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Originally Posted by Heyman
Triple H's return to the WWE in January 2002
This guy should've been the biggest face in the industry since The Rock/Austin IMO. ANYONE who saw his return face pop on January 7th 2002, knows what I'm talking about!
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I too, feel, that HHH, because of the reaction he got with fans, the reputation he had in the locker room at the time, and just the direction of HHH on WWE TV from the time Angle started showing interest in Stephanie McMahon to that point had him set up for being the next Stone Cold Steve Austin. Fans liked him, and considered him a "legitimate" badass...but I think some of the feuds were incredibly lackluster. HHH as a face just wasn't as dynamic...
...and it was extremely hard to buy HHH doing things like imitating Hulk Hogan (a feud that should have never happened), talking about him being "sad" about taking out his hero, and stuff like that. Even though the days of kayfabe are over, sometimes it's good to inject realism in what you see on TV however... or at least something people can believe.
that HHH-Hogan feud was just ridiculous. Hogan holding the Undisputed Championship was something that just shouldn't have happened in the HHH push. Also, HHH was on total cruise control in that feud...you flat-out knew he was gonna win everything, even in screwjob attempts. From RR to WM, it was pretty apparent. (In the same breath, same thing with Austin in '01...but many expected Rock to be the one who would turn in that match)
...the "cruise-controlling" HHH pretty much led into the Ric Flair impersonating, dry shadow of himself he would later become.