How HHH compared to his peers at the time and in history is definitely related to his body of work. When Bret Hart was in there with the best in the company, his matches always delivered. Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Mankind, Taker, Shawn, Austin...all of those matches delivered and then some. The matches with Shawn, Austin and Davey are considered some of the best of that decade, if not all time. And then he took guys like Hall, Nash (Hart vs. Diesel @ Survivor Series 95 was considered the best match Kevin Nash ever had), Bam Bam Bigelow, The Patriot, Piper, and had great matches with them too.

HHH has had GOOD matches with guys in his era, but not epic. Taker/HHH will never be considered better than Hart/Austin, which is widely considered to be the best WM match of all time (and lo and behold, it was a pier six brawl from start to finish, so that kills that "implication" you claimed I had). HHH had plenty of matches with Shawn, but how many of them will compare to the Iron Man Match Bret and Shawn had at WM 12? When HHH faced Angle or Benoit, did he ever have a match that was as good as the one Bret had with Owen, or even a Benoit match that was better than the Benoit match Bret had in WCW? Outside of Batista, who did HHH have a great match with that wasn't a guy that wasn't considered one of the best workers at the time?
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