wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Triple H Returns

May 21, 2018 | Posted by Mike Chin

Triple H debuted for WWE over twenty-three years ago and has been continuously employed ever since. Taking on a corporate role has meant that, particularly in the last five years, he’s had his share of time off TV but that he’s never wandered too far. Between becoming a part-time in-ring talent, storyline contrivances, and various injuries over the years, Triple H has had his hiatuses from WWE TV each of which has set up some pretty big returns.

This countdown ranks Triple H’s seven best returns. While there’s some subjectivity involved, I opted to only count those returns after he was absent from live appearance on main roster TV for one month or more. The focus is on the moment of the return itself and what it seemed to set up in its present moment, as opposed to the long-term ramifications of the return. As always, my personal opinion weighs heavily in the ranking.

#7. The Royal Rumble 2016

I have, over the last two years, felt conflicted about this return. In particular, I have a feeling that WWE’s version of history will be kind to this moment, because, if we were to accept it as a surprise that no one saw coming, I think that it did play off well. In the narrative WWE would like for us to accept, Roman Reigns was face champion who had Stephanie McMahon stacking the deck against him when she forced him to defend the WWE Championship in the Royal Rumble match, and forced him to enter the match at the number one position. Reigns had taken out Triple H at the December TLC PPV, and he’d never been mentioned as a Rumble participant. So, when he came out at number thirty, it was huge swerve and set the gears in motion for The Game and The Big Dog to blow off their rivalry in the main event of WrestleMania 32.

I actually like the booking concept—particularly with stars like Seth Rollins and John Cena on the DL and forcing WWE to shuffle creative plans. However, this is one of those cases in which everyone called Triple H’s “surprise” return, to the point that he was actually the odds-on favorite according to the betting lines.

Still Triple H did look like a badass on his entrance, and the broadcast team sold the moment nicely.

#6. SummerSlam 2007

As the entries in this countdown demonstrate, Triple H’s returns tend to have a major impact on WWE’s booking, causing seismic shifts in the main event scene. While his summer 2007 return was met with some fanfare I appreciate it for its relatively understated qualities. This was Triple H returning from a legitimate injury that had kept him out of the ring for over a year. Moreover, it was Triple H returning, not quite at the main event level, but to work a logical feud with an upper card veteran.

The angle at hand saw King Booker really drive home his royal gimmick by bullying Jerry Lawler and amping up his heel bombast. In response, Lawler announced the return of the King of Kings, Triple H, to vie for the crown. The match was set for SummerSlam. Contrary to the WrestleMania 19 program between the two, widely panned for Helmesley’s racist overtones and still picking up the win this was a more simple, straightforward, feel-good story of face Triple H coming back to put a heel in his place.

#5. Pre-Survivor Series 2017

The fall of 2017 was a strange one, and I suspect it will be particularly interesting to look back on years in the future, in particular when we have a sense of whether it represented a new business model or a particularly unusual and unique time in WWE programming.

It started and continued with a string of Triple H making one off appearances on untelevised international cards, including a “make good” appearance to fill in in South America when Kevin Owens had to go home early, and later a substitution to work Jinder Mahal in India after WWE relieved him of the WWE Championship ahead of schedule. It continued with Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt having to sit out TLC at the last minute, rushing the in ring return of Kurt Angle (not to mention AJ Styles crossing brand lines).

Then there was Survivor Series. Maybe it was frustration with the creative direction of the company. Maybe it was Jinder Mahal and Jason Jordan not getting over as much as WWE wanted, or recognizing the explosive buzz around TLC that resulted from last minute changes. Regardless, late changes included AJ Styles sliding into the world champion vs. world champion match with Brock Lesnar, and Charlotte Flair subbing into the women’s champion vs. champion match against Alexa Bliss. It’s debatable the degree to which some of this was the plan all along (Flair, in particular seems telegraphed). It felt more spontaneous when John Cena joined Team SmackDown. It felt all the more unplanned when Triple H hade his first appearance on Raw in over half of a year to declare himself Jordan’s replacement on Team Raw.

This surprise return worked for its PPV implications and for the perversely appealing moment of seeing a legend fans were interested in Pedigree a rookie they weren’t, burying him into oblivion, and out of the main event picture for a Big Four PPV. We can argue that Helmesley burying a young talent in this fashion was short-sighted and self-serving (the execution of the actual Survivor Series match supports this reading), but the moment of Triple H appearing on Raw to offer one more big surprise on the road to Survivor Series was pretty electric in and of itself.

#4. Post-Money in the Bank 2011

In 2018, Triple H is pretty entrenched in our minds as a heel authority figure. Indeed, I’d go so far as to argue most fans are sick of him in the role. When WWE teased a face turn, with him working face on international shows in 2017, and potentially being lined up as as an opponent for Kevin Owens after he beat up on other McMahon family members, it felt like a change long overdue.

However, if we think back to 2011, Triple H as an authority figure felt like a bit of a revelation.

Here we had a legit major star with the credibility of not only having been an in-ring star but still being physically imposing and able to go. He was a fun insertion when Vince McMahon was kayfabe relieved of his leadership duties during the kayfabe mess of the Summer of Punk angle. Triple H as a face, torn between trying to do right by his family and to do right by the locker room was fun and fresh, and it all started with his first appearance on Raw to formally take the reins from his father in law, en route to being a key player (for better, then for worse) in Punk and the main event’s trajectory over the months to follow.

#3. Turning on Seth Rollins, Fall 2016

You may notice a pattern developing, but Triple H and his comebacks can come across at their best when he does them amidst times of unpredictable chaos.

Summer 2016 wrapped up with the Raw and SmackDown brands settling into their own separate universes again, in particular with new top face Finn Balor winning the first Universal Championship. Bigger changes were in store, though, when a powerbomb into the barricade separated his shoulder in the same match in which he won the title. Suddenly, Raw was back to square one, without a champion.

Seth Rollins was, in many ways the presumptive choice to take the title given he’d already been positioned as the top contender, and had a world title history behind him. So it was that he walked into a Fatal Fourway for the strap on Raw, pitted against other establishment favorite Roman Reigns, upstart Big Cass, and Kevin Owens who looked as though he was just filling a roster spot.

It was a major surprise when Triple H showed up for this match after being absent from TV since WrestleMania over four months earlier. It was a bigger surprise when he got involved in the match and the biggest surprise of all when he didn’t help former associate Seth Rollins, but rather nailed him with a Pedigree to gift Owens the huge win.

You can count me among the masses that would have rather seen Rollins demonstrate more agency in his face turn, and Owens have been more active in achieving his own first world title victory. Nonetheless, The Game injected the edge of mystery and a seismic shift in the company in this return besides laying the foundation for his WrestleMania program with Rollins down the road.

#2. Pre-WrestleMania 27

As WWE rolled into WrestleMania season in 2011, interesting things were happening. The Rock had made one of the most shocking returns in WWE history, years past the point when anyone thought he’d set foot in a WWE ring again. The Miz was in the unlikely position of shaping up to be a WreslteMania main eventer. And then there were these mysterious vignettes airing about somebody arriving on the February 21 episode of Raw.

Despite a vocal minority suggesting that it might be Sting, it became clear soon enough that it was, in fact, The Undertaker coming back. Indeed, it was no surprise if still a welcome return when he showed up on Raw. He picked up a mic and fans were left to assume that he was about to lay the foundation for whatever he was doing at WrestleMania that year.

And then Triple H arrived.

Before the Dead Man could get a word out, Triple H, who had also been missing from WWE TV for nearly four months, walked to the ring. The two engaged in an intense stare down, then both looked to the WrestleMania banner in the rafters. It was a pretty cool moment that sold the instant credibility of both stars as they wordlessly established a surprise megastar collision at ‘Mania.

#1. Pre-Royal Rumble 2002

In 2001, Triple H was teamed up with Steve Austin to form the Two Man Power Trip heel super team. The prevailing theory is that, in the long term, they’d turn on each other, most likely with Triple H playing the face, and go to war, likely as not to headline WrestleMania 18. Things got thoroughly derailed, however, when Triple H suffered a torn quadricep in the middle of a tag match between the two and Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit.

Triple H bravely finished the match and the injury may have, in the most unlikely of scenarios, turned out for the best for his character, as he ended up sitting out the poorly booked InVasion angle. He got back just in time for the 2002 Royal Rumble.

Triple H’s return was announced in advance for a Raw airing from Madison Square Garden. He received a monster pop as he made his way to the ring and worked all four corners. All of this culminated in throwing hands against Kurt Angle who had dared crash his party. In laying out the Olympic gold medalist with a Pedigree, Helmesley established he was still a top star and he had made a face turn. This all set him up to win the Royal Rumble and go on to cap his successful comeback by winning the main event of WrestleMania.

What returns you would add to the list? My top runner up was showing up to reinstate The Authority in the last Raw of 2014. Let us know what you think in the comments.