To many WWE fans, The Rock's greatest rival was Stone Cold Steve Austin, while Triple H's was Shawn Michaels. You can make a case for both.
But when you look at the trajectory of both Triple H's and The Rock's careers inside the squared circle, they wouldn't be who they are without each other.
That may have bonded them over time, but there's no question this was a relationship born out of spite and jealousy that only grew with the money they made together.
The Rock entered WWE at Survivor Series 1996. Standing 6ft 6in and a third generation wrestler following in the footsteps of his grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, and his father, Rocky Johnson, Chairman Vince McMahon was always going to have big plans for The Great One.
Triple H made the jump to WWE from WCW in 1995 after his contract expired and McMahon was impressed with his showing at Starrcade against Alex Wright.
After an underwhelming start to life as the Connecticut Blue Blood, Triple H befriended Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Shawn Michaels and Sean Waltman. They'd become collectively known as The Kliq and were known for having McMahon's ear creatively.
At the start of 1997, with Triple H's influential friends Hall and Nash gone, both Rock and Triple H found themselves on an equal footing, fighting to make a name in the mid-card. This is where some of the bad blood begins.
In October 1996, a month before Rock debuted, Triple H won the Intercontinental title. Four months later, Rock beat Triple H for that title despite the crowd not buying what The Rock was selling. He was struggling to get over and the crowd reactions were undeniably bad.
Around this time, things got really heated.
Michaels and Bret Hart truly hated each other behind the scenes and were vying for the WWE title. Rumour has it, Michaels and Triple H did not like The Rock and saw him as a threat to Triple H's rising position. In fact, they lobbied McMahon for Hart to take the IC title off The Rock, but Hart revealed in his autobiography he refused.
The Hitman was fond of The Rock and saw he had massive potential. While many legends suggest Triple H and Michaels were trying to bury The Rock, he had a good friend on side in Hart.
Speaking of refusals, Rock refused to work with Michaels during this period, too.
The bitterness is said to have started before The Rock's career even began when he was a teenager growing up in Hawaii. Michaels came to work and reportedly said something derogatory about Rock's promoter grandmother, Lia Maivia.
Later, Michaels landed a superkick on Rock during a segment and caught him on the jaw. When told backstage it was too stiff, HBK responded by telling Rock "If you can't handle it, you shouldn't be in the business."
That resulted in Rock smashing Michaels down to the ground, but were reportedly separated before it escalated.
According to his dad, Rocky Johnson, 'he almost killed the Heart Break Kid.'
Rock lost the IC belt to Bret's brother, Owen Hart, two months later and suffered a bad knee injury in the process, keeping him out until August. When he returned, he resurfaced as a bad guy and joined the Nation of Domination.
In the time Rock had been on the shelf, Triple H had won the 1997 King of the Ring and the same month Rock returned, D-Generation X was formed consisting of Triple H, Michaels, Chyna and Rick Rude.
Rock was in Nation of Domination with Mark Henry - legitimately the world's strongest man around that time - D'Lo Brown, Kama Mustafa (later known as the Godfather) and the leader Faarooq.
Henry told a story on Chris Jericho's podcast where somebody s**t in The Rock's food and wanted to fool him into eating it.
"It was different back then," Henry said. "People putting crap in people's food boxes. Real s**t. [It happened] to Dwayne. I saw it happen and people were like, 'Shh, don't tell, come on the rib is on him.' No, you crazy? You putting s**t in somebody's food. Ask [The Rock] about it. He'll tell you."
Henry went on to heavily imply it was the Kliq who was behind the 'rib'.
"I had to keep [The Rock] from getting killed," Henry added, "because he was gonna get jumped. You know, it was cliquish back then. You had the Kliq, the BSK, the whole Puerto Rican crew, everybody was geared up. And you mess with one, you mess with all."
Hart departed the company shortly after Rock's return thanks to the Montreal Screwjob - which featured Michaels and Triple H - but Rock wouldn't have to deal with DX alone for long as Michaels was also gone from the company the very next April.
After WrestleMania 14, Rock became leader of The Nation by overthrowing Faarooq and Triple H took the reigns of DX from Michaels, adding X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws. For a large portion of the rest of 1998, both stables feuded with one another.
During this time, The Rock was becoming a true superstar. After his ladder match with Triple H at SummerSlam - which the latter won - Rock was getting huge fan support. This led to him turning his back on The Nation and going at it solo. The Brahma Bull was red-hot for the first time.
Triple H was still doing well as the babyface leader of DX, but he wasn't near world title level, nor did Vince McMahon ever see him in that role, according to Bruce Prichard.
The Rock won his first world title at Survivor Series that year - two years after his debut - and the Corporate champion was born with Vince McMahon by his side on-screen. He would face Steve Austin at WrestleMania 15 and his main event status was solidified.
Triple H didn't officially break away from DX - or the Corporate Ministry he joined for a while - until the summer of 1999.
He defeated Mankind for his first world title the night after SummerSlam '99 and it seemed as though he had officially arrived on the main event scene, somewhere The Rock was firmly entrenched now.
With Triple H now a dastardly heel and Rock a huge babyface, they were destined to meet again. After Steve Austin had to leave for neck surgery - which WWE wrote him off for by having a car run him down - Triple H and The Rock worked together over the world title for the vast majority of 2000, a year where WWE ran streets ahead of Monday Night War rival, WCW.
Speaking to Bleacher Report ahead of his 25-year anniversary with the company, Triple H says that while he and Rock weren't friends, it was more of a competitive rivalry than hate.
"It's a funny thing; we weren't friendly," Triple H said. "I don't know that I've ever eaten dinner with The Rock or gone out after show with him or anything like that. We were in different circles. But man, my respect for him was unbelievable. Any time I heard 'Hey, you're going to work with Rock,' I'd be like, 'all right. This is going to be awesome.' We would push each other. There was just this mutual respect. But based on our competitive natures, there was also always this intense rivalry.
"I never felt during that time that Rock and I didn't like each other. But we were uber competitive with each other. There was this competitive nature to everything that we did. When you're in your 20s, you're full of yourself. You have to be in this business to be good at what you do.
"There's a lot of like, 'screw him. I'll do better than that.' You know what I mean? 'He thinks he can do this? I can do that.' I can remember going to Gold's Gym one time and seeing him on the other side of the gym and he's lifting heavy. And I'm thinking, 'I got to go heavier.' There just was something about him. He always drove me to want to do more and be better.
Rock would leave WWE on a full-time basis in 2003 to pursue a career in Hollywood where he has since become the highest-paid actor in the business with his films grossing billions worldwide.
Triple H has semi-retired and now runs NXT, WWE's developmental promotion for all intents and purposes, but it has grown to a third brand.
Now, a healthy respect and love has grown between the two. Probably because they have both been able to go away and be successful in other areas without suffocating each other. Could that have happened inside WWE for over a decade? Possibly, but no guarantees.
Still, both men know without each other, they wouldn't be where or who they are today.
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