Most wrestling fans recognize the term “reign of terror” as Triple He’s supposed stranglehold of the Big Gold Belt for the better part of three years from 2002-2005. The reason I didn’t say World Heavyweight Championship is because in my opinion, it makes no sense to have more than one World title in the same company: there in, the WWE Championship, with the lineage dating back to the beginning, is the one that matters most. Then again, had this belt been branded as a continuation of the now defunct WCW World Heavyweight Championship, I wouldn’t have had as much of a problem. However, that’s neither here nor there. Back to the topic at hand!
To tell this story properly, I need to add some context. In April, 2002, due to the on-going feud between co-owners of the company, Vince McMahon and Ric Flair, Linda McMahon announced the brand extension, which was the splitting of the roster. It was decided that Vince McMahon would run Monday Night Raw’s roster and Ric Flair would run Smackdown’s roster. Born out of this grand extension was a draft, in which each co-owner would choose a wrestler for their brand. While the other championships would be split evenly among the shows, it was initially decided that the WWE Champion, whomever that may be going forward, would between brands, thus resembling the way the territory system under the NWA was done.
After McMahon won back full share of the entire company from Flair, he appointed General Managers to run the brands. He chose his daughter Stephanie McMahon to run Smackdown, while in a twist no one saw coming, he appointed fierce Monday Night War rival and former head of WCW Eric Bischoff as the GM of Raw. In September, WWE Champion Brock Lesnar signed exclusively with Stephanie’s Smackdown, leaving Raw without a World Champion. Not to be outdone, Bischoff reintroduced the former WCW’s World Championship belt and presented it to Triple H, with Raw now having its own World Champion.
Despite an early setback for The Game, in which he would lose it to comeback sensation Shawn Michaels, the belt would be back around Hunter’s waist within a month. From December, 2002 until March, 2004, with the exception of a short three month reign of Goldberg in 2003, Triple H ruled Raw as World Champion with an iron fist. Challenger after challenger stepped up and failed, some legitimately and some due to some dirty tactics of Triple H and his Evolution cohorts. Nonetheless, Triple H remained on top.
I’m going to skip ahead to the end of this “Reign of Terror” briefly before I get into the premise of this blog. At WrestleMania XX, Chris Benoit defeated Hunter in a match with also included Shawn Michaels to become the new World Champion. After five months with the title, Benoit lost it to Randy Orton, Triple H’s Evolution stablemate and protege in August, 2004 at SummerSlam. The next night on Raw, Triple H, Ric Flair, and Batista kicked Orton out of Evolution. By September, Triple H was back in the saddle as Champion. Although the title was briefly held up in the following months, it inevitably found its way back to Triple H. Finally, this “Reign of Terror” came to an end at WrestleMania 21 in April, 2005. Similar to the way things went down with Orton the year prior, Batista left the group and defeated Hunter to become the new World Champion. Now that I’ve established the timeline, it’s time to dissect this “Reign of Terror” to see if it was really as bad as many fans believe.
The beginning was great, as Triple H would have a great match with Ric Flair on Raw for the Title not long after being presented with the belt. When Shawn Michaels won the belt from Hunter at the Survivor Seroes, they were joined by Kane, Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho, and Booker T where the match was contested within the confines of the very first Elimination Chamber. Not only that, but it was Shawn’s first World Championship in over four years since his first retirement due to a severe injury, as well as taking place in the Mecca of wrestling venues, Madison Square Garden. The “Reign of Terror” was off to a great start, with much prestige attached to it.
After Triple H won it back at the end of 2002, he went on to defend his Title at the 2003 Royal Rumble and February’s No Way Out against Scott Steiner. Right away, I can easily defend the decision to stick with Triple H as the guy. He carried Steiner during these matches and although the matches weren’t great, none of that is on Hunter, as Scott hadn’t wrestled since WCW closed its doors nearly two years before these matches. It wasn’t until WrestleMania 19 that fans started questioning things. Here’s where I would agree with the consensus. Next up to the plate was Booker T and him winning a World Championship for the sixth time would have been a great moment. To this day, I, as well as many others, believe Booker should have won the gold, especially after the somewhat questionable and controversial storytelling, implying it was about race. A feel good moment after that would have redeemed this kind of story being told but alas, it was not to be.
Throughout most of 2003, Triple H had a mixed bag of opponents. He had programs with Rob Van Dam, Kevin Nash, and Goldberg. RVD was a quality opponent. Triple H had two programs with Kane, one of which involved the awful “Katie Vick” storyline and eventually Kane’s unmasking. The less said on that the better. He carried Nash and Goldberg to passable matches. In September, Goldberg won the Title but by December’s Armageddon, Triple H was Champion once again. Not only that, but Evolution had all tbe gold by the end of the night, as 23-year-old Randy Orton won the Intercontinental Championship and Ric Flair teamed with Batista to win Tag Team gold. There aren’t many moments as epic as all of Evolution posing with all the gold together. 2003 was a mixed bag, with both questionable angles and classic moments alike. All in all, I think it was the right decision to keep the World Title on Triple H for most of the year.
Triple H then re-entered a feud with Shawn Michaels, leading to some incredible matches in the first two months of 2004. I already discussed Chris Benoit’s win and Orton winning the Title only to get kicked out of Evolution. Though Orton‘a reign was short and underwhelming, he was very young at the time and not quite ready for the main event. The angle leading to Batista’s departure from Evolution and finally dethroning Triple H for the Title was a masterclass. In fact, Triple H and Batista continued their rivalry after WrestleMania with a couple of epic matches. All in all, if you look back at this supposed “Reign of Terror” of Triple H holding the gold for a majority of three years, it was actually pretty good. Fans may have been annoyed at the time but looking back it doesn’t seem as bad as some made it out to be. What do you think?
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