Triple H and His Imitation of greatness...

[Guest Choken One]

We all know that Triple H admires and idolizes the nature boy and has built a career out of mimicing his idol's accomplishments and even managed to get the man himself to be his manager and created his own Stable.

 

The Question is though, Ric Flair had his Dusty Rhodes (guy he didn't really have great matches with but perfered above all others) and HBK is HHH's Rhodes.

 

Flair had Harley Race, the grizzled vet he had to overcome despite others thinking he couldn't do it...Triple H had to overcome Steve Austin.

 

 

Clearly, In the 9 Year career history of Triple H...No one has been more asscociated with Triple H then...The Rock.

 

Like Sting was for Ric Flair, The Rock and Triple H have feuded relentlessly over the years (starting in 1997 up until 2002 and they still take verbal shots at each other occasionaly) and have put on many good matches...

 

But Triple H has yet to really have his Ricky Steamboat...

 

The Question is...Will Benoit be Triple H's personal Ricky Steamboat?

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

No.

 

Triple H doesn't have the ability to hold up his end of a Flair/Steamboat type feud. He's too boring on the mic and so much focus would be on Triple H that the fans would turn on the matches. I don't think they could do much better than **** which would easily keep it out of the realm of Flair/Steamboat.

[Guest BionicRedneck]

I don't see the Austin-Race thing.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I'm not a fan of Chris Benoit being HHH's personal anything.

[caboose 0]

I don't see the Austin-Race thing.

I think Choken was reaching a bit much to make his idea work. I can see where he's coming from, but I don't think even Triple H is idolising Flair to this extreme.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I think he is to a bit. He wants to break Flair's title record from a lot of the reports we've heard, but that could be due to his ego more than anything.

[Australian Pride 0]

You may be close to the mark there. Like Steamboat, Benoit lacks in the personality department, but is brilliant in the ring. Despite the lack of personality, both were popular with the fans based on ability and a hard work ethic.

 

But, to reverse the question - who was Flair's Jericho (ie HHH's personal bitch)?

[Guest Choken One]

You would have to say it had to Sting as well...

 

 

Sting was made to look like a Idiot many times over...

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

The comparision still falls totally flat when you have to put Flair/HHH together. HHH just went out and totally bombed with a good opponent with one of the biggest gimmicks in wrestling. That would be like Flair and the Horsemen taking on Windham, Rock N Roll Express and Sting in WarGames and totally boring the crowd.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

You would have to say it had to Sting as well...

 

 

Sting was made to look like a Idiot many times over...

NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!

 

Flair totally made Sting's career. The draw at Clash I has no comparision for HHH/Jericho. Jericho has never had HHH beat in a match where Sting lost the first match due to time mismanagement, eventually beat Flair for the title and won the blow off on the final Nitro.

[Guest Choken One]

Flair...despite popular belief has had bad matches many times over...Look at the Dusty Rhodes program.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

They were still of a better calibur than several of the HHH/HBK encounters. And Rhodes was a much more limited worker than HBK.

[Guest Choken One]

You would have to say it had to Sting as well...

 

 

Sting was made to look like a Idiot many times over...

NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!

 

Flair totally made Sting's career. The draw at Clash I has no comparision for HHH/Jericho. Jericho has never had HHH beat in a match where Sting lost the first match due to time mismanagement, eventually beat Flair for the title and won the blow off on the final Nitro.

Yes...Made his career but think of all the times Sting fell for Flair's tricks...

 

 

Havoc 1995 rings loudly...

 

Also...While flair might never had a complete "bitch" he has certaintly played Jericho before...To HHH's other mentor...Hogan.

[Guest Loss]

Flair should not be getting compared to HHH. Under any circumstances. Ever.

 

It's also too late for Benoit to be HHH's Steamboat. You forget that Flair and Steamboat feuded on and off for 17 years, not just in 1989. It was a career-long rivalry.

 

If anything Shawn Michaels is HHH's penis.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

It totally destroyes the comparision though. HHH destroyed Jericho's career while Flair made Sting a credible star. Night and day.

[Guest Loss]

Oh, and the CLOSEST thing to Flair's Jericho would be Lex Luger, and that isn't even really quite the same thing.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

And Foley is HHH's Windham!

 

(As in had some great matches but didn't necessarily feud long)

[Guest Loss]

Ok, none of these comparisons are accurate. You wanna compare HHH to someone, compare him to Dusty Rhodes -- an overrated piece of garbage who had the benefit of being in the right place at the right time working with the right people who managed to latch on to more talented people to become a star before booking the entire company around themselves when others were far more over.

[Guest Choken One]

I wasn't comparing HHH to Flair in the sense they are the same...

 

 

I was pointing out that Triple H is clearly trying to be the new era of flair...and that he has set up situations with workers that are quite similar to the career that flair had...

 

But hasn't had that Dominant Definite series of Matches with one individual like Flair did with Steamboat...and was asking if you people felt Benoit could be that person.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Good one Loss.

[Guest Loss]

I was pointing out that Triple H is clearly trying to be the new era of flair...and that he has set up situations with workers that are quite similar to the career that flair had...

No, he hasn't. That's the point I was trying to make.

[Australian Pride 0]

NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!

 

Flair totally made Sting's career. The draw at Clash I has no comparision for HHH/Jericho. Jericho has never had HHH beat in a match where Sting lost the first match due to time mismanagement, eventually beat Flair for the title and won the blow off on the final Nitro.

Jericho has beat HHH - on Raw in April 2000, and then he got shafted out the title straight away. I doubt he will ever get the closure that Sting got with a clean win over HHH though.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Yeah and the WWF doesn't acknowledge that this ever happened. It has more comparision to Flair/Luger than Flair/Sting.

[Guest Loss]

The only way Flair hurt Sting's career (and his own) was by not retiring sooner. But when Sting was given the ball, it just didn't work, although he was saddled with one of the worst storylines of all time the first time around.

 

HHH has kept Jericho at bay for five years now, despite Jericho being more over and a better worker than HHH for at least three of those years.

[Guest Askewniverse]

NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!

 

Flair totally made Sting's career.  The draw at Clash I has no comparision for HHH/Jericho.  Jericho has never had HHH beat in a match where Sting lost the first match due to time mismanagement, eventually beat Flair for the title and won the blow off on the final Nitro.

Jericho has beat HHH - on Raw in April 2000, and then he got shafted out the title straight away. I doubt he will ever get the closure that Sting got with a clean win over HHH though.

Jericho also beat HHH on SmackDown (4/25/02).

[Australian Pride 0]

HHH has kept Jericho at bay for five years now, despite Jericho being more over and a better worker than HHH for at least three of those years.

Yes, but we all know that has more to do with marriage than ability. If the WMXX match was Y2J/HHH/HBK there is no way HHH would have tapped out.

 

Flair got to where he was by wrestling and promo ability, and was able to keep up the standards for over a decade. HHH had one good year (2000), and has been crap ever since tearing his quad. He has stayed on top due to his relationship with Steph, which is why no matter how many world titles he wins he will never be considered to be in Flairs class.

[Guest Thrashist]

Most of you are missing the point of this thread completely.

 

In HHH's mind, he is the Ric Flair of 2004. HHH is loosely modeling his own career after Flairs'. Furthermore, for FUN, we are speculating that if HHH were to exactly follow Flair's career feud-for-feud, which wrestlers would be who in the Flair-to-HHH table?

 

Of course, to us wrestling fans, HHH is not in the same league as Ric Flair. But if HHH's self-image is indeed true, I think the Benoit to Steamboat comparision is almost correct. I say almost because Benoit and Steamboat have a similar quiet babyface persona that is heavy on awesome workrate, but until HHH and Benoit lock up one-on-one as main eventers, we won't know.

 

HHH and Benoit must have many singles matches in the next year or two, and on top of that, they have to trade wins. It can't be like HHH vs Jericho or practically any other feud where the other man gets a token win and HHH gets the majority of wins AND the blowoff. Plus they must be fluid in the ring. The thing about Flair and Steamboat is that their matches flowed because they both knew what move to use at the right time and what move the other was going to use. HHH and Benoit have to have many pure wrestling matches for the Flair/Steamboat legacy to be even considered.

[Guest Choken One]

^ someone finally gets it.

[Guest krazykat72]

For better or worse, HBK is Triple H's Steamboat. I don't want to hear anything else. The way they were pimping the rivavlry last night seals it. Phil Speers even wrote a column on it on the website. The comparisons are dumb anyway. It's another era. Benoit and Triple H will have a feud through the summer and fall and that will probably be the end of that.

 

-Paul Jacobi-

[haVoc 0]

Benoit is more like the Savage or Hennig to Triple H's Flair.