>>6938587Triple H failed as a heel and plans as far back as 1999 were for Austin to beat him, take his place as top heel and put the Rock over, this didn't happen because Austin fucked his neck up and had to have surgery, they got pushed back a year and Triple H used the lack of russo backstage to become Vince's right hand man, Rock would work with stars and get them over and then triple gaytch would proceed to bury them afterwards so by the time Austin returned they went forward with plans for Austin Rock II, however Triple H at the time was originally booked in the match at wm17 hence why he won at No way out. Since rock was leaving they couldn't have austin put him over and pushed these plans back instead putting austin as the champion instead. Triple H ended up teaming with austin as they couldn't think of any other way to get fans to boo him, however since hhh had buried the rest of the roster there were no credible faces to feud with austin, so they rehashed austin carder which failed to draw, vince saw buyrates from judgement day and panicked deciding to end the heel run by putting jericho over at kotr, he wanted to cement the push by having him and benoit definitively beat austin / hhh on raw, benoit was to feud with hhh over the ic title and jericho was to feud with austin over the world title, someone talked him out of this and vince got cold feet when triple h went down, deciding against this and going with the invasion instead. Angle recieved the rub due to 9/11 and quickly dropped it back as the alliance needed a champion during the invasion angle which culminated in Austin vs McMahon again
