Wrestler of the (4/28) Week: Triple H!
Our resident philosopher, Jay Shannon, takes a look at the new WWE champion. This week’s Pro Wrestling Daily: Wrestler of the Week is the 12-time champ, Triple H
At Backlash, Triple H survived a brutal Fatal Four-Way Match to claim his 12th championship. Triple H has gone through multiple personality changes over the years. The one thing that has never changed is that he is a superstar and a winner. This week’s Pro Wrestling Daily: Wrestler of the Week was perhaps my easiest choice, ever. Triple H is this week’s award winner as best of the best.
Terra Ryzing
Paul Levesque didn’t start out to be a wrestler. He actually wanted to be a body builder. That would all change when Paul was introduced to fellow bodybuilder, and former WCW wrestler, Bill Kazmaier. Kazmaier felt that Paul had the right look to be a wrestler, so he made a few calls to his wrestling connections.
Paul was sent to Killer Kowalski for training. Kowalski was a brutal, rugged wrestler who passed his talent on to several stars. A flippant comment by Kowalski gave Paul his first character’s name. The comment was something to the effect of “When you face an opponent, you should feel his terror rising.” Paul played with the spelling and debuted as Terra Ryzing. Terra started in the IWF. He won his first title by besting Tony Roy for the IWF Heavyweight title. Terra was a rising star and he would soon move to a much larger format.
Blue Blood Ryzing
Paul continued his Terra Ryzing character when he moved to WCW. That character failed, miserably. Terra was pulled off television for several weeks while his persona was being re-packaged.
The new character played upon Paul’s French heritage. Jean-Paul Levesque was a French aristocrat who looked down on others. There was one slight problem with the new character. The French aristocrat spoke almost no French. Jean-Paul utilized a cheesy French accent in his interviews. Jean-Paul started out with a nowhere feud with Alex Wright. Jean-Paul wanted to work as a singles act, but creative had other ideas.
Jean-Paul was teamed with Lord Steven Regal as the original version of the Blue Bloods tag team. The team really never went anywhere. Jean-Paul demanded to be pushed as a single. When the Powers-That-Be refused, Jean-Paul gave his notice.
Hunter Ryzing
In May, 1995, Paul made his WWE debut as Hunter Hearst Helmsley. It was basically the same snobbish character, minus the bad French accent. Hunter started out in the mid-card pool, but quickly climbed to super stardom. He captured his first title, the Intercontinental title, from Marc Mero in October, 1996.
The next step in Hunter’s ascent to stardom came in June of 1997, when he won the King of the Ring tournament. Hunter took exception to wearing the crown and robe. Some sources say that he didn’t want to go back to something similar to the “Jean-Paul” character. Hunter actually destroyed two different crowns over the head of Mick Foley.
Triple H Degenerating
Hunter had begun using Chyna as his valet. The two had an off-screen relationship, as well. The two had met at Kowalski’s wrestling school. After King of the Ring, Hunter underwent a minor name change. Since he was becoming more marketable, the creative team began to use his initials. The “Triple H” name was actually an homage to “Double A”, Arn Anderson.
Triple H began to align himself with his real-life friend, Shawn Michaels. The two began to wreak havoc on the wrestling community. Owen Hart is credited with the creation of their team’s name. During a promo, Owen called the two “a bunch of degenerates”. The comment was combined with the Generation X title for people of Shawn and HHH’s ages. They were officially dubbed Degeneration X. That would later be shortened to D-X.
D-X would go through several changes over the years. Shawn Michaels was sidelined with a back injury. Triple H recruited X-Pac (Sean Waltman), Billy Gunn (Kip James) and Road Dogg (BG James) to round out the crew. Wrestling legend Rick Rude would become their unofficial manager. They were the dominant force in the WWE between 1997 and 2000. Eventually, the group disbanded and Triple H moved on to the next stage of his career.
Life imitates art: The McMahon-Helmsley era
Stephanie McMahon had become involved, on-screen, with Test (Andrew Martin). They were set to be wed on the November 29, 1999 edition of Raw. Triple H crashed the party when the ref asked if anyone objectedto the wedding. Triple H ran a video of himself and Stephanie getting married at a drive-up wedding window in Las Vegas. After initially being disgusted by the concept of being marriedto Triple H, Stephanie eventually joined her husband as the McMahon-Helmsley regime.
While the on-screen marriage wouldn’t last long, the constant closeness of the two led to a real-life relationship. Triple H dumped Chyna to date Stephanie. The two would eventually marry. Triple H never fails to get a nod to his marriage. The most tasteless of these nods came during the Who is Vince McMahon’s son? angle. It was hinted that Triple H was Vince’s son. That caused an uproar when Vince suggested “…but that means…” and had a look of horror on his face. The possible incest angle was quickly dropped. During the 15th anniversary of Raw, Triple H told Stephanie “I’ll see you at home”. Triple H quickly joked that he’d said “Your brother’s a gnome.”.
The Evolution of Triple H
After the McMahon-Helmsley era came to an end, Triple H went solo. He feuded over the World title with numerous people. Triple H was approached by Ric Flair about creating a new Four Horsemen. Flair and Triple H also recruited Batista and Randy Orton. Everyone expected the group to debut as the Four Horsemen, but the various members of the group disagreed about being an extension of a past group. It was Flair who created the team’s name. They were The Evolution of the Four Horsemen.
The team would overwhelm everyone in their path. It was jealously and internal conflict that would destroy the group. Randy Orton won the World title and Triple H was upset. He instructed Batista to take out Orton with the Batista Bomb. Triple H would eventually feud with all three members of Evolution. His battles with Ric Flair were some of the most brutal and bloody battles in WWE history.
D-X returns
Triple H would continue to be a major force in the singles ranks. That would change, slightly, when Shawn Michaels returned, after a four-year hiatus. Their relationship would start off on a bad foot. After a few matches against each other, the two decided that they were stronger as an unit. Over a few months, Shawn and Triple H would hint about a reunion of D-X by doing the Crotch Chops that the group used as an insult to everyone that they feuded with.
The two re-united to battle Vince McMahon and his forces. That had a hilarious set of matches against the Spirit Squad. They also had a memorable Handicap match against Vince and Shane McMahon and the Big Show. Vince’s head was shoved into the over-sized backside of Show. The team was more about comedy antics that winning tag team gold.
King of Kings and Injuries
Triple H has had major issues with his quads. He has been sidelined, twice, with major tears of the quads. It is likely that Triple H will have a shortened career due to his legs. Triple H refused to give up on his career. He came back from his latest injury to challenge Randy Orton for the WWE title. Triple H won and lost the title in the same night (October 7, 2007). Triple H stayed in the title picture throughout the Fall, Winter and Spring of 2007-08. Triple H regained the WWE title, for the 12th time, at Backlash 2008.
In Conclusion:
Triple H just started the 16th year of his wrestling career. Triple H is almost a sure bet to make it into the WWE Hall of Fame, someday. That has more to do with his talent than with his son-in-law status in the McMahon family.
Will Triple H surpass the 16 championships mark set by his mentor, Ric Flair? That’s really hard to say. Triple H’s legs are his weak point. If he can avoid injury, Triple H will likely eclipse Flair’s success. Even if Triple H has to retire from active competition early, he will still be a major force in the industry. Triple H is one of the most entertaining performers in wrestling history. He is the new WWE champion. He’s also this week’s choice for the Pro Wrestling Daily: Wrestler of the Week.
– Jay Shannon
Jade89512@yahoo.com
(4/28/08)
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