The long-awaited confrontation between Triple H and Jeff Hardy is now in the history books, and despite Jeff Hardy's sincerest attempts to keep The Game down for the count of three, there was no stopping Triple H this night.
You have to give some credit to Hardy, as his unqiue brand of offense
forced Triple H to dig deep and change his own strategy somewhat. Hardy reversed not one, but two Pedigrees, and the final count had many believing Jeff had already won.
After all, in the minds of many, Jeff Hardy's first championship reign looked to be a sure thing. Earlier in the evening, viewers across the WWE Universe were encouraged to text in their favorite Superstar in tonight's encounter. And while nearly 3/4 of the fans sided with Jeff Hardy—it was The Game who correctly pointed out that the Championship is decided in the ring, and not by popular vote.
Ultimately, this could have even been Jeff's downfall, as he looked to be top of the world when he countered Triple H and hit the Twist of Fate, followed by a Swanton Bomb from the top rope. But it was the final few seconds that decided the match, as an out-of-breath Hardy laid back across Triple H, seemingly believing the victory was already his—when Triple H took advantage of Hardy's exposed arms and pulled him into a modified backslide pin from which Hardy could not escape, ending the match in Triple H's favor. Congratulations to The Game on an always-stellar performance!
After the match, Triple H was confronted by Vladimir Kozlov backstage, who had choice words for the WWE Champion. Unfortunately, only those who speak fluent Russian have any idea what they were. For Triple H's take on things, check out After the Bell.
If you visit WWE.com regularly, you may already be familiar with the exploits of ECW's John Morrison and The Miz, who host The Dirt Sheet each week on the site. Other WWE Superstars are often targeted by Morrison & Miz, which seems to be an endless source of amusement for them.
This week, the bromantic duo from the Land of Extreme take aim at The Game, with a special sneak preview of his "upcoming WWE Film", Sneezerman. Mere words cannot accurately describe this low-budget train wreck—so you'll have to hit the link to see it for yourself. (Besides, nobody likes movie spoilers!)
Over on Raw, Cryme Tyme has recently been taking considerable offense to Morrison & Miz's less-than-flattering portrayals of them; will Triple H respond to them in kind? (Editor's note: We are able to confirm at this time that Morrison & Miz are way, way out of Triple H's league and totally not worth his time, so he probably won't unless he gets bored and there's nothing good on TV.)
He's already the King of Kings, but we can now add Champion of Champions to Triple H's business cards due to his victory over Chris Jericho, the reigning World Heavyweight Champion and Matt Hardy, the reigning ECW Champion this past Friday night.
I doubt that many of you missed a match of this caliber, but if you did or merely want to relive it, the closing moments of the match are up on WWE.com.
Earlier tonight at Unforgiven, one thing was conclusively proven: participating in a Championship Scramble Match favors anyone but the defending champion. Both Mark Henry and CM Punk failed to beat the odds in their respective matches, but Triple H showed how to walk into a Scramble match as the champion and leave as the champion.
That's not to say that Triple H had it easy by any means; prior to the final decision there were six falls divided between three interim WWE Champions. Three of those falls belonged to Jeff Hardy, who nearly claimed a victory... and it could be argued that if the match had been just a few seconds shorter, or a few seconds longer, then it might be Jeff Hardy wearing the belt tonight.
Nevertheless, Triple H's prophecy rung true as he overwhelmed his opponents
one-by-one, and was re-crowned WWE Champion when the final bell sounded.
Triple H is set for action at Unforgiven on September 7th, in one of two Championship Scramble matches, an innovative new type of match combining elements of the Royal Rumble, the Fatal Four-Way, and the infamous Hardcore Battle Royals of years past.
Triple H will defend the WWE Championship in a match where not only does he not have to be defeated in order to lose the championship... but he may not even be an active participant in the match before it happens.
The Participants
Triple H - Shelton Benjamin - Jeff Hardy - MVP - The Brian Kendrick
Two participants, selected at random, will start the match, with an additional participant entering at random at five-minute intervals. The championship can change hands anytime any participant scores a pinfall or submission on any other participant—not necessarily the one holding the championship—but the match continues on.
Only when the match reaches the twenty-minute mark will the final bell sound, and at that time the man currently in possession of the championship will be crowned the winner of the match and "officially" named the WWE Champion.
Needless to say, the odds do not favor Triple H, and even for The Game it will be a challenge of epic proportions.
After the match, Triple H was confronted by Vladimir Kozlov backstage, who had choice words for the WWE Champion. Unfortunately, only those who speak fluent Russian have any idea what they were. For Triple H's take on things, check out After the Bell.
