Please…Don’t Hate 5.10.09: Triple H (Part II)

Welcome everyone to Please…Don’t Hate, the column which takes a look at some of the most hated on and complained about wrestlers, companies, and topics within the wrestling world. I would like to first thank everyone for their warm welcome for this column’s return and for leaving a bunch of good comments. For the sake of not filling up this whole week’s column with tons of readers (both past and present), I shall skip the real “Reader Reverb” until I start my new topics in a few weeks. But I did just want to say just one thing about last week’s “Hater” comments. I definitely appreciate reading everyone’s opinion whenever they love or hate my selected topic, but for those “Cena haters” who constantly state that Cena cannot work a good match (while also claiming that his opponents are the only reason he looks good) need to look at this past week’s Last Man Standing bout against Edge at Backlash. People can yell all they want about Cena not being good on the mic or the man just being a “corporate marketing machine”, but PLEASE stop saying that he can’t work a good match. Edge is an awesome-as-hell worker, but Cena works just as hard as him (cause you know it takes TWO people equally putting in to make a great match) and as a result easily put on one of his best efforts on Sunday without a doubt. So…please…stop.

So getting back to topic, this week I cover the former WWE champ, Triple H. While hated on a bit by fans like last week’s topic of Cena, the main difference between the two is that people don’t like Trips mainly because of his “family connections” and constant stay at the top of the card. I will break down again why I think that some of the hate is truly in reality unwarranted and revisit what everyone had to say about my comments last year at this time.

Before you read this revised column, please feel free to read the original one I did on HHH last year:
Please…Don’t Hate: 5.18.08 – Triple H

Reader Reverb
“Against” HHH

F@CK THIS ARTICLE AND F@CK ANYONE WHO COMES ANYWHERE NEAR DEFENDING THE CAREER OF TRIPLE H!!!!!!!

Let’s begin by how this guy came from a lame-ass gimmick of a privileged blueblood to the ass-kicker of all ass-kickers, all the while being nothing more than a DECENT in-ring mechanic. That’s right; he was in the ear of Vincent Kennedy McMahon, The Kliq, and soon crowbared his way into the family business by banging the boss’s daughter. Unlike Shawn Michaels, (who actually had charisma and was entertaining in the main event scene week-to-week, but his indictment is a different story altogether), this guy just doesn’t know when to go the f@ck away respectfully. This sniveling shit was in on the Montreal Screwjob, (which he had no place in being in at all), to sitting in on production meetings every goddamn week! It’s no accident the guy blew two quads out, I’m sure there is plenty of wear-and-tear when you’re down on your knees in front of the promoter all the fuckin’ time!

I love the argument that the guy puts over talent. Outside of Cena, Batista, Orton, and his good ol’ buddy HBK, someone please tell me who he put over that has had a lasting impact on the industry and was better for it? Booker T – BERRIED, Goldberg – BERRIED, Jericho – BERRIED, RVD – BERRIED, Steiner – uhh…..let’s skip that one because he was a shell of himself at that point! The fact remains that this douche is in business for him and those who he buried have their own talents to thank for getting/keeping themselves over.

I’ll concede that he has good matches every week, but does anyone remember a FIVE-STAR CLASSIC he had with anyone not named Austin, Rock, Foley, Michaels, or Undertaker? The answer is a resounding “NO”. Reason being is that those aforementioned five had that “it” that so many smarks and industry-types seems to refer to, but can never quite define. Meanwhile, Cripple H, (still love that nickname Tom Zenk gave him), seems to chug along with lukewarm promos (The Rock’s impressions of them still keep me laughing), lame-ass angles (Katie Vick, anyone?), and matches that follow the same formula.

Does the guy have a place in history? I’m sure he does, but not in the same pantheon as we’ll remember Hart, Flair, Hogan, Austin, Rock, etc. The guy has a paint-by-numbers in-ring career, but who he’s related to will assure that his pursuits will be seen as epic and eclipse just about everyone who we ever cheered for. I’m near 30-years old, have been a fan/admirer of the business since I was five, and I’ve never seen a performer stay over by offering so much less than anyone else.

Posted By: thechriseco (Guest) on May 18, 2008 at 11:01 PM

Good pro-HHH propganda. Yet why does he do things like the BURIEL of London and Kendrick?

They come out to help him on time – he doesn’t put them over – oh no – SQUASH. Even Hogan wasn’t that lame.

HHH – NO BUYS.

Posted By: Rob~! (Guest) on May 18, 2008 at 06:52 PM

I hate the “…well he had to lose a lot to be a 12 time champion” argument because nowadays, the only reason why he even loses the title is so that when he inevitably wins it back, he’ll be one step closer to having more title reigns than Flair.

Posted By: JJ (Guest) on May 18, 2008 at 09:01 PM

“For” HHH

Will you people quit your ridiculously narrow minded rhetoric of “he berried this guy, he berried that guy”

HHH DID NOT BOOK FOR WWE.

Goldberg, Jericho, RVD, Steiner were berried because Vince didn’t create them. In the exact same way Bret Hart got berried in WCW…Vince was never going to put an outside guy over all his top guys. Sure, all 4 of them eventuallly got a title run but Vince had to put his guys over the top of them first.

This was clearly evidenced by his handling of the Invasion angle and complete burying of WCW…but I guess that must of been HHH’s fault as well??

In one breateh you mention HHH as a burier but laud applause on Ric Flair…a guy renowned for holding others down back in the day, a worse backstage politician then HHH.

Hell Austin walked out on his contract a couple times due to creative differences but none hates on him.

The truth of the matter is that HHH has been the best heel for the last decade in any US promotion. His in ring style supports this mentality and is why he excels in certain matches that allow him to cheat and use ol’ Sledgy.

Posted By: Stephen (Guest) on May 19, 2008 at 03:10 AM

Good article… I would just like to point out something about the london and Kendrick situation.

Triple H pedigreeing London/Kendrick is no difference than Austin Stunning every talent the WWE had to offer. It plays into his gimmick because Triple H has reputation of being not the nicest guy even when he is fan favorite.

Posted By: Sean (Guest) on May 19, 2008 at 01:09 AM

To be honest all of Triple H’s hate seems to be on the internet. I’ve never heard him get anything less than a great positive ovation since coming back in 2007.

Also lets not forget the reason he’s a 12 time champ is because he keeps losing the belt. his longest reign was 10 months when frankly he didn’t have much competition who could carry a brand as champ. I mean the champ has to be the top hero or villain of the brand and the main event scene at that point didn’t have many people who were near triple H’s quality as either.

Posted By: Davy (Guest) on May 18, 2008 at 04:34 PM

The whole burrial thing kills me. WWE, while scripted is set up as competition. There eventually has to be a winner. If everyone won ever single match would you still watch? That would be dumb. Politics happens in every career. If HHH found a way to work it to his advantage, well good for him. If it makes you feel better knowing you can’t play the corperate politics game so you bitch when someone else does, well whatever makes ya sleep at night. If people are so worried about putting other people over shouldn’t that make the Brooklyn Brawler the number one wrestler of all time?

Posted By: imskyclad (Guest) on May 19, 2008 at 05:53 AM

Now…once again….time to play “The Game”.

My Reasoning For Not Hating On…Triple H
Without even thinking about it, I can on top of my head more specifically name the reasons why people hate HHH:

-Has too much “backstage political power” by being owner Vince McMahon’s son-in-law
-Has so many title reigns simply because he’s trying to beat Ric Flair’s top record as “16-Time Champ”
-Continuously buries younger/underrated talent (present–Paul London/Brian Kendrick, past–Benoit, RVD, Booker T)
-Always main-events, but rarely loses

With this, let’s first take care of the pink elephant in the room…it can strongly be determined that most people (i.e. most folks on the net) hate Triple H mainly due to the “special advantage” that he has as being the owner’s close son-in-law…period. Sure can claim that it’s not really about his family connection, but really about his constant stay at the top, and I say to this…BS. I am beyond tired of people who accuse technical horribly good wrestlers of being on top simply because of a “unique” position they may have. Fans often forget that everything they see on their TV screens are results of a BUSINESS decision and not a “I’m really better than the other person so let me squash them just cause I’m a selfish asshole” move. Triple H is simply good. He’s been one of the few in the wrestling world who constantly goes out and puts on a good regular effort no matter what. He’s married to the boss’ daughter…so what. I swear even if he didn’t do the deed, he still be in a similar position he’s in today mainly because he’s a tired and true proven commodity. Vince knew that HHH was always a hard worker and hell to his own personal credit knows even more now of this very fact since now that HHH’s his son-in-law that he is truly down for the cause. For the so-called “work politics” people complain about so much, this stuff happens all of the time in life. Hell I even personally know about it.

In my job as a marketing representative, I consider myself a very hard worker more in the traditional “I’ll stay late if I have to and don’t take any easy favors” type of way. If I want to help advance myself in hopes of getting a better position, I do things such as take on extra work/projects and establish with my boss my status on a semi-regular basis (and not in a “butt-kissing, sucking-up” manner) in an effort to see how I can help our department even more. Now people may look at this as me simply playing office politics to get ahead, but I look at it as someone who’s making the extra concentrated effort to not be chained to my same desk and same position for the rest of my life. Same goes with Triple H and many others. Not to be a hater on the HHH haters, but it sucks that they don’t like Triple H based on the fact that they ASSUME that the only reason he’s ahead now is because of his McMahon relationship (me talking to my boss every once in awhile) and not because of his actual extra effort (me staying late and taking on extra assignments). Absolutely NO ONE accuses someone like the well-respected Undertaker of playing any “political games” when he asks McMahon to help push some young person more specifically cause he sees potential in them. That’s just the same as if someone else who remotely asks their boss for something and then they’re automatically accused of kissing their tail and being a suck-up by the other workers who honestly are just fine doing the bare-minimum and in turn are pissed cause they’re not getting ahead. So not sounding like a prude or anything, people just need to get over the fact that HHH is married into the company’s family. If the man was a plain-as-day shitty wrestler and was getting pushed to the moon for no real reason (as seen before in other wrestling companies, mainly the last years of WCW), only then should one really question why the hell is this occurring. Otherwise, stay of the dude’s personal business and focus only on what he brings to the ring.

Now with the “buries younger talent” and “always winning titles” complaints, I’m honestly constantly baffled when I hear this. Any normal, law-obeying wrestling fan should know the basics of faces and heels. Faces are the “good guys” who always are chasing after the bad people, but yet takes a bunch of loses here and there to make their chase for wins even more important. Heels are the “bad guys” (keyword: BAD) who are the one who usually dominates by constantly getting wins on their do-gooder opponents and then when the timing is right, they lose to help get the good guys over in the process. With Triple H’s frequent wins then and now (with the majority of them being with him as a heel), the man has done so fitting perfectly into the two established “face” and “heel” roles. Thus that’s why he’ done what’s he’s done. He’s lost big time when he’s lost (Batista, Benoit, Cena, Benjamin, Orton, Hardy) and won big when he finally got the World title strap back. I admitted in my column last year that I despised the idea of HHH back in the day constantly being the World Champ over more “deserving” new faces such as Rob Van Dam and Booker T and also believed that this was the case mainly because of Trips bangin’ the boss’ daughter. But the more I looked back at his earlier title reigns (2002-2005) and saw how much freakin’ heel heat this guy had during those times, I knew that the decision to keep the strap on him for as long as they did wasn’t simply a “family-political” move. It was just a “let’s fully establish the new World Title and create mega heel-heat in the process” move. As I also mentioned last year too was that even the head WWE writers at the time (read here for article) that while wanting to place the belt on the well-deserved and crazy-over RVD, they saw that the right move in the end was to establish the new “World Heavyweight Championship” (remember at the beginning of the brand split) by having Triple H dominate everyone to make it known that the belt was something worthwhile really based on the fact that everyone just wanted to simply work on getting it off of the super-dickish heel Triple H’s waist on a continual basis. Bad guys need to be dominate in order to make the chase after them very watchable to the average viewer and good guys need to look tough in wins, while also losing big time, in order to establish that they’re the best. This is the same exact method that happens in ALL of wrestling and people shouldn’t be ignorant and turn the blind cheek due to their personal distaste for HHH.

Lastly…I ask…please haters…GET THE HELL OVER the “London-Kendrick pedigree” incident…for the love of God. I watched the same exact moment live on that random-ass Raw episode and I honestly forgot about it until I kept seeing everyone and their mama bring it up on a regular basis. This is how I saw this seemingly simple moment…HHH was a face, he was being harassed by Mr. McMahon (storyline-wise) for awhile and was extremely pissed that he was booked in a handicap match, so when he was jumped by 3 guys altogether at the conclusion of the match London and Kendrick came out to help, so after they helped their “friend”…HHH suddenly pedigrees both guys in an (in my opinion) assumed attempt at showing that he doesn’t “need” any help and is still extremely pissed at McMahon’s actions. Now we can go on for days on if this action really was a cocky way of HHH showing his dominance by “burying” the former tag team champs or if it was a silly attempt at putting over HHH’s character, but the fact is…WHY DOES IT MATTER SO MUCH??? I am the BIGGEST London/Kendrick fan and was one of the first to be pissed when their push was derailed, but I thought at the time of this “Triple H/London & Kendrick Pedigree-Gate incident” that it was a semi-funny random moment with HHH being unreasonably pissed at the wrong people. Then I read people’s comments about being at mad at Triple H for “ending the career pushes’ of the two”, while I just sat there and thought “it isn’t that serious”. Let me count real quick the faces who have done the same EXACT thing to other random lower-card faces before in the past….Undertaker….Shawn Michaels…the Rock…uh…and oh yea….STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN. Just because we like London/Kendrick much better than all of the other “jobbers” to suffer the same fate shouldn’t go away from the fact. But again, like for the above example of “backstage politics”, haters just seem to nitpick HHH just because they can. He’s not any worst than anyone else who’s supposedly “squashed” people before. And with all of the other people he’s put over, it’s definitely sure as hell not his fault if they are able to succeed on their own after the fact. For the other people he has been accused of “burying”, it is not his fault that things didn’t go differently. It wasn’t HHH who said “Booker T sucks…let’s put him in a big Wrestlemania title match and then not push him afterwards”. It wasn’t him who stated “Orton’s first title reign should have been cut short cause he sucks”. HHH may know the booker closer than everyone does (mainly due to him being one those there the longest), but it doesn’t automatically mean that he’s a puppet master of everyone’s direction. As for the others that HHH has actually put over, people STILL bitch about this as well. Folks shouldn’t get mad because Maven and Shelton Benjamin weren’t pushed properly after getting the big wins and they also shouldn’t get all bend out of shape when a talent DOES go over as a result (Orton, Batista, Cena, Benoit) and then turn around and accuse of Trips doing so just to “become even more powerful” (which to me…doesn’t make any sense).

In comparison to Cena, I’m a little bit more frustrated with haters on HHH because the man is actually without a doubt really good in the ring. The man has proved this time and time and time again. He is the ultimate professional when it comes to doing his thing in the ring and he seems to always try to improve in some kind of way. Proof of this is with his flawless reaction during his feud with Orton when his real-life wife Stephanie McMahon was DDT’d by Orton (the man never looked so vulnerable in all of the years I’ve seen him on TV), along with his constant ability to pull out great matches when he’s prompted to (as with his feud with Jeff Hardy and recent Elimination Chamber match). Again, haters can just hate on him for not being that good and for taking up space in the main event. But PLEASE I beg of you to stop hating on him simply because of his wife and as a result, his close relationship with the boss. It’s pretty crappy that because the man fell in love with someone who’s a high-up in the business that his work is now looked unreasonably closer due to the constant suspicions of him getting an unfair advantage over other talent. HHH is good. It’s not because of his marriage, not because of Vince McMahon, and not because of any imagined “backstage politicking”. The man is simply just that good in the ring.

Good Reasons to Love….Triple H
Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy feud promo (surprisingly very good bout and feud)

HHH vs. Orton promo for Mania’ 25 (match sucked…but build-up was excellent, particularly w/Stephanie McMahon)

Smackdown Elimination Chamber @ No Way Out 2009 (the ending w/Taker and HHH was definitely sick to watch)

If you would like to check out all of my past “Please…Don’t Hate” issues, please visit my page here:
Please…Don’t Hate archives

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On The Next Episode of…”Please…Don’t Hate”
Now…the conclusion…of the “Please…Don’t Hate” comeback special!! I so far covered two of the most controversial topics I’ve ever done…but I think that this may the worst yet considering how I feel about it now. TNA Wrestling. I defended it as my first inaugural topic of this column and now I am unfortunately questioning my true blue alliance as a fan of the company. Come see why I, like many others, feel this way now and read why I am trying to hold on strong to my hopes for better things as I continuously ask fans to “Please…Don’t Hate”. See y’all in 2.