We all know he's the king of kings, and a 13-time world champion and has done far too many cool things in wrestling in the 2000s- from Evolution to his rivalry with John Cena and Randy Orton. We all also know that HHH is often neglected or not mentioned in any single promo from one of those "Raw anniversary" shows which invariably put Rock and Austin on the forefront as the greatest of all times. (If I'm not mistaken, even the Rock's WM 30 promo had him mention Hogan, Austin, and Rock as the three great ones, or those two being the greatest as a token of humbleness). But the point is, HHH is invariably omitted. Even John Cena has now joined the elite list of "greatest">> Hulk Hogan>>Stone Cold>>The Rock>>John Cena. There's no place there for Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels is what I usually see. Sure, they were tremendous wrestlers, and even those 2 wrestling 2 mannequins would be more entertaining wrestling than Hulk Hogan but people generally consider the "larger than life" and "charisma" factor in determining the greatest. But I digress.
First of all, What factors or criteria do you use in order to determine who has been the "face" of a company/show? And considering Stone Cold and The Rock to have been the face of the WWF/E between 1998-2002, where does HHH stand post-2002(because it wouldn't be arguable that he wasn't even close to being "the face" as long as Rock and Austin were around. A heel champ, yes. "The face", no.)
Let us consider HHH's post-2002 career trajectory. The WWE is not only divided into two distinct brands, but Brock Lesnar as the WWE champion makes his championship exclusive to Smackdown. This compels Eric Bischoff to bring back the big gold belt and confer it on HHH, who would go on to hold that title 6(or more?) times and dominate the Raw brand as a heel champion until WM 21. But in the early days of his reign, from August 2002-2003, it was Brock Lesnar who was more of a "face" than HHH- 1)Brock was a babyface during that time. 2)He was intense, he was novel , he had magnetism or charisma. 3) His feuds and matches were more prominent in terms of quality and importance, and so did he close ppvs more times than HHH did(until the unibranded ppvs came along). Wrestlemania 19, for instance , was closed by Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle. So were Unforgiven and No Mercy 2002. It was not until Goldberg was featured that HHH and the WHC began to matter. Finally in 2004, Brock quits the WWE and HHH and Raw gained supremacy because the storylines going there and the star power simple was greater. Once John Cena debuted on Raw as the WWE champion, there was never any chance for HHH to be The face.
So, do you consider HHH to have been the face of the WWF, or Raw during 2002-2005? If yes, what criteria have you used to determine that?
First of all, What factors or criteria do you use in order to determine who has been the "face" of a company/show? And considering Stone Cold and The Rock to have been the face of the WWF/E between 1998-2002, where does HHH stand post-2002(because it wouldn't be arguable that he wasn't even close to being "the face" as long as Rock and Austin were around. A heel champ, yes. "The face", no.)
Let us consider HHH's post-2002 career trajectory. The WWE is not only divided into two distinct brands, but Brock Lesnar as the WWE champion makes his championship exclusive to Smackdown. This compels Eric Bischoff to bring back the big gold belt and confer it on HHH, who would go on to hold that title 6(or more?) times and dominate the Raw brand as a heel champion until WM 21. But in the early days of his reign, from August 2002-2003, it was Brock Lesnar who was more of a "face" than HHH- 1)Brock was a babyface during that time. 2)He was intense, he was novel , he had magnetism or charisma. 3) His feuds and matches were more prominent in terms of quality and importance, and so did he close ppvs more times than HHH did(until the unibranded ppvs came along). Wrestlemania 19, for instance , was closed by Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle. So were Unforgiven and No Mercy 2002. It was not until Goldberg was featured that HHH and the WHC began to matter. Finally in 2004, Brock quits the WWE and HHH and Raw gained supremacy because the storylines going there and the star power simple was greater. Once John Cena debuted on Raw as the WWE champion, there was never any chance for HHH to be The face.
So, do you consider HHH to have been the face of the WWF, or Raw during 2002-2005? If yes, what criteria have you used to determine that?
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