100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 35 - Randy Orton vs. Triple H
WWE Championship - Wrestlemania 25
A match so devoid of any substance, effort, or meaning that it is worth asking if it truly ever existed at all. This match is one of the most lifeless wrestling matches that has ever taken place. I find it ironic - in this arena, the very location of perhaps the most fondly remembered pay-per-view in wrestling history - these two produce a match as flat as any other that has ever happened in WWE history. A stark contrast to The Rock vs. Stone Cold which main evented Wrestlemania 17 in this very building.
There have been an uncountable number of boring wrestling matches. Main events that went ten or fifteen minutes too long. Some of which include the two men we are about to discuss. However it takes a special kind of misery to produce a match so filled with nothingness that it might as well exist in the vacuum of space. And all this to happen in the biggest wrestling match of the year - the Wrestlemania main event.
The reader may be wondering about how this match compares to other comparable Wrestlemania main events such as Miz vs John Cena and Chris Jericho vs Triple H. To me that comes down to the weight of expectation. Orton and Triple H had the benefit of an extremely memorable and heated feud. There were missteps along the way, such as the embarrassingly bad home invasion bit - and an over-emphasis on the McMahons as badasses. However, overall the feud was well received by the fanbase going into the show. This was a personal, hate-filled rivalry that felt worthy of main eventing a pay-per-view. This was not like Miz vs Cena, a rivalry where the Miz was the third most important person in the feud. Or Jericho vs Triple H, where Jericho also ended up being the third most important person in the feud (and spent the feud picking up dog shit). These were not matches that many went into the show excited by the feud.
Many will point to Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker and cite that as a reason why the crowd were not invested into this match, often drawing comparisons to Hulk Hogan vs The Rock as the reason that Jericho vs Triple H bombed at Wrestlemania 18. I don’t think that’s a valid excuse this time. For starters, Hogan vs Rock was unequivocally the biggest match on that card. It dominated the hype and the airtime. Michaels vs Undertaker was never treated as the match for this show. A big match of course, but never had close to the TV time invested like Orton and Triple H. My second argument is that the fans were still into the World Heavyweight Championship triple threat match immediately following Michaels and Undertaker, and also gave a good reception to the Hall of Fame class featuring Steve Austin. Now if you were to say the fans were tired after a near 5 hour show, then I would welcome that as an argument.
Others may point to the fact that the match had a stipulation which dictated that if Triple H is disqualified or counted out, he will lose the title. This, I think, is a problem but perhaps not in the way you might expect. It isn’t an ideal stipulation, but it isn’t inherently a deal breaker. Ironically Randy Orton had a stellar match with these same stipulations at Money in the Bank 2011 against Christian. However Triple H and Orton together are not good enough to compensate for such a hamstrung stipulation in this feud. Rather than play to the strengths of the wrestlers and give them a No DQ stipulation that the feud warranted, WWE for some inexplicable reason decided to cut off their legs before they even entered the ring. History has told us that these two have very little in-ring chemistry, with their only truly good match being a Last Man Standing match in 2007. With this in mind, it makes no sense that they’d actively steer away from that kind of stipulation even in a situation that warranted it.
This would also be the first example of the “concerned referee” trope that I can remember in WWE, and my lord is it distracting here. Scott Armstrong is the referee and is constantly reprimanding Triple H and reminding him of the consequences of breaking the rules. Repeatedly Triple H is warned for being overly aggressive, particularly with his punches, however it garners no reaction. But as they’ve committed to the storyline, they feel the need to press it again and again. It’s like they didn’t get the intended reaction early, so like a bad comedian they repeated the joke to force a response.
The good ol’ flying nothing.
Early on, both men hit their finisher which instead of adding excitement to the match it immediately brings it to a screeching halt. At this point the crowd has already checked out, never to return. Most spend the majority of time sat on their hands, and any brief excitement comes from distractions elsewhere in the crowd.
I’ve always known this match to be boring but I wanted to try and dig into what makes these two so bad together. I counted six times when Triple H got Orton in a pedigree position just to be countered. The commentators tried to play up the counters in this match, but when it came down to it it was just lazily put together with predictable counters. Triple H opposite the turnbuckle going for the pedigree? I wonder if he’s going to get tossed into the turnbuckle. It’s something that has always infuriated me about Triple H’s wrestling, and it’s at its worst here. The counters and transitions are so poorly pieced together that the match - even ignoring the context around the stipulation. It is so amateurish. The two decide to do not one, but two flying nothing spots off the ropes, despite neither man having a regular top rope in their repertoire. You could have never watched this match before, and you would be able to predict the outcome of every pedigree attempt based entirely on the positioning of the two men.
This spot was literally one minute after the previous flying nothing.
What I find hilarious is there’s a spot where Triple H takes the draping DDT on the outside and this is supposed to be a “near fall” so to speak. This is, remember, about an hour after Shawn Michaels and Undertaker had a similar near fall in their classic match following the Undertaker’s dive. Needless to say, Orton and HHH did not get the fans to bite on that as the finish like Michaels and Undertaker did.
To go back to the amateurish nature of this match, they had 23 minutes to piece together a match and they completely screw up the timing of it. The ending is very awkward. Orton goes to get the sledgehammer, but ends up taking a punt from Triple H. Triple H then hits Orton with the sledgehammer. Instead of just ending the match there, Triple H starts punching Orton - to which the commentators claim is extra retribution, as if kicking the man in the head and hitting him with a sledgehammer wasn’t retribution enough. Anyway, I say all this to say that they have now lost track of time, and the referee has to sheepishly tell Triple H to go home while he’s busy punching him. Triple H screams, picks up Orton, and immediately pedigrees him for the anticlimactic win, much to the sheer indifference of the audience.
This is all without mentioning the obvious fatal flaw of this match. The wrong man won. Orton was white hot in 2009, and could have used a big Wrestlemania win to solidify himself in that position. Instead, WWE opted to a familiar booking pattern - the fans must go home happy at Wrestlemania - leading to Triple H winning and sucking the momentum out of Orton. It’s like it’s 2004 all over again. Just kidding, babyface Orton in 2004 had zero momentum to lose - Triple H was a mercy killing.
There are certainly worse matches mechanically, although I would argue to my dying days that this is a horrible, horrible match. When you factor in the weight of expectations, I feel justified in putting this match this high on the list. It is another in an embarrassing list of poor Wrestlemania performances by both men. Worse so for Orton because at least Triple H can lean on Wrestlemania 20, 22, 27 and 28 as examples of when he put together a good performance. For Orton, his Wrestlemania resume is a rough read with few redeeming performances.
Up Next - The worst King of the Ring winner is crowned.
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