Spike Dudley vs. Triple H

[2.0] "You know what's particularly annoying about this match? It's that you can just tell that this was a match entirely conceived and booked by Triple H himself, and done so with no concern in mind for what smaller, cruiserweight wrestler he was in the ring with. As would be quite often seen throughout Triple H's infamous Reign of Terror run is him trying to do a lot of callback to old school wrestling that he loves and also trying to show himself off as this in-ring technician who was a studious man of the past classics. This is one such early instance wherein Triple H around this time, building to his feud with Rob Van Dam by blasting through ECW guys on Raw, begins trying to get the Sleeper Hold over as a finisher. A precursor to his utilization of the Indian Deathlock also as a finisher later on in his reigns. But going back to this match; so the point is that Triple H wants to be all old school and get over that he's got this new awesome finisher, but he also wants to be like those old heels that would give the babyfaces a lot of offense before winning in the end with his technical know how (nevermind that in the old days such booking worked because matches weren't really televised and thus didn't get representative or too frustrating) but again, he's not really doing so with Spike in mind. Spike has so much offputting high flying offense in this match that is not in anyway his usual bag and it sticks out like a sore thumb. In particular the Swinning Headscissors reversal and the Seated Senton both of which are way more lucha oriented than anything the brawler spike would do, even when he did get on the top rope. Add onto this that the match may let Spike get in a decent amount of offense but it's still just really basic and kind of dull in a lot of it because Triple H may stooge but it's never in a way that feels like the offense could truly put him away. It's still always just enough that you never really get into the idea that he could lose. And sure I know it's Spike but this informs everything Triple does going forward in his career with that world title. What's the real cherry on top though is how dull the finish is. Nobody is conditioned to this Sleeper Hold as a finisher so the crowd is just confused and flattened by Triple H suddenly getting this hold on and while Spike looks like he may do the initial rally he just fades off instead, and worst yet Triple H sucks horribly at applying this hold too! He just stands there with no wrenching, urgency or anything. They don't even slump Spike over that much and so it's just suddenly he's worn out by this Sleeper with barely any showmanship. It's just a really deflating ending (which is common place for the Reign of Terror era of Triple H)."

[3.0] "I was hoping this would be like the match Triple H had with Taka a few years before, which was a hidden gem and Spike has his moments in the match, but it feels completely nonsensical with how it's booked. Triple H gets the pedigree, one of the most protected moves in wrestling history, gets cocky and then Spike almost wins? Ridiculous! I rag on his commentary a lot but Jerry Lawler is seriously annoying to listen to going on and on and on about the stupid HLA stuff. It's a part of the presentation of the show and I hate it."

[2.0] "This fight was pretty much to fill the card. Nothing spectacular happened and it showed that Triple H is not a good wresler. In my opinion, he needs to have a match where he can hide his weaknesses because if he leads, the match won't be good. He has to have someone to lead the match for him in order to be good and with all due respect to Spike Dudley, he's not that wresler."