Royal Rumble
January 23rd 2000
Triple H vs Cactus Jack
Street Fight
Madison Square Garden, NY
This might be my favorite match. Both Mick and I had a great night. We were able to do a gimmick match, a hardcore match, and tell a story with it. That's something that many people don't do. Most guys just go out there with pots and pans and hit each other in the head, but that's not what we did.
Mick knew he was winding down, and he wanted to go out on a high note. He wanted to go out in a big way. We made a completely new character out of Cactus Jack. Mick had been Cactus Jack before, but in just a few weeks of buildup for the Rumble, we created this mythical, god-like being out of Cactus Jack. And we were able to do a lot of incredible things.
The setup for this match was so good that I was a little bit nervous going into it, thinking, "How are we going to follow this hype? How the hell are we gonna do this?" But as soon as I got out to the arena, I knew that we were gonna have a great one.
We accomplished a lot of things. It silenced a lot of my critics. I think it was a match where people stood up and took notice of Triple H as someone above the norm. And I think it gave Cactus Jack the platform that he wanted to go out on. It's one of my favorite moments in the business.
Judgment Day
May 21st 2000
Triple H vs The Rock
Iron Man Match
Louisville, KY
A lot of people said "no way" to that match. Iron Man Matches aren't usually done. No one can go an hour and hold the crowd. But I had been begging Vince for about a year for it. I wanted at some point in my career to do an Iron Man Match. He was kind of mulling around it. I think he was worried that the fans wouldn't buy it anymore, that it was too long. The last Iron Man Match we had was Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart [Wrestlemania XII]. They went no falls, and a lot of people didn't like the match because they thought it was too long. I enjoyed it, but I think some of the fans weren't fond of it.
It was still something I wanted to try. It's the one thing that the old-timers always have on us. They always say "Yeah, but we used to go 60 minutes." They never say it directly, but you know it's there.
Steve Austin and I were originally going to do an Iron Man Match before he got hurt. But right before Judgment Day, the idea was brought up of doing it against The Rock, and I was thrilled to do it. I couldn't wait. It was another obstacle, another challenge. It was a chance to go out in front of the world and prove that I could go for one hour, that I could keep people interested for a whole hour - that it could still be done.
It made me feel good because I had a few old-timers come up to me and say "Wow! What a match you guys had." I even had some guys, like Jack Lanza and others, who said, "That reminded me of the old days."
That was what I was trying to accomplish. I wanted to go out and put on a match that the modern day wrestling fans and the old-time wrestling fans would both agree was good. Not a gimmick, just a good match. Taking an old concept and making it new. I think it paid off.
Fully Loaded
July 23rd 2000
HHH vs Chris Jericho
Last Man Standing
Dallas, TX
This was another great match with a big buildup. We had a lot of great heat going. Jericho was in a position where people knew he had great ability on the mic. He had a cute character who was kind of flashy. But I think people questioned his toughness, the fight in his character. In that match, I think we proved just how tough he could be. It elevated both of us, which is what I think a great match should do. I felt it was a very great match.
Last man standing matches can be very boring. There's a good chance that it's gonna stink, because it's not the greatest concept. But I think Chris and I told a heck of a story and made the concept of 'Last Man Standing' mean something. I was happy with what we were able to do.
No Way Out
February 25th 2001
Triple H vs Steve Austin
Best two of three falls
Las Vegas, NV
I liked the concept of the match - two out of three falls, with each fall being different. I'd never seen it done before. I loved the buildup that Austin and I had going into it; Steve and I had a very intense rivalry. And I think it was a very important match for Austin, who was making his comeback. It was the match where he re-established himself as a main event performer who could deliver.
People questioned him when he came back. Was he going to be 100%? Was his neck gonna be a factor? Could he still wrestle?
All those things were questions, and he answered them all, silencing the critics. He was jazzed up for that match, really fired up for it. And it was a tremendous match. I think it went around 45 minutes. That's a long match. There were a lot of different styles involved. We went from a straight wrestling match, to a street fight, to a cage.
It would have been easy to lose the fans, since many expected it to go to the third fall. Once they see who wins the first fall, they're guessing the other will win the second fall.
Preparing for the match, I actually studied a tape of a two out of three falls match with Buddy Rogers and Pat O'Connor that ended in two falls. I had never seen that happen.
Wrestlemania 17
April 1st 2001
Triple H vs Undertaker
No Disqualification
Houston, TX
It was Undertaker's first 'Mania back after being injured, in his home town - a real good story. And Taker is undefeated at Wrestlemania. I don't know if anybody knew that going in, but Taker is now 9-0 at Wrestlemania.
There was a lot of controversy going into Wrestlemania over who I was gonna fight against. Everybody was brought up, from Hulk Hogan to Ray Lewis to Mike Tyson. Finally, we started an angle with Taker, and people were just dying to see us go at it.
We had wrestled a couple of times on TV or at house shows, but pay-per-view wise, angle-wise, we had never touched.
I think it was very much an old-school angle. I went out and said, "I've beaten everybody here. I run this place." And Taker comes out and answers my challenge, "Hey, you never beat me. This is my yard. You wanna fucking beat somebody, beat me."
It started out as a small rivalry, and it went from there. I demolished his bike, I hit him in the head with a sledgehammer and busted him open. A lot of people wanted to see him kill me. It really created a lot of hype for that match in short order.
Part of the story was Taker coming back. He had a complete turnaround in his character, going from The Lord of Darkness to the American Bad Ass. Now that Taker was a human being, it was a very dramatic change. But a lot of people had a hard time accepting it. I believe there was a large portion of fans who resisted it. Then there were the people who just felt Taker's injuries had limited him, that he couldn't move as well. He had yet to be put in an angle that elevated him back to where he was.
The match did a lot for both of us. Working a program with Undertaker was great. I think it re-established Undertaker as the big dog, the Phenom.
Plus, I got Motorhead to play my ring entrance, which was an incredible thing. It was a lot of fun. And we had one of the biggest pay-per-view crowds of all time.