WWE Royal Rumble: Ranking Every Winner After Lynch, Rollins Wins
Credit: WWE.com
12. Triple H (2002)
Triple H was the right choice to win the 2002 WWE Royal Rumble. Sidelined with a quadriceps tear in a tag team match the previous May, the match saw “The Game” make his triumphant return to in-ring action. Though at the time of his injury he was one of the top heels in the company, he was received as a conquering hero upon his return.
Entering at Number 22, Triple H eliminated Kurt Angle, along with three others, to win the match. In the main event of WrestleMania X8, Triple H defeated inaugural Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho, following a feud that was, unfortunately, booked to be more about domestic issues between Triple H and Stephanie McMahon than about the most prestigious prize in wrestling.
His title reign lasted only until Backlash, where he would drop the belt to Hulk Hogan, who was in the midst of his nostalgia-fueled comeback run. The rest of his year seemed fairly uneventful, until the build to SummerSlam began.
At that event, Triple H would take on Shawn Michaels, in the latter’s first match since his injury over four years earlier. While Michaels was victorious, Triple H attacked him after the match, resulting in “The Heartbreak Kid” leaving the arena on a stretcher.
Weeks later, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded Triple H the “Big Gold Belt,” crowing him the first World Heavyweight Champion, as a result of Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar’s moving exclusively to SmackDown.
Triple H’s first challenger would be Rob Van Dam, who failed to capture the belt following interference from Ric Flair, with whom Triple H would form the alliance that came to be known as Evolution.
At Survivor Series, Triple H dropped the belt to Shawn Michaels in the first ever Elimination Chamber match, but became Champion yet again at Armageddon, following a brutal Three Stages of Hell match.
While the year did also see the unfortunate Katie Vick angle play out, it is best to look past that to see that Triple H was the beneficiary of one of the strongest post-Royal Rumble pushes in the event’s history.