Focus on Triple H's Career Hints at Daniel Bryan Winning at WrestleMania 30

WWE's decision to put together a career retrospective for Triple H on Monday's Raw only adds to the inevitability that Daniel Bryan will defeat him at WrestleMania 30.

The company has looked to play with audience expectations through focusing on a foe's past accomplishments before. It's a sleight-of-hand technique that works to shake fans' confidence in order to create a more exciting match.

Before Bryan ambushed the COO in the closing moments of Monday's Raw, fans watched a video chronicling Triple H's many successes. Stephanie McMahon narrated as clips of Kurt Angle, Goldberg, Chris Jericho and Mick Foley flashed on the screen.

McMahon said that "The Game" has turned all of the fans' false idols into rubble.

The video showed Triple H blasting Angle, Hardy, Jericho and others before coming back to Bryan. The bearded warrior writhed on the floor in handcuffs as Triple H throttled him.

Grouping Bryan among these current and future Hall of Famers is no accident. It's a way to elevate Bryan and his eventual victory.

What does WWE have to gain by having Triple H win? His full-time career is behind him. His legacy is already established.

Focusing on that legacy can only be a way to create doubt in fans' minds about Bryan's potential victories at WrestleMania.

If everyone assumes that Bryan will defeat HHH and go on to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, those bouts are robbed of suspense. WWE has wisely worked to make the audience question those assumptions.

Reminding fans of all the big names Triple H has bested does just that.

Setting him up as an unstoppable titan helps boost the emotion that Bryan's win will create. The COO can't be portrayed as an executive slowed by ring rust who will be a mere stepping stone for Bryan—there's no thrill in that.

WWE did the same thing when Christian was set to face Alberto Del Rio at last year's SummerSlam.

Christian's many injuries and absences made him less of a viable contender. It had been two years since he had held the world title. Reflecting on his career worked to remind fans of how good he has been, replacing images of him losing with ones of him holding up championships.

Del Rio won at SummerSlam. The preview video added emotion to that clash and also made Del Rio's win seem less inevitable.

Before Mark Henry challenged John Cena at Money in the Bank 2013, he entered that title bout as the underdog. Cena's timeline is so choked with victories and comebacks that he is WWE's "Superman," batting away whichever supervillain decides to step up next.

Rather than have fans go into that match with little doubt that Cena would win, WWE produced a video highlighting Henry's career.

In it, he slammed Big Show through the announce table, broke the security barricade with Sheamus' body and towered over a fallen Cena. Henry didn't win his hyped-up match, just as Triple H won't either.

The dramatic music, the jump cuts and the array of destructive images worked to create a sense that Henry could pull this win out. It didn't matter that he had lost to Sheamus at Extreme Rules or hadn't held a major title since December of 2011.

Images of Henry at his most powerful helped push those thoughts into the background.

That's what WWE has done several times in the past. There are of course exceptions, but so often when the company goes the career-reflection route, a loss has followed for the star of the retrospective video.

A video chronicling Brock Lesnar's career preceded his loss to Cena at Extreme Rules 2012. The same was true for Ryback at that year's Hell in a Cell event. A loss to CM Punk followed a look back at his many successes.

WWE has even done this with Triple H before, looking back at the COO's career on Raw before his loss to Lesnar at SummerSlam 2012.

The company went with this tactic once more on Monday's Raw. Triple H's past dominance emerged in the present, using memory and stellar editing to distort the fanbase's perception.

Add that to Triple H constantly telling the audience that Bryan is not on his level and leaving him flat on his back night after night, and WWE has built up a storehouse of reasons to doubt Bryan.

Building up Triple H as a force that Bryan is seemingly unlikely to overcome is best for business.

This process will add anticipation to Bryan vs. Triple H and create uneasiness among Bryan's fanbase. Every near-fall Triple H gets on April 6 will be even more dramatic. Bryan's eventual win will create an even bigger emotional explosion.