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Mr. Perfect winning RR 2002.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by spilzrvd_69 Mr. Perfect winning RR 2002.

All due respect, as this is your subjective opinion (and I know people would have a problem with some of mine), but I think Triple H winning the Royal Rumble was the only way to go. The dude was immensely over upon returning to the company. The only other guy I would have given it to would have been Rob Van Dam, who I just said did fuck up his push in 2006, but at that point in time was setting the world alight as one of the most over guys on the roster.

The only reason I would not have had Triple H win was if the New World Order debuted a little earlier (and I'm sure there had been talks with them up to that point), and they tossed out Triple H. If RVD had won the Rumble, then it would set up Chris Jericho vs. RVD for the Undisputed Championship at WrestleMania, which would have been an awesomely fresh match between two great workers with journeyman stories, with one super-over as a heel and another super-over as a babyface. This would also have set the stage for what I think would have been a huge blockbuster attraction of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Triple H teaming up to face Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall at Mania -- three men who defined the Attitude era in the WWE against three men who defined the Attitude era in WCW. Drama could have been spurned by the nWo, who could have claimed that one member of "Team WWF" was going to join them at WrestleMania. We saw a lot of that in the Invasion storyline, but it would have certainly added intensity with the past relationship between Triple H and Kevin Nash being brought up, etc.

Alternatively, while I am glad Jericho got his due at Vengeance 2001, as someone who had not really bought into the whole "IWC" thing at that time, I personally felt that heel Jericho was far less interesting than a lot of other characters at that time. I got right into his promo when he cut The Rock off heading into the 2002 Royal Rumble Undisputed Title match where he said "No! No! No! I am not a joke!" but other than that, I felt it was pretty bland. Jericho vs. Triple H just didn't capture my imagination, and after Rock vs. Hogan, it didn't really have even the Toronto crowd's.

Therefore, if you didn't want to go with Jericho vs. RVD and Triple H, Austin & Rock vs. The nWo, then I think that Austin vs. Triple H at WrestleMania X-8 would have been massive. Despite the inconsistent 2001 he had as a character (despite being constantly entertaining and doing good ring work), Stone Cold Steve Austin would have been a pretty perfect pick to unify the WWE and WCW Championships -- a true symbol of the WWE's victory over WCW in the Monday Night Wars. Triple H winning the Royal Rumble would have sent him straight on a collision course with Austin for WrestleMania, which would have been absolutely massive.

The history between Austin and Triple H was always well documented. They hated each other; Triple H essentially ordered a hit on Austin; Stone Cold dropped Triple H from a forklift; Triple H beat Austin in 3 Stages of Hell; Austin Triple H teamed up because they both wanted power and begrudging admired the extent the other would go through to dominate; Austin put Triple H's wife out of business and then they would have been set to meet at the biggest stage of them all.

It wouldn't have exactly been Austin vs. Rock, but it would have had more buried hatred and Triple H's character would have been one that would have been ready for any sort of Austin chicanery and vice versa.

Also, call me a sucker, but I'm a fan of at least one of the two men in the WrestleMania main event to make it into the next year's main event, just because it tells a consistent story and if two guys are ready for it one year, why wouldn't at least 50% of that equation be ready the following year? Unless something really special or differentiating pops up. It's easier to do now than it was then, but Austin vs. Rock certainly created an atmosphere that Jericho vs. Triple H was never going to be able to replicate.