>>19682773Triple H was never over. He was always a heel that no-one cared about. He existed for faces to beat, not for himself to lose.
With DX he wasn't over, Shaun, Chyna & Road Dogg were over. Evolution it was Batista and Ric Flair who were over.
He was like Bischoff with the NWO. Not over, but basking in how others were over and pretending like he was over as well.
A return pop isn't being over, it's getting a pop (this was when kayfabe was dead and buried remember) for fighting through to end the match he got hurt in, and the series of vignettes that no-one else in the company would have got that showed his hard work in returning. Not even a week later at the Rumble he won he wasn't really over, he just got the usual winner pop. After the Rumble he got into an absolutely dogshit feud with Chris Jericho that Triple H politicked to be the WM X8 main event instead of Hogan/Rock. Then it was Katie Vick and feuding with Nash, who no-one cared about.
The only time he ever came close to being over was the Steph feud with Angle, but he got uncomfortable and killed it.