One of the few constants during the past 25 years for the WWE has been Triple H. Whether The Game was working as a talent, recruiter or corporate executive, he has been a top tier star who has maintained his position with the company. In fact, Triple H is the only person who has been employed with the WWE through the New Generation Era, Attitude Era, Ruthless Aggression Era, PG Era and the Reality Era. Many will chalk up The Game’s longevity to his alleged antics behind the scenes, which have included claims of conspiracy with the Kliq as well as marrying Stephanie McMahon for business reasons.
No matter which way you slice it, Trips has been a polarizing figure in wrestling since the mid-'90s; that polarization grew exponentially with the rise of the internet and social media. Even though he has redeemed himself with NXT to many fans, Triple H is still the target of much ire in the internet wrestling community. And if you know anything about the internet, you know that the internet loves their memes, and the IWC is no different. But the memes featuring the COO of WWE aren’t light hearted like the ones of Randy Orton jumping out of planes and delivering the RKO to dinosaurs, no these memes are savage. So, of course, today we are going to look at the top 15 memes featuring Triple H that give wrestling fans a good laugh. Let us know if we forgot your favorite meme in the comments section.
15 15. Third Generation
This is a meme that has been around for a while, and could soon be seen as outdated with Triple H’s role developing talent constantly expanding. In any case, this meme has been used as a template for a ton of Triple H parodies, with the originator photoshopping out a sledgehammer in favor of a shovel. The shovel, of course, represents Triple H’s willingness to ‘bury’ any new talent who may enter the WWE. Specifically, this meme is acknowledging The Game’s track record against third generation stars and in this case Curtis Axel in particular. Axel, who is the son of legendary Hall of Famer Curt Hennig, had a brief program with Triple H in 2013. The feud was short and one-sided, and Axel has never really recovered from the beating he took from Triple H.
14 14. Burying EVERYONE
When former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts released his book Best Seat In The House in early 2017, many fans were shocked to hear Roberts talk candidly about comments that Triple H made during his two-year feud with The Undertaker in 2011-2012. Allegedly The Game stated that nobody else could work with Taker because none of the locker room was on his level. This statement effectively buried the entirety of the WWE locker room, while also insinuating that Triple H was the equal of The Undertaker.
This revelation didn’t exactly help Triple H’s online image, and many have run with the idea of him burying everyone. This meme reflects that sentiment, with Triple H, not only burying wrestlers but the entire WWE staff as well.
13 13. I Thought You Were Already Retired
If you are scrolling through this article, then I can only assume that you love hearing about dirt on The Game. If I have just described you then I can only assume that you have listened to CM Punk’s 2014 appearance on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast. If you haven’t, no worries here are the cliff notes - Punk claimed that Triple H specifically came out of retirement in 2011 just to slow down the Summer of Punk. He also went on to state that following his victory of Punk, Triple H went back into retirement shortly after. This meme, although using a different backdrop, illustrates Punk’s point by showing how The Game goes in and out of retirement to win matches whenever he pleases.
12 12. The Man With 3 H’s
Fans who only watch WWE may not be aware of how big of a year Matt Hardy had in 2016 with TNA. Hardy reinvented his entire character, creating the man known as “Broken” Matt Hardy as well as the ‘Broken Universe’ in the process. During 2016, Hardy had multiple matches that were filmed on his compound with the final one being called Total Nonstop Deletion. During the event Hardy, along with his ally Gregory “The Hurricane” Helms, smacked and buried The Helms Dynasty with shovels. After burying the team with dirt, the duo literally says the exact phrase listed on the meme above and smile at the camera. This not so subtle reference to Triple H must not have hurt the feelings of The Game too much, as Hardy was signed to the WWE less than a year later.
11 11. Old Man Hunter
We all know that no matter what is happening with WWE storylines, Triple H will somehow make an appearance at WrestleMania. In fact, behind The Undertaker nobody even comes close to the number of ‘Mania appearances as Trips. Even though some of his near record 21 matches at the event were sub-par, the former WWE Champion always creates a WrestleMania moment with his entrance.
This meme is obviously making fun of the way that Hunter always seems to be back and ready to rumble during the trip down the road to ‘Mania. The meme, which depicts a balding and much older Triple H, just highlights that even 35 years from now we can expect The Game to lace up his boots. Will he be facing Seth Rollins Jr.?
10 10. He's Become Self-Aware
After winning the WWE Championship at the 2016 Royal Rumble, Triple H took a photo with the title that became a meme. Some brilliant creator photoshopped Triple H wearing a suit with the post-rumble Triple H, which ushered in dozens of different memes. Obviously, Triple H saw the memes and actually acknowledged it on Twitter when he posed with a cardboard cutout of himself in March of 2017. Reddit users had a ball with this photo and in what became a running joke tried to photoshop more and more versions of The Game into the picture. The above meme is the culmination of hours of posts and reposts of this photoshopped meme. The most important part about this meme is that it proves that Triple H listens to the IWC.
9 9. It's All About The Game
The lyrics to Triple H’s theme music are iconic at this point, with most fans being able to belt out at least the first few lines of the former WWE Champion’s song. The line that seems to be symbolic of Trips’ career is “It’s all about The Game”, which has been a recurring theme of his career. Many have claimed that Triple H has only cared about himself throughout his own career, simply using everyone to ascend to the top. This meme has hilariously given the lyric another meaning by photoshopping The Game’s head onto literally every single WWE Superstar’s body during the RAW commercial bumper. This meme has literally made it all about The Game and by the looks of it was an easy decision for him.
8 8. Achievement Unlocked
The battle cry of the IWC for the past 15 years has been for the WWE to listen to their fans. For the most part, the WWE has actively ignored the requests of this group, but at times it seemed as if the creative team at Titan Towers was actively trying to anger the internet fans. The evidence for this was at its peak when Triple H sought to derail Daniel Bryan’s YES movement in 2014.
As an indie sensation, Bryan had a rabid fan base that was ready to see him ascend to the upper echelon of WWE talent. So when Triple H inserted himself into Bryan’s run the IWC understandably lost their collective minds. In the end, Bryan ended up winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania, and we got this hilarious meme featuring Triple H unlocking his troll achievement.
7 7. Put Him Over
Speaking personally I think that Triple H gets a bad rap when it comes to putting others over. Sure there are a few glaring examples of The Game putting himself over *cough* Booker T at WrestleMania XIX *cough*, but for the most part, he has lost to every big name when it mattered. But for whatever reason Trips’ reputation is forever tarnished as someone who refuses to push others in favor of himself. This meme is funny in that regard, as it shows a younger Triple H throwing Kurt Angle over the top rope during a Royal Rumble during the Attitude Era (the one Triple H won in 2002). The irony of the picture being that by putting the talent over, he is actually putting himself over in the company.
6 6. The Classic
This may be the first ever Triple H meme that hit the internet during the mid-2000s, featuring Triple H during one of his 14 World Title reigns. The original picture is of Triple H posing on the ropes with his newly won WWE Championship, but as time has gone on the picture has been constantly altered.
For some reason, every new version of this meme has The Game holding more and more titles, to the point where he is using the WWE Tag Team Titles as knee pads and is for some reason holding the TNA X Division Title as well. But no it doesn’t stop there, because Triple H is also holding Kane’s second mask, both RAW and Smackdown’s Money in the Bank Briefcases and of course a Slammy award. In all fairness to Triple H though, he actually has won most of the titles that have been photoshopped onto him.
5 5. Couldn't Lace My Boots
Bret Hart doesn’t have any problems letting anyone know how he feels about the current WWE product. Specifically, he has no filter when talking about certain wrestlers, and he has been especially vocal about Triple H. Not only does Hart not consider Triple H a great wrestler, he has actually said that the former WWE Champion couldn’t even lace up Hart’s boots. Ouch. Now I'm sure when someone from the IWC says that Triple H can’t wrestle he laughs it off, but when arguably the greatest wrestler of all-time says it, it’s gotta sting. Trips had to have heard about Hart’s comments, and some genius used the picture of him crying to replicate the moment that he found out. Hart must have gotten quite a laugh if he saw this.
4 4. Haitch Face
Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past few years, you’ve undoubtedly have run into the crying Jordan meme once or twice. The meme seems to refuse to die, with the internet always reviving it whenever someone comes out on the losing end of anything. Well “haitch face” is sort of the crying Jordan of wrestling, with most Redditors using the meme to troll other users as a bait and switch picture. The original picture was taken during a photoshoot of Triple H working out in 2003. Over a decade later the face made a resurgence and can be found in most hyperlinks in the r/squaredcircle subreddit, but has popped up in the background of many WWE events. Many have taken haitch face to a new level by photoshopping it to any and everything related to wrestling just to troll other readers.
3 3. Soon...
Anyone who has watched the WWE during the past four years knows that Seth Rollins has been a personal project of Triple H during that time. He was groomed as the breakout star of The Shield and under the wing of the COO of WWE, Rollins won the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 31. Adding to that, Rollins is actually the only other person to use Triple H’s finishing maneuver - The Pedigree - as a finisher, adopting the move in 2015. But despite the good will that Triple H showed Rollins, we all know what The Game does to his allies after they outlive their usefulness, so it was only a matter of time before the two turned on each other. Rollins’ 2015 knee injury certainly set back the storyline, but it was picked up again this year for WrestleMania 33. Even though Rollins won that match, there is still plenty of time for the meme above to turn into reality.
2 2. Conquered
Somewhere between returning to the WWE and becoming the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar kind of fizzled out for a while in 2013. After a hot debut against John Cena, Lesnar went on a losing streak stopping most of the momentum that he had debuted with. After feuding with Cena, Brock moved on to Triple H, who in his semi-retired state should have had zero chance in defeating Lesnar. Despite taking their WrestleMania XXIX match, Triple H was eventually defeated by The Beast, and left by the wayside as Brock would turn into an unstoppable force.
This time period is when Brock became know as a conqueror, destroying everything that was in his path including The Undertaker’s streak. This meme is a two parter, as it shows Lesnar pointing to Trips as one of his victims, while at the same time showing a close up of The Game looking extremely sad.
1 1. Married To The Business
There are hundreds of memes that refer to Triple H’s behind the scenes antics, with the most prevalent being in regards to him burying people. There is a close second, however, and that group of memes is related to him marrying into the McMahon family. In truth, I could have done an entire list based off of just Triple H/Stephanie McMahon memes, but today I present you with the Roll Safe/Triple H mashup. The roll safe meme became huge during the beginning of 2017, which means that this meme is less than six months old even though it’s referencing a marriage that is over a decade long. At this point whether or not you believe the marriage to be real is up to you, but as long as there is the internet, there will be memes like the one above.