WWE News: Triple H Scheduled To Wrestle Before ‘WrestleMania 32’

Before he defends his WWE World Heavyweight championship at WrestleMania 32 against Roman Reigns, Triple H will wrestle at the World’s Most Famous Arena for the first time in four years.

The Garden released an updated card for WWE’s March 25 live event at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, advertising the “Cerebral Assassin” in tag team action. He will partner with League of Nations member Sheamus to wrestle the team of Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose.

In earlier listings, Triple H was scheduled to be in Sheamus’ corner as he faced Reigns in a one-on-one match while Ambrose was set to challenge Kevin Owens for the Intercontinental title in 30-minute Ironman match.

The event is being billed around “Daniel Bryan Appreciation Night.” The recently retired former WWE World Heavyweight champion will be making one of many stops on WWE live events across the country to bid his final farewells.

Here’s the updated card in its entirety.

• Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose vs. Sheamus and WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H
• WWE Intercontinental Championship: AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens (c)
• WWE United States Championship: Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto (c)
• Big Show vs. Bray Wyatt
• Daniel Bryan appears
• WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day, The Usos, The Dudley Boyz, Ric Flair, Rusev, The Miz, Ryback and The Wyatt Family will also make appearances

Barring any late changes, this will mark Triple H’s first MSG bout since he competed at a live event just before WrestleMania XXVIII in 2012. On that late afternoon, the 14-time WWE World Heavyweight champion teamed with CM Punk and Randy Orton to face Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, and Dolph Ziggler. Triple H and his team won the match after he delivered a Tombstone Piledriver to Ziggler, sending a message to his then WrestleMania opponent, The Undertaker.

Aside from that most recent MSG match, Triple H has a long and, at times, controversial history at the venue. In 1996, Triple H was part of a now-infamous backstage group known as The Kliq. The group was comprised of Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Sean Waltman (X-Pac).

With Hall and Nash set to leave the company for the rival World Championship Wrestling (WCW), their last WWE appearance came at MSG in 1996. After all four men competed in their matches, they engaged in an incident known as “The Curtain Call” in which the Kliq members — minus Waltman — embraced each other as a farewell.

Their embrace was ridiculed by many wrestling purists who thought the stunt went against professional wrestling’s mindset of always staying in character. With Hall and Nash on their way out and Michaels being the WWE’s top performer, Triple H became the odd man out and was punished by the company.

Six years later, after suffering a torn quad that many thought would end his career, Triple H made his return on the first RAW of 2002. Emanating live from MSG, Triple H entered the arena to his legendary Motorhead theme with WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross declaring the crowd’s reaction “as loud as any sustained roar I have ever heard at Madison Square Garden.”

In years since, Triple H has engaged in several other noteworthy moments at MSG, including a three-way tag team match featuring D-Generation-X (Triple H & Michaels) vs. JeriShow (Chris Jericho and Big Show) vs. John Cena and The Undertaker.

As he prepares for his first WWE match since he defeated Sting at WrestleMania 31, Triple H will look to provide New York City with another classic MSG moment.

[Featured Photo Ethan Miller/Getty Images]