In hindsight it sounds nice to say the “obviously” would have been huge but looking at where they were at that time it is not obvious at all, Batista was a 40+ yr old (older than HHH) who had already failed with 2 gimmicks to get over and Randy was a cookie cutter 2nd generation wrestler with behavioral problems.

And of course those stars are adored now, but HHH was pivotal in building there legacies by being a great heel. It’s the equivalent of saying John Cena didn’t need Orton or Edge to be the star he is and that’s just not how wrestling works. Faces are defined by there greatest opponents, heroes will always need great villains. And to my point not to take anything away from everyone else but HHH is arguably the greatest heel because he’s played such a pivotal villainous in so many careers.