Triple H - The Cowardly Heel Played to Perfection

Summerslam 2003 is now but a fading memory (until I watch the repeat showing this coming Thursday on Sky Sports that is). There is so much to discuss about this show, but there is one aspect I would like to centre on, and it's something that many fans are up in arms over. However, they fail to see the grand scheme of things.

Cast your mind back to the final match of the card, the Elimination Chamber. Five challengers to Triple H's World Heavyweight Championship, one of them his very own team-mate. Many say that the match didn't live up to it's predecessor at the Survivor Series last November. While this may be the case, it fulfilled it's main purpose, in telling a story that, barring injury to those involved, can continue to be told for a few months to come, perhaps right up until Wrestlemania.

First came the luck-of-the-draw as far as entering the battle was concerned. Triple H was the last man to enter the chamber, so it was obvious he would be the last man to enter the battle.

Before him, the man-monster that is Bill Goldberg entered the battle, taking out everyone in his sight, and putting on a performance the likes of which hasn't been seen since he destroyed Raven's Flock and the NWO on his way to winning the old US and WCW titles in 1998.

All the while Triple H watched from the confines of the internal chamber, until his door was unlocked. But as the door swung open, Triple H seemed hesitant to enter the battle, until Shawn Michaels tuned up his piano and delivered sweet chin music. As Goldberg took out everyone in sight, Triple H gathered his thoughts and watched his opponents eliminate each other.

Then it came down to just two people - the game and the man. Triple H, still in his chamber, looked on in horror as the unstoppable wrestling machine that is Goldberg stalked him like a lion stalked a zebra in the African desert. It looked like it could be Goldberg's night, that Goldberg would become the World Heavyweight Champion. That was until Ric Flair introduced the trusty old sledgehammer into the equation. With his faithful companion by his side, Triple H levelled Goldberg. With the tree having been felled. Triple H went for the cover and secured the victory. Having hardly done a thing in the match, the champion had retained the belt, and delighted in this fact as his fellow Evolution members handcuffed Goldberg to the side of the Elimination Chamber and beat him like the proverbial government mule.

Reading the views of many fans on the various forums I visit, they would have it that Triple H is one of the laziest wrestlers in the WWE, that he should have dropped the belt to Goldberg because he's held it for far too long, because he's injury prone, and because he's a selfish SOB.

But step back a little, and study the match in a little more detail. Take a look at the grand scheme of things.

Granted, his injury meant he couldn't put in a one hundred percent performance, but if this match had taken place ten years ago, Triple H's performance would have been heralded for what it was.

Triple H played the cowardly heel to perfection in the Elimination Chamber. He let his opponents take each other out before entering the fray, and then only gained the victory after levelling Goldberg with a weapon. Before the Internet, before kayfabe was broken, he wouldn't have been criticised for being a poor worker. He would be criticised for being a cowardly heel, for taking the cheap victory and for taking the easy way out.

The Elimination Chamber match succeeded in doing what it was meant to do. It protected Triple H's injury, and set up the match that everyone still wants to see - Triple H and Goldberg one-on-one.

They say ring psychology is dead, that the art of telling a story in a wrestling match is long gone. I say it's alive and well. You just have to look for it a bit more.