The Spring of 2001 in WWE was a strange time: Stone Cold Steve Austin turned heel at WrestleMania, starting an alliance with Vince McMahon, and subsequently formed a tag team with Triple H. That union was called The Power Trip, otherwise known as The Two-Man Power Trip, and resulted in a Tag Title run as well as one of the best WWE tag team matches of all time.
The Two-Man Power Trip wasn’t long for this world, only lasting nearly two months from early April to late May, but it was an exciting new prospect during its brief existence. Let’s take a look at the whole story.
10 WrestleMania X-Seven
Many fans regard the seventeenth WrestleMania as the end of the Attitude Era, the height of WWE’s popularity. After all, the main event is pretty appropriate, given that it’s Steve Austin vs. The Rock for the WWF Championship. However, that night ends with the unthinkable: Vince McMahon not only helping Austin beat The Rock for the title, but Austin shaking hands with the WWE boss whose mutual animosity defined The Attitude Era.
9 The Aftermath
The Raw is War the night after WrestleMania X-Seven further advanced this shocking development as The Rock got a rematch against Stone Cold Steve Austin for his recently lost WWF Title. To sweeten the deal, the match was in a steel cage, which was supposed to keep out interference. Unfortunately, this did not keep out interference, and Triple H entered the cage only to turn his trademark sledgehammer on The Rock -- another shocking development, as Trips and Austin were feuding very recently.
8 The Brothers of Destruction
Once they began running roughshod over the rest of the company, it wasn’t long before Triple H and Austin got into a feud with important characters, namely The Undertaker and Kane, together known as The Brothers of Destruction. The Power Trip staged an attack on The Hardy Boyz, prompting The Brothers of Destruction to intervene and kicking off a feud with major implications.
Soon after, Kane and Undertaker defeated Edge and Christian for the WWF World Tag Team Titles, setting up a huge title match for the upcoming Backlash.
7 Backlash
The Two-Man Power Trip vs. Brothers of Destruction Tag Team Title bout at Backlash was signed with a unique stipulation, as Steve Austin and Triple H were both already respectively WWF Champion and Intercontinental Champion. As a result, the two men also had to defend their singles titles in this match, thus making it a Winner Take All affair. Of course, Austin and Triple H came out on top via some assistance from the trusty sledgehammer.
6 Double Champions
As a result of their win over The Brothers of Destruction, Steve Austin and Triple H became WWF World Tag Team Champions. But a more significant achievement was reached, as The Two-Man Power Trip now possessed all the major men’s titles, leaving only belts like the European, Lightweight, and Hardcore Championships up for grabs. It turns out they’re actually the second pair of men to ever do that, as Shawn Michaels and Diesel briefly held the same belts in the mid-’90s.
5 Insurrexion
In the lead-up to the Insurrexion pay-per-view, Steve Austin and Triple H injured Kane’s arm on an episode of Raw is War, forcing The Undertaker to fight alone. Good thing the Dead Man was up for a challenge, as he took on both Austin and Trips in the main event of Insurrexion. However, this handicap match had a stipulation: if Steve Austin was pinned for a victory, he would lose the WWF Championship. Undertaker ended up winning by pinning Triple H, but he had another title match coming up.
4 Judgment Day
Judgment Day happened in May of 2001 and saw both The Power Trip and The Brothers of Destruction wrestling separately. Triple H lost the Intercontinental Championship to Kane in a Chain Match after Steve Austin accidentally hit his own partner with a chair, while Austin beat The Undertaker in a No Holds Barred Match for the WWF Title thanks to some sledgehammer-based interference.
Between those two title bouts, however, was a Tag Team Turmoil match that would set the scene for the following night.
3 The Tag Title Match
The May 21, 2001 Raw is War gave fans what many consider one of the best tag team matches in Monday Night Raw history, if not all of WWE history. In the main event, The Two-Man Power Trip defended their Tag Team Titles against the extremely Canadian team of Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho in an exciting barn-burner with a ridiculously hot crowd that managed to last less than 15 minutes.
2 Triple H’s Injury
One may wonder why a top heel team like The Two-Man Power Trip only lasted like two months, and there’s a good reason for it: Triple H got injured. During the Raw title match against Benoit and Jericho, Trips managed to tear his left quadriceps. He miraculously managed to complete the match as booked, but the injury was serious enough to be career-threatening and kept The Game out of the ring for like eight months.
1 The Trip is Over
In light of his injury, Triple H needed to be written off the show, so on following Smackdown, Steve Austin dumped his partner on screen. It wasn’t too much of a stretch, as Triple H had cost them the Tag Titles by accidentally hitting Austin with a sledgehammer. Soon after, The WCW/ECW Invasion storyline would begin, which would feature Austin and Vince McMahon prominently, and Triple H would return to action a couple of months after the storyline ended.