The feud between Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin was one of the classic rivalries in the WWF/WWE in the late nineties and early noughties.
There was the whole conspiring with Rikishi to run Austin down with a car thing for starters, not to mention their Three Stages of Hell match at No Way Out 2001, and they were even on screen partners for a while as the Two Man Power Trip.
However, before they started beating the crap out of one another in 1999, it turns out that ‘The Game’ actually came to the aid of the ‘Texas Rattlesnake’ during an in ring incident at a WWE live event in Germany back in 1997.
The fan filmed clip was first uploaded to YouTube in January but has been doing the rounds again after it was posted on Reddit.
YouTube/groundunderShortly after working their scheduled match – Austin won with the Stone Cold stunner, naturally – an overenthusiastic fan jumped the guardrail and invaded the ring to attack the victor.
Big mistake.
HHH responded by swiftly slamming him to the canvas with (fittingly, giving the location) a German suplex and proceeded to stomp a mudhole in his ass.
Even referee Mike Chioda got in on the action with a steady stream of kicks to the intruder’s head and kidneys. Who knew Chioda was such a badass?!
Anyway, back in 2013, Austin actually talked about this specific incident on The Steve Austin Show podcast, explaining:
I was just about to celebrate and somebody tackles me from behind and takes me down and starts punching me.
When you’re in the ring with a cat – and I was a babyface, Triple H was the heel – you’re always looking out for your guy’s back. Triple H, stand up cat, he picked that dude up, slammed him, and started punching his lights out.
Austin also noted that he couldn’t join in on the incident because it would have been out of character as the beloved Stone Cold but that he found the whole incident ‘hilarious’ – and, to be fair, it’s probably even funnier when you consider that nearly two decades on Triple H is the clean cut, suit wearing COO of the WWE.
