I first got into wrestling around 1998, through the WCW video games
(I didn't have cable, so I didn't have easy access to it). Then I
discovered the existence of WWF Shotgun that was on late nights (I
think it was around early 1999 by this point) and I got all swept up
in the drama. I didn't get to see the entire Corporate Ministry
storyline, just the highlights. And those highlights were among the
most exciting television I'd ever seen at the time.

There was a guy mixed in to all of this that I didn't quite notice.
To me, he didn't stick out. His name was Triple H.

My first WWF show was the 1998 Summerslam. Triple H faced the Rock
in a ladder match, and all I remembered from that night (at that
time) was The Rock and Chyna. In fact, I was way too intrigued by
Chyna during most of the match to even pay attention (I was like
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!?).

From the summer of 1999 until the end of 1999, I was out of touch
with what was going on. Somewhere I heard that Triple H had become
WWF Champion. My response was: why? There are so much better
wrestlers than him!

January 2000 was the happiest time of my life (sort of). We got
cable installed and I was finally able to watch wrestling regularly.
I watched Smackdown for the first time and I became an instant mark
for the new version of Triple H. I loved to hate the guy, and
looking back now he was my favorite throughout 2000.

However, I also made another new favorite during that time. His name
was Chris Jericho. I wanted Jericho to be on the same level that
Triple H was. Needless to say, when HHH beat Jericho at Fully
Loaded, I was dissapointed. I was even more dissapointed the
following month at SummerSlam. Jericho was back in the same old
midcard feud with Chris Benoit, and Triple H was back in the main
event. This planted the seeds for my later disliking of Triple H.

Then Triple H went down with a torn quad. What happened while HHH
was gone? Chris Jericho became a main eventer. He headlined King of
The Ring and Vengeance, and participated in the main events at
InVasion and Survivor Series. He also was put in a high profile feud
with The Rock, where Jericho won the WCW Championship. Later that
year, Chris Jericho became the first Undisputed Champion against The
Rock and Steve Austin. I was marking out the whole way.

My disliking of Triple H came when he returned from his injury. If
Jericho/HHH was supposed to be the main event at WrestleMania, they
should have started the feud early to allow it to build up. Instead,
on HHH's first night back, it was Kurt Angle who interrupted the
return speech and not Chris Jericho. In fact, if I didn't know any
better, I would have told you the main event at 'Mania was going to
be Triple H/Kurt Angle seeing as they were feuding up until about 2
weeks before the big show. During this time, nothing good was
happening for Jericho. He had a great Royal Rumble match against the
Rock but lost his momentum at No Way Out. He faced Austin in a match
that had zero hype and only won because the nWo interfered. That
same night, Triple H lost all of his momentum by losing to Kurt
Angle.

So now the WWF had about four shows left to hype up the main event
to WrestleMania. Instead, Jericho and HHH hardly interacted. By this
time the main event seemed as if it was going to be Stephanie
McMahon, with Jericho in her corner, vs Triple H. Steph and HHH were
trading insults while Jericho was walking her dog (could it have
been any more obvious that it was Steph writing this shit?).

The next big dissapointment was the HHH/Jericho Wrestlemania match.
The crowd wasn't that into it, neither guy was on top of their game
that night, and the match was just bland. It didn't help that HHH
went over Jericho again. The following month at Backlash, Triple H
wrestled in the main event... and Jericho didn't even have a match.

By this point I had a serious disliking of Triple H. I almost got
over it though. They were scheduled to meet in a Hell in A Cell at
Judgement Day. Maybe i was wrong about the downward spiral of
Jericho's career, and this was going to keep him on top! Nope,
Triple H won again. This was the turning point.

By this point I didn't give two shits about Triple H.