5 Strange booking decisions in SummerSlam history

#4 Triple H wins the Elimination Chamber (2003)

Triple H hogged the World Title scene on Raw from 2002 to 2004.

Goldberg was on a hot run in on Raw in the summer of 2003, since debuting the night after WrestleMania XIX. He did grow a bit stagnant in the months leading up to SummerSlam, but a World Heavyweight Championship victory would have strapped a rocket on his back. He was supposed to challenge Triple H for the big gold belt at SummerSlam 2003 but plans changed when the Game suffered a groin injury, which caused him to do minimal in-ring work. He was also forced to wear those weird biker shorts. Man, how weird did they look?

Due to this, the match was changed from a one-on-one to an Elimination Chamber match which also featured Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash and Randy Orton. Triple H entered the match at number 5 and immediately got Superkicked by HBK, writing him out until the finish. Goldberg came out next and just destroyed everyone. He went on a massive tear and eliminated Orton, Michaels and Jericho consecutively before turning his focus to Hunter.

As he was going for the Spear, the Game whacked him with a sledgehammer shot and Pedigreed him before pinning the former WCW Champion. It was a shocking result for all the wrong reasons and Goldberg in WWE was conveniently ruined for the rest of his one year run. He would win the title at the next pay-per-view but it was too late. The 2018 WWE Hall of Famer had such an uninspiring run back then, one that was thankfully corrected during his excellent return in 2016 and 2017. Triple H would continue to hog the main event spotlight on Raw until finally giving it up to Batista in 2005.