see the full quad tear tag making it, especially since HHH and Steve don't go over. I'm guessing, though, with the company line of HHH being an all-time great worker and such, the Iron Man with Rock will finally make its DVD debut, sans blurs no less.

[artDDP]

They did leave Benoit's entrance during the 1998 Four Horsemen reunion intact on the first Best of Nitro DVD set. Any commentary mention of him was edited out.

 

So Triple H has another DVD set coming out? I'm hoping the iron man match is included. He's had a lot of praise for Dwayne lately, even if most of it comes from WWE-produced videos. Maybe he's finally comfortable with his place in history? After, of course, making sure no one on the roster ever got the better of him.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Jesus, it was less than two years ago that Miz and Truth were working on top as an "outsider" tag team. Insane.

Man, that started out fucking hot as fuck and just died a death when Lil Jimmy got over

[goc]

They really killed R-Truth by turning him back babyface. Horrible decision, that short heel run is by far the best he's ever been in WWE.

[PaulS]

From Cageside Seats' years-old list of Top Ten Horror Stories From WWE Creative http://www.cagesideseats.com/2011/4/27/213...ative#storyjump

 

Number 7: "Am I F***ing Going Over?!"

 

One traumatized writer gave Powerslam writer Matthew Randazzo the following account of one of his earlier meetings with Triple H a few years ago:

 

“I remember being nervous the first time I delivered the script to the McMahon dressing room where HHH would dress (he would never use the locker rooms with the rest of the boys). When HHH answered I told him the RAW script was ready for his review. On the first occasion, he grabbed the script, flipped through it but did not read it, and asked me point-blank: ‘Am I f***ing going over?’ This first time that I delivered the script to him, he did indeed win his match, so I said yes. Then he politely gave the script back to me without reading it and said, ‘That’s all I needed to know,’ and walked back into the McMahon locker room. A few months later when Gewirtz had another weekend off, I delivered another RAW script to him on a PPV Sunday. And it was the same routine. He nonchalantly flipped through it and said, ‘Am I f***ing going over?’ This time, however, he was to lose his match via disqualification. He would keep his title. I said to him, ‘Well, sort of.’ Then Hunter froze. He said, ‘What do you f***ing mean, sort of?’ I said, ‘You lose the match via DQ, so you still keep the title.’, ‘What page?’ he growled. After I told Hunter the page number this occurred on, he ripped that page out, threw the rest of the script to the floor in a rage, and slammed the door in my face. Needless to say, the next day during the agents’ meeting, the script had somehow changed and now HHH won his match – cleanly. This was hardly an isolated incident.”

[Johnny Sorrow]

Here's the thing. I don't at all doubt that couldn't be true. But since the little cottage industry of former writers doing podcasts, interviews, etc, etc, is so prevalent right now and they all need to start outdoing each other, I tend to consider former writers who are "shooting" to be as reliable and not full of shit as much as I do wrestlers doing shoots. Which is to say, not at all.

 

And "traumatized"? Really?

[Jimmy Redman]

I know I've read this story before. Do we have a timeframe for it or an idea as to the context?

 

Even if the bare bones of it are true, there may be a reason for it. I.e. Hunter was in some sort of political fight with whoever about going over someone or not, or maybe a creative argument about losing on TV as the champion (which he seems to be at the time).

 

Not saying Hunter is necessarily in the right or it is good behaviour, but I mean I seriously doubt that even Hunter sat in his dressing room every Monday waiting for the script, ready to throw a tantrum if he wasn't scheduled to win clean no matter what. The little unsubstantiated "This was hardly an isolated incident" at the end sure wants you to think that though.

[Johnny Sorrow]

The thing that actually gets me is the "traumatized" shit. Christ, if getting yelled at work and having to deal with bosses who are always on your ass even when they're being fuckwits is traumatizing then I've been suffering from PTSD for the last 24 years.

[anarchistxx]

I am a bit skeptical about that story. For a start, HHH didn't often go over clean as a heel, unless it was the definitive match of a feud. There was usually a ton of overbooking, ref bumps, sledgehammer shots, interference and generally screwy finishes to keep the strap around his waist. for month after tedious month. I can't see him blowing his top because he is losing by DQ on Raw, depending on who he was facing.

 

Hilarious article though.

[Loss]

I don't buy it either, because the outward rage like that isn't really HHH's style based on pretty much everything everyone has ever said about him. He seems more like the type that would manipulate someone else into thinking it was their idea to change the finish when he was the one who wanted that all along.

[khawk20]

For a start, HHH didn't often go over clean as a heel, unless it was the definitive match of a feud. There was usually a ton of overbooking, ref bumps, sledgehammer shots, interference and generally screwy finishes to keep the strap around his waist. for month after tedious month.

Depends on the definition of "clean" in the context of the timeframe. If all "clean" means here is "getting a pin no matter how it is acheived", then it is plausible.

[anarchistxx]

Well if clean just means a pin or submission, however obtained, then yeah he did go over clean all the time. 'Clean' has traditionally meant a definitive victory without cheating or interference, which is something he saved for big feuds or when he wanted to bury somebody (usually under the pretence of 'putting them over' bu having them put up a hell of a fight before losing to the mighty ace). He wasn't rolling all the faces on Raw every week during his heel run, not without the trusty sledgehammer or interference from Flair etc.

 

As I said, the story doesn't ring true. If anything it sounds like Trips, knowing his reputation, is trolling the writer for whatever reason.

[Corona]

Out of curiosity, why would HHH book himself into a match against Steiner that he knew would be horrible? Why not distance himself massively?

[goc]

Because then he can say "this guy sucks even I can't work with him" kind of like how he killed Vladimir Kozlov.

[Ditch]

I never thought about it like this before, but he went over several top 'end of WCW' stars within a few months in 2003: Steiner, Booker and Nash.

[MikeCampbell]

Wasn't there a story that he was fine with putting over Nash for the title, but that Vince or the writers or whomever didn't want to do that because of how terrible he was in the ring?

[jdw]

From Cageside Seats' years-old list of Top Ten Horror Stories From WWE Creative http://www.cagesideseats.com/2011/4/27/213...ative#storyjump

That list is a riot.

[Matt D]

I never thought about it like this before, but he went over several top 'end of WCW' stars within a few months in 2003: Steiner, Booker and Nash.

Like when he ate all the secondary and tertiary belts.

[TravJ1979]

Number 9: Madigan's Misery

 

The adventures of See No Evil writer Dan Madigan in WWE are probably deserving of a section of their own. Indeed, Madigan had a crazier time there than most. As he noted to Powerslam magazine in 2008, he was initially a golden boy in WWE (Vince loved the dire and sophomoric See No Evil, likely seeing it on par with The King’s Speech or Black Swan or something) but Madigan quickly fell out of favour after pitching a strange idea in a creative meeting. Greatly misjudging Vince’s mood one day, Madigan pushed the sensational idea of Baron Von Bava, a Nazi cyborg, frozen in the last days of World War Two (“in a secret cave in the Swiss Alps!” Madigan would elaborate to Powerslam) suddenly thawed out after fifty years intent on carrying on the work of Hitler. Better yet, it would later be revealed that Paul Heyman (who is Jewish) would be his new manager, intent on unleashing this Nazi monster on the world. Madigan also suggested that the character would then goose-step to the ring, and then got promptly got up in the meeting and began goose-stepping, to show Vince and the rest of the writers how it would work.

 

After Madigan had finished pitching the idea, everything went quiet. Then after a few seconds of silence, a stunned Vince (in a rare moment of modesty and taste) slowly got up from his chair, put on his coat and grabbed his briefcase, and walked out of the room without uttering a word. The rest of the writing team were equally shocked; after Vince left no-one else in the meeting knew what to say. Madigan was unrepentant and explained: “I thought these were good ideas: inside my mind, it worked out well.”

This one still ended up happening *kind of* as Heyman managed Heidenreich in 2004/2005. A big man with a German name managed by a Jewish man. It's like a Russo idea that Vince, or someone, watered down to tasteful levels.

[Death From Above]

I wish they'd made that Nazi Cyborg thing as a movie. It's a way better B-movie concept than almost all the movies they've actually made.

 

I don't understand the "writers cannot eat and drink at meetings but the McMahon family can" thing. That's... just strange. The "there's no such thing as sickness" thing is something I hadn't read stated directly before but it fits perfectly for Vince's personality. Sad to think he's got a bit of the dark side of Howard Hughes in him, but maybe not exactly surprising.

[Ditch]

Steph being shaken by her husband suffering a bad, possibly (in-ring) career-ending injury is a "horror story"? Really?

[Death From Above]

Vince challenging an employee to participate in Death Race 2000 makes up for that though.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

I listened to the Cornette interview with Meltzer and Alvarez. They were talking about using special attractions as draws, and Meltzer was trying to sell HHH as such. Cornette dismissed HHH as a special attraction. When Meltzer got argumentative, Cornette snarkly replied "He's about as much of a special attraction as the mold that shows up on my shower curtain from time to time."

[SteveJRogers]

Steph being shaken by her husband suffering a bad, possibly (in-ring) career-ending injury is a "horror story"? Really?

Probably trying to hit on the "Steph is such a (insert favorite cunty celebrity) like Drama Queen Diva" angle by suggesting she was over acting a bit.

[artDDP]

I can't remember where I read it but I do remember someone saying Vince would flip out on people who yawned in front of him.