Triple H Reveals His Only Regret With The Rock
Triple H has had many iconic feuds over the years during his wrestling career, but one of his most memorable was with The Rock.
"My only regret of the whole thing with Rock is in 2000, we were poised to have a match at WrestleMania one-on-one," revealed Triple H while speaking with Logan Paul on Impaulsive. "I think that would've been an epic thing for both of us in that moment."
Triple H said that ultimately, the match between them at WrestleMania would be canceled, due to the timing of the Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin's returns. He said that while they would get the chance to have the one-on-one Iron Match that they originally wanted to have, they were both disappointed that they couldn't pay off their extremely heated long-term rivalry on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
He said that was what led the two to have a backstage confrontation around 2014 and tease a match between the two. They said they still wanted their WrestleMania moment all those years later, but it wouldn't work out in the end due to The Rock's busy Hollywood schedule.
During this time, the Attitude Era was coming to a close, and wrestling was becoming less popular in the mainstream. To get eyes on his product, Vince McMahon knew he needed a major storyline to bring eyes to his product. With his biggest star Stone Cold on the shelf, he decided to put rising stars The Rock and Triple H in a program with one another.
While the two had previously had matches with one another, they never had a proper program with one another until now. The feud would peak after the Rock won the Royal Rumble in 2000 and Triple H would win the WWE Championship just before then. The Rock would dethrone the Game during Backlash to become the new WWE Champion and would hot potato the belt with one another until their feud came to an end during their triple threat match with Kurt Angle at Summerslam.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Impaulsive with an h/t to Wrestling INC. for the transcription.