By January 2000, Triple H dubbed himself The Game, implying that he was on top of the wrestling world and was nicknamed The Cerebral Assassin by Jim Ross. (The Game nickname was originally intended for Owen Hart, with Triple H adopting the nickname in honor of Owen.)[36] On the January 3 Raw is War, Triple H defeated The Big Show to win his third WWF championship.[37] Triple H feuded with Mick Foley in early 2000. They both fought at the Royal Rumble in a Street Fight Match for the WWF Championship, which Triple H won after doing two pedigrees on Foley. The feud ended at No Way Out in a Hell in a Cell, where Triple H retained the title and forced Foley to retire. Triple H pinned The Rock at WrestleMania 2000 to retain the title,[38] but lost it at Backlash to The Rock.[39] He regained it three weeks later, in an Iron Man match at Judgment Day,[40] only to lose it back to The Rock at King of the Ring.[41] Triple H then entered a storyline feud with Chris Jericho, which culminated in a Last Man Standing match at Fully Loaded. Afterwards, Triple H entered a feud with Kurt Angle, initially over the WWF Championship but then as a love triangle between himself, Angle, and Stephanie. On the August 3 SmackDown!, Triple H and his wife, Stephanie McMahon, along with Kurt Angle, were booked in a Six-man tag team match by Commissioner Mick Foley, against the Dudley Boyz (Buh-Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley), which Triple H, McMahon, and Angle won. After the match, as Triple H left the ring, Angle and McMahon hugged in a victory celebration, frustrating Triple H and marking the beginning of the Triple H-Angle feud. On the August 24 edition of Smackdown!, Angle kissed Stephanie McMahon after she was injured during a tag team match. At SummerSlam, The Rock defeated Triple H and Angle in a Triple Threat match to retain the WWF Championship after Angle received a concussion at the hands of Triple H. On August 28 edition of Raw is War, Angle interfered in a match between Eddie Guerrero and Triple H by attacking both men with a chair. On September 11 edition of Raw is War, Angle interfered in Triple Hs match with Chris Jericho and distracted Triple H, causing Triple H to leave the ring and chase Angle. Later that night, Angle attacked both Triple H and McMahon after his Handicap match against T & A. The feud culminated at Unforgiven, where Triple H defeated Angle with a Pedigree after a low blow from Stephanie.[41] A later storyline feud between Triple H and Steve Austin started when it emerged that Triple H had paid off Rikishi to run down Austin at Survivor Series, causing him to take a year off. In storyline, Triple H said he had did it in order to shield Austin from the WWF Championship and end his career. In reality, Austins previous neck injuries started bothering him again, forcing him to have surgery. In 2000, Triple H and Austin had a match at Survivor Series that ended when Triple H tried to trick Austin into coming into the parking lot to run him over again, only to have Austin lift his car up with a forklift and flip the car onto its roof 10 feet high. Triple H returned a few weeks later and attacked Austin. The feud continued into 2001 and ended in a Three Stages of Hell match in which Helmsley defeated Austin. In 2001, Triple H also feuded with The Undertaker, who defeated him at WrestleMania X-Seven.[42] The night after WrestleMania, Triple H interfered in a steel cage match between Austin (who had just won the WWF Championship) and The Rock where he joined forces with Austin and double teamed on The Rock,[43] forming a tag team called The Two-Man Power Trip. Triple H then defeated Chris Jericho for his third Intercontinental Championship on the April 5 SmackDown!,[44] and won it for a fourth time two weeks later by defeating Jeff Hardy. Triple H then became a tag team champion for the first time at Backlash when he and Austin defeated Kane and The Undertaker in a winner-take-all tag match. As Triple H was still Intercontinental Champion, the win made him a double champion.[45] During the May 21, 2001 Raw, he suffered a legitimate and career-threatening injury.[5][46] In the nights main event, he and Austin were defending the Tag Team Championship against Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit. At one point, Jericho had Austin trapped in the Walls of Jericho. Triple H ran in to break it up, but just as he did, he suffered a tear in his left quadriceps muscle,[5][46] causing it to come completely off the bone.[12] Despite his inability to place any weight on his leg, Triple H was able to complete the match.[12] He even allowed Jericho to put him in the Walls of Jericho, a move that places considerable stress on the quadriceps. The tear required an operation, which was performed by orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews. This injury brought an abrupt end to the McMahon-Helmsley Era, as the rigorous rehabilitation process kept Triple H out of action for over eight months,[5][12] completely missing The Invasion storyline.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 19:51:27 +0000