Triple H vs WCW in 2003

[CM Steel]

Coming off of buying out their rival wrestling promotion WCW in 2001. Two years later came in the context of WWE superstar Triple H going through the majority of the top roster of superstars that was WCW.

January '03: Feud with Scott Steiner
Wrestlemania 19: World Title Feud with Booker T
May/June '03: World Title Feud with Kevin Nash
June RAW '03: World Title Match with Ric Flair
Unforgiven '03: World Title LOST to Bill GOLDBERG

After Triple H won the world title back from Goldberg months later heading into the new. Triple H entered into a feud with another former WCW champion, the late Chris Benoit. Who'd he woulf feud with for months trying to get the world title back off of.

So with Stone Cold Steve Austin gone with a career ending injury and the Rock gone to star his movie career in Hollywood. Triple H had the spotlight to himself in the WWE with the Undertaker on the Smackdown brand. But what was the WWE's message to the late WCW's former star roster? Triple H did have connections to all the opponents from WCW that he faced.

-Triple H-Scott Steiner: Hunter didn't like Steiner in real-life
-Triple H-Booker T: Booker T was WCW's answer to Triple H
-Triple H-Kevin Nash: Best Friends in real-life
-Triple H-Ric Flair: Great Friends in real-life
-Triple H-Bill Goldberg: They had beef in real-life
-Triple H-Chris Benoit: 'Nuff respect for the business

Why Triple H for this task?

 

[Sundar]

While he did bury Booker T, he actually put over Steiner and Goldberg. If you see the promos leading up to his match with Steiner and the match itself at the Royal Rumble, HHH got his ass kicked everytime. Their RR match was so bad that fans turned on Steiner. Whether the match was bad because HHH refused to put on a good match with Steiner, I don't know.

Goldberg was on a 1 year contract so it's understandable why they didn't keep him as champion going in Wrestlemania and they also wanted to do Goldberg vs Lesnar. During his tenure, Goldberg got clean wins over HHH at Unforgiven and Survivor Series and HHH only won the title back in a triple threat match involving Kane and with help from Evolution.

Nash was too old and washed up when he came back so there was no way they'd have given him the title.

HHH never got a clean win over Benoit during or after their feud in 2004.

 

[Aquaman6686]

Oh boy, THIS discussion again...I still to this day don't see how Triple H "buried" Booker T. Booker was in a main event match at WrestleMania, where he kicked out of everything Triple H threw at him, and lost after half a dozen instances of outside interference from Ric Flair. Amazing how people on this site see Christian lose to Sheamus or Randy Orton a dozen times in a month and say, "He's not getting buried, he put up a really good fight and almost won!", but Booker T loses to Triple H in one match 11 years ago and all that's ever said about it is, "Arrrrggghhh, Triple H BURIED Booker T and ruined his career!". After all, it's not like Booker T went on to win numerous United States Championships, the King of the Ring, have a 4-month reign as World Heavyweight Champion, and be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.


Oh wait.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Booker T was supposed to win the World Title leading to WM. However I think after they found out Kevin Nash was expected to return. The whole angle of Triple H implicitly playing the race card probably suggested that Booker T was expected to win the title because even in a pre PG-WWE no way WWE would do that w/o planning Booker T to go over. If not that was a bad move on the WWE's part because it did nothing but bury and put down Booker T without the thought of him finding redemption.

After all, it's not like Booker T went on to win numerous United States Championships, the King of the Ring, have a 4-month reign as World Heavyweight Champion, and be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

True but how long after was that? It took Booker T over 3 years to recover, not saying it was just Booker T losing to Triple H but it was he was given nothing to do right after.

While he did bury Booker T, he actually put over Steiner and Goldberg. If you see the promos leading up to his match with Steiner and the match itself at the Royal Rumble, HHH got his ass kicked everytime. Their RR match was so bad that fans turned on Steiner. Whether the match was bad because HHH refused to put on a good match with Steiner, I don't know.

Goldberg was on a 1 year contract so it's understandable why they didn't keep him as champion going in Wrestlemania and they also wanted to do Goldberg vs Lesnar. During his tenure, Goldberg got clean wins over HHH at Unforgiven and Survivor Series and HHH only won the title back in a triple threat match involving Kane and with help from Evolution.

Steiner was horrible in ring wise when he was in the WWE, however Triple H was pretty mediocre in the ring at the time also. Both guys were hurt during that time, in the case of Triple H he hasn't been 100% yet since his quad injury.

I forgot who said it in a shoot but he says both guys were hurt going into the match so both were in really bad shape heading to the rumble. However in the aftermatch all the blame went on Steiner which is why he got depushed afterwards.

Goldberg's run was seen as a disappointment by many, he had a great debut but the fans boo'ed him at Backlash against The Rock so that really set things back. But there were some questionable bookings on the WWE handled Goldberg as well. Like how come they left off Goldberg from the Judgment Day 2003 card and how come they just didn't give him the win at Summer Slam? Triple H was obviously injured that time, it would have made sense just to give Goldberg the strap and give Triple H sometime off to take care of his injuries.

 

[rge2010]

Triple H missed the entire Invasion angle. Maybe this was simply some WWE vs WCW dream booking. Triple H was the man and they brought in legit main eventers to fued with him.

 

[ProWrestlingFan]

-Booker T was plucked out of a comedy tag team to co-main event Wrestlemania with one of WWE's top stars. If anything, Booker T was elevated by that match.

-Scott Steiner was in awful physical shape when he joined the WWE. His matches were just bad and people actually started cheering for HHH during their fued.

-Kevin Nash had a short term contract and was known to be injury prone. Nash was injured twice in the span of a few months.

-Triple H tapped out to Benoit at Wrestlemania 20 and never got a clean win on him during his world title reign.

The idea at the time was to set Triple H up as THE champion. Triple H was the on top of his game. His whole gimmick was about keeping hold of the World Title which actually gave the World Heavyweight title belt much needed prestige.

And why Triple H for this task? Because he missed out the Invasion angle and he was the most over superstar on the roster when he returned. HHH carried the company during those years after Rock/Austin left.

 

[Last Man Standing]

Oh boy, THIS discussion again...I still to this day don't see how Triple H "buried" Booker T. Booker was in a main event match at WrestleMania, where he kicked out of everything Triple H threw at him, and lost after half a dozen instances of outside interference from Ric Flair. Amazing how people on this site see Christian lose to Sheamus or Randy Orton a dozen times in a month and say, "He's not getting buried, he put up a really good fight and almost won!", but Booker T loses to Triple H in one match 11 years ago and all that's ever said about it is, "Arrrrggghhh, Triple H BURIED Booker T and ruined his career!". After all, it's not like Booker T went on to win numerous United States Championships, the King of the Ring, have a 4-month reign as World Heavyweight Champion, and be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.


Oh wait.

Man, I thought I was the only one! Cause I still don't see how Booker was "buried". A competitive back & forth match up where you have to have help to win if far from a burial.

The storyline was simple, Booker had Triple H beat but his leg was too damaged from the match. And IMO it sure beats fighting over a shampoo commercial or being dragged around a grocery store. I'm willing to bet Booker feels the same way.

 

[Raito]

Man, I thought I was the only one! Cause I still don't see how Booker was "buried". A competitive back & forth match up where you have to have help to win if far from a burial.

The storyline was simple, Booker had Triple H beat but his leg was too damaged from the match. And IMO it sure beats fighting over a shampoo commercial or being dragged around a grocery store. I'm willing to bet Booker feels the same way.

There were numerous racial undertones within that feud which. The sort of which should only exist if the ... "underdog" is going to overcome and disprove. Him not getting the payoff made it just look racist. Maybe its not exactly a burial. But they shouldn't have gone that route if they weren't going to have Booker prevail.

Here is an embellished video 'that' promo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4RebbQqQz4

Now I have a feeling people are going to draw parallels to the Daniel Bryan thing. I see them too. But its less to to say "You're a b plus guy cause your skinny and short' than it is to "you're a b plus guy cause you're a nappy haired comedy act"

Now I can understand if that doesn't bother you, but it is still racist.

More fun HHH race play - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H41ts8j2GYE

 

[Last Man Standing]

There were numerous racial undertones within that feud which. The sort of which should only exist if the ... "underdog" is going to overcome and disprove. Him not getting the payoff made it just look racist. Maybe its not exactly a burial. But they shouldn't have gone that route if they weren't going to have Booker prevail.

Here is an embellished video 'that' promo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4RebbQqQz4

Now I have a feeling people are going to draw parallels to the Daniel Bryan thing. I see them too. But its less to to say "You're a b plus guy cause your skinny and short' than it is to "you're a b plus guy cause you're a nappy haired comedy act"

Now I can understand if that doesn't bother you, but it is still racist.

More fun HHH race play - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H41ts8j2GYE

Seemed to me that they were rehashing the Lex Luger/Ron Simmons feud from the early 90's. Plenty of racial overtones, but Luger still prevailed. But Simmons' status after that match was greatly improved which led to his eventual title run. No denying Booker left that outing in a better position than he did after the previous year's Wrestlemania.

Maybe just maybe the original plan was for Booker to go over? But once WWE had signed Goldberg maybe those plans changed. Maybe WWE/Vince saw bigger money in Goldberg vs Triple H than he did Booker T as Champion. Is that necessarily Triple H's fault if that is the case?

As I said, I still feel Booker left that feud in a better position than he did going in. And THAT is what it's all about, isn't it?

 

[Zycho32]

Seemed to me that they were rehashing the Lex Luger/Ron Simmons feud from the early 90's. Plenty of racial overtones, but Luger still prevailed. But Simmons' status after that match was greatly improved which led to his eventual title run. No denying Booker left that outing in a better position than he did after the previous year's Wrestlemania.

Maybe just maybe the original plan was for Booker to go over? But once WWE had signed Goldberg maybe those plans changed. Maybe WWE/Vince saw bigger money in Goldberg vs Triple H than he did Booker T as Champion. Is that necessarily Triple H's fault if that is the case?

As I said, I still feel Booker left that feud in a better position than he did going in. And THAT is what it's all about, isn't it?

Actually, Goldberg was coming anyway- he was almost part of WM 19, which would have in fact bumped Booker T from the title match. Granted, my information comes from another thread in this forum, but Plan A was Rock/Goldberg and HHH/Stone Cold. Rock was totally lobbying for Goldberg, but they couldn't sign him in time, hence why that match happened in the next PPV. Plan B was Rock/Stone Cold III, which left HHH with needing a challenger, especially after Steiner totally bombed in the last two PPVs and I presume Nash wasn't ready yet. Hence Booker T, who was always the replacement. But he did get to stay in the Title Picture for a bit afterwards, so he wasn't dropped immediately.

Does anybody remember how long the build-up for HHH/Booker lasted? Because if it was quick and rushed, it might explain the racism angle- cheap fast heat.

 

[Last Man Standing]

Actually, Goldberg was coming anyway- he was almost part of WM 19, which would have in fact bumped Booker T from the title match. Granted, my information comes from another thread in this forum, but Plan A was Rock/Goldberg and HHH/Stone Cold. Rock was totally lobbying for Goldberg, but they couldn't sign him in time, hence why that match happened in the next PPV. Plan B was Rock/Stone Cold III, which left HHH with needing a challenger, especially after Steiner totally bombed in the last two PPVs and I presume Nash wasn't ready yet. Hence Booker T, who was always the replacement. But he did get to stay in the Title Picture for a bit afterwards, so he wasn't dropped immediately.

Does anybody remember how long the build-up for HHH/Booker lasted? Because if it was quick and rushed, it might explain the racism angle- cheap fast heat.

Point remains the same... Booker came out of the Triple H feud as more of a legit contender than he did going in. The burying talk is nothing but folklore at this point. People repeat it without knowing what they're talking about.

 

[Cub McCallister]

I thought Booker should of gone over in my opinion iv always rated Booker T, the feud against Nash was stale and the one against Goldberg was average HHH was a massive ego despite him being one of the all time greats his best feud was against Benoit in 04.

 

[MCMG]

With Raw and Smackdown running it was difficult to keep the main-event scenes fresh. Rock and Austin left and Smackdown got a lot of talent. The "WCW guys" came in and filled spots when there weren't many other options.

2003 on Raw is generally regarded as a dark time for wrestling and I understand why. Blaming HHH, however, probably isn't just. The list of names he was facing was pretty average. TWO matches with Scott Steiner; three singles matches with Kevin Nash as well as a feud with Goldberg. A short straw to say the least. Add to that he just had a long feud with HBK; Jericho was heel and Lesnar, Benoit, Taker and Angle all on Smackdown.

Not only did Triple H have few options to face, the people he did wrestle were past their prime. His match at Wrestlemania with Booker T was good but they could have had a longer feud. Other than that Triple H was given some crap wrestlers to feud with (over a World title) which is a problem Austin and The Rock never had.

 

[Sundar]

Booker T was supposed to win the World Title leading to WM. However I think after they found out Kevin Nash was expected to return. The whole angle of Triple H implicitly playing the race card probably suggested that Booker T was expected to win the title because even in a pre PG-WWE no way WWE would do that w/o planning Booker T to go over. If not that was a bad move on the WWE's part because it did nothing but bury and put down Booker T without the thought of him finding redemption.



True but how long after was that? It took Booker T over 3 years to recover, not saying it was just Booker T losing to Triple H but it was he was given nothing to do right after.



Steiner was horrible in ring wise when he was in the WWE, however Triple H was pretty mediocre in the ring at the time also. Both guys were hurt during that time, in the case of Triple H he hasn't been 100% yet since his quad injury.

I forgot who said it in a shoot but he says both guys were hurt going into the match so both were in really bad shape heading to the rumble. However in the aftermatch all the blame went on Steiner which is why he got depushed afterwards.

Goldberg's run was seen as a disappointment by many, he had a great debut but the fans boo'ed him at Backlash against The Rock so that really set things back. But there were some questionable bookings on the WWE handled Goldberg as well. Like how come they left off Goldberg from the Judgment Day 2003 card and how come they just didn't give him the win at Summer Slam? Triple H was obviously injured that time, it would have made sense just to give Goldberg the strap and give Triple H sometime off to take care of his injuries.

Lance Storm said that. There is a clip of that interview on Youtube.

I think fans didn't like The Rock being beaten cleanly by Goldberg. The problem though is that Goldberg is very limited in the ring so there is no other way it could have gone. As for him not winning at the Elimination Chamber at Summerslam, I've always felt that it made him look stronger when he won it the next month in a 1 on 1 match rather than in the Chamber but most agree think he should have won in the Chamber.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

While I think the Booker T match at WM should have ended with Booker winning the title, I wouldn't call it Triple H "burying" his opponent. However, the feud could have been booked alot better.

Kevin Nash wasn't in great physical shape during his feud with Hunter, but was still a big name. Nash wouldn't have been capable of carrying RAW as champion at that time in his career, so I have no problem with HHH going over in the feud. Plus, Nash is a close friend of The Game, so he was never going to be "buried" by his pal.

Similarly, Scott Steiner was a physical wreck by the time he joined WWE, suffering from serious problems with his foot. His feud with HHH was terrible, but I don't class it as a "burying" of Steiner, I just see it as a series of awful matches with one guy not being able to wrestle due to injuries and another being unable to mask the failings of the other.

Goldberg wasn't buried either. He only lost the world title to HHH in a triple threat after interferance, and scored clean wins over alot of the roster in his 12 months with WWE. He was never in it for the long run, so I have no issues with Hunter taking the belt from 'Berg.