He's definitely not as good as he perceives himself to be (or wants us to perceive him). Great worker, cuts a good promo, but is probably held back by his own ego more than anything.
Between Vince's refusal to acknowledge that something great can be created independently of him and Triple H's weird paranoia about people 'forgetting' him - the company is at something of an all time creative lull. The Shield are a shining light and we might see similar good things come out of the Wyatt Clan's promotion, but the bogging down of the midcard, the death of tag team wrestling, and the company's struggle to create and maintain top level stars is a worry that rests largely on the shoulders of Triple H and his daddy.
It was illustrated wonderfully last week on Raw. New guy debuts, Triple H verbally buries him, but we get a glimmer of hope that he'll sell his beating at Lesnar's hands by putting the new guy over. Instead, Axel gets in next to no offense and the match is called off. They don't even declare Curtis Axel the winner!
Cena at least had the decency to be counted out (although even he no sold the loss by clapping sarcastically and smiling).
The sad thing is, Triple H clearly has a great head for the business. He's widely been credited for last year's brief resurrection of the tag division. Vince apparently put the kibosh on that because... well... who the f**k knows?
If Triple H could step back from the business and let the spotlight fade off him, he'd be a much better guy to run the company than Vince. He's clearly a little more accepting of things and has an old school mindset - but that's always going to be clouded by his ego as long as he sees himself as a competitor on the roster.
Immense respect for him as a performer in his own right and for some of his ideas, but the politics taint everything he touches.
On WWE.com they acknowledged Axel as the winner
HHH is pretty cool. I've read and seen heaps of interviews with wrestlers who say all the shit about him holding back wrestlers is bullshit and I believe that opinion.
I'm not sure you could argue he doesn't hold workers back. Maybe not for petty reasons, but he certainly squashes workers who he are in programs with him. Booker T, Scott Steiner, Test. Hell, he did nothing to elevate Curtis Axel two weeks ago and really did nothing to elevate or legitimize Lesnar either.
People like to forget that he did put over and help made stars of the likes of batista Orton and cena.
He's not a top ten or even twenty top wrestlers of all time guy, and that kills him.
In the scheme of things, I honestly think HHH would be lucky to make Top 50 let alone 20 or 10.
3/6/13 was a righteous day to behold.
Just so it doesn't seem like I'm blowing smoke here when I'm referring to the Top 50 I'm not thinking of guys like Bruno, Hogan, Austin, Rock, Cena, Taker etc.
I'm referring to the likes of Andre, Thesz, The Gotch Brothers, Hackenshmidt, Kiniski, El Santo, Rikidozan, Blassie etc. that list could easily hit around 40 without HHH's name appearing.
He's still a very good at times great talent and his run in 2000 deserves a ton of accolades but in the annals of history the biggest compliment you can make is that his name belongs with his heroes, not over them.