6 Booking Mistakes Haunting The Triple H Era

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Since Triple H became WWE’s Chief Content Officer in 2022, fans have been generally pleased with many of his creative decisions, with specific wrestlers, titles and storylines receiving more attention than they did under Vince McMahon’s direction. In addition to the wrestling improving inside the squared circle, Triple H brought back long-term storytelling to WWE, with more than one storyline finally being given weeks or months to play out in front of the live audience.Â

That said, not every creative decision by the 56-year-old has been universally praised, as he’s faced more criticism over the last year than ever before for his work in the writer’s chair. Brock Lesnar squashing John Cena earlier this month at WWE Wrestlepalooza is one of the latest examples of fans turning on Triple H, leading us to reflect on some of his most detrimental booking choices throughout the last three years.

The New Day’s heel turn

Wwe/Getty Images

After being viewed as one of the best professional wrestling segments of 2024, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods’ heel turn on Big E to officially break up the New Day has been easily one of Triple H’s most failed projects since stepping into his role as Head Of Creative. At one point, the New Day dismantling or turning to the dark side almost felt sacrilegious, with many fans never wanting to see them implode due to their impact on WWE’s tag team division and their storied on-screen friendship together. Therefore, when WWE pulled the trigger on having Kingston and Woods betray Big E, the audience expected a heel run that was going to make the latest version of the New Day one of the top tag teams in the promotion again, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.Â

For almost an entire year, Kingston and Woods have been inserted into meaningless tag team feuds that either lacked intensity or failed to elevate them closer to championship gold. After nearly three months, the New Day would finally be given a shot to win the WWE World Tag Team Titles at WrestleMania 41, and though they succeeded by defeating the War Raiders, the match was lackluster due to only being allotted nine minutes on the card. However, fans remained optimistic and believed that Kingston and Woods could change the trajectory of their heel run with the titles, but the pair would only hold the belts for 72 days and spent most of the summer losing matches on “WWE Raw.”Â

The booking of WWE’s top women’s champions

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

WWE’s women’s division continues to showcase some of the best in-ring wrestling that the company has to offer today, but Triple H’s creative outlook for each of his top women’s champions has been disappointing to say the least. Over on “WWE SmackDown,” it feels like Tiffany Stratton has been feuding with Nia Jax over the Women’s World Championship for an eternity, while Giulia struggles to be featured on TV as the Women’s United States Champion. Additionally, before Naomi captured the Women’s World Heavyweight Championship, IYO SKY was given very few storylines with the title on “Raw,” having only two defenses in her 132-day reign.

This year, the Women’s Intercontinental Title remains an exception, as the championship has excelled with Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch holding the gold. The same could almost be said for the Women’s Tag Team Championships, with the unlikely team of Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss making the belts the most relevant they’ve been in years, as Triple H often had no creative plans for those who held the titles beforehand.Â

The wrestling on display from every women’s champion could not be better, but the lack of engaging stories for any individual holding the top prizes in the division has prevented them from succeeding in both short-term and long-term reigns.Â

Austin Theory’s failed Money In The Bank cash-in

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

It can be easy to forget that Auston Theory’s miserable Money In The Bank cash-in occurred under the Triple H era, but it remains one of the first booking decisions by “The Game” that was universally disliked by WWE’s audience, and it’s been difficult for Theory to recover since then.Â

During Vince McMahon’s final days as head of creative, Theory was one of the younger wrestlers on the roster that he was looking to push as a main event star, and having “The Unproven One” win Money In The Bank in 2022 was intended to elevate him to the next level. However, Triple H didn’t seem to view Theory in the same light, as his career began to trend downhill almost immediately after McMahon resigned from his position in WWE, and nothing was more embarrassing than having the him cash-in the contract on the United States Championship. Using Money In The Bank on anything other than to win a world championship has never been well received, but to cash-in the contract on a mid-card title and still lose the match was the ultimate slap in face to Theory.Â

The 28-year-old’s progression as a top star was completely diminished the night he attempted to capture Seth Rollins’ United States Championship on “Raw,” and though he would eventually win the title a few weeks later, his career has never been the same since enduring one of the worst Money In The Bank cash-ins of all time.

Repetitive conclusions to WWE Raw

Elsa/Getty Images

Although “Raw” had been viewed as better than “SmackDown” for majority of the year due to the latter being three hours long until July, the main event scene on the red brand has quickly gotten stale with the Vision taking charge, largely because Triple H continues to showcase the same four to five stars at the end of each show.Â

The typical main event of any “Raw” over the last few months has consisted of Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, Jey Uso and LA Knight in a multi-man match, with the contest usually ending via disqualification, causing Rollins or CM Punk to run down to the ring and get involved. At first, the chaotic ending to “Raw” was welcomed, with fans taking a liking to the show concluding on an explosive note, but Triple H has chosen to copy and paste the exact same format of every previous Monday night, with the characters being slightly different in each main event. This has not only resulted in “Raw” becoming incredibly predictable, but has made some of their most engaging wrestlers and storylines boring, with fans growing increasingly tired of Triple H’s booking on a weekly basis.Â

The repetitive structure of “Raw’s” main event scene hasn’t always been this way, but since Rollins introduced the Vision following WrestleMania 41, the 31-year episodic series has struggled to entertain its audience in the last half hour of the show.

Booking of the men’s tag team division

Wwe/Getty Images

Throughout the last three years, Triple H has seemingly viewed the tag team divisions on both “Raw” and “SmackDown” as afterthoughts, with many of WWE’s most talented pairs often being absent on premium live events, stuck with no real stories to work with, and rarely slotted into priority segments on TV.Â

Triple H first tried to enhance both divisions on “Raw” and “SmackDown” by removing the red and blue titles and introducing new gold championships, a decision that was met with excitement from fans. Unfortunately, the new titles were never accompanied by effective booking, with teams like the Motor City Machine Guns, Pretty Deadly and American Made having started off strong, and then quickly becoming talent that struggled to be featured on TV. At the very least, “SmackDown” has delivered some incredible tag team matchups as of late, such as the Six Pack TLC Match at SummerSlam and the Triple Threat TLC Match following WrestleMania 40. However, Triple H has seemingly given up on “Raw’s” tag team division, with the Judgment Day holding the belts for majority of the past three years and rarely defending them on a consistent basis.

It’s become clear that Triple H’s attention is not focused on growing the division, which is unusual since tag team wrestling excelled under his supervision in “WWE NXT,” where teams like #DIY, the Street Profits and the War Raiders became some of the most popular acts on the brand. There’s been glimmers of hope for those competing in WWE’s tag team division, but “The King Of King’s” booking suggests that they aren’t an important piece to his creative plans.

Jimmy Uso’s heel turn on his brother at WWE SummerSlam 2023

Unique Nicole/Getty Images

The Bloodline saga is still one of the best told stories in WWE throughout the last five years, but one of its few flaws was none other than Jimmy Uso turning heel on his brother Jey at WWE SummerSlam 2023. Coming into the “Biggest Party Of The Summer,” Jey challenged Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Championship after having survived his torture and abuse in the Bloodline for years. Jey’s rebellious rise as a singles star transpired shortly after both he and his brother betrayed Reigns in June of that year, which is why fans were furious when Jimmy prevented him from defeating the “OTC” at SummerSlam.Â

The decision to have Jimmy turn on his brother was hated mostly because it felt like WWE was ruining the hard work that was put into The Usos finally freeing themselves from Reigns’ control. After both brothers lost the tag team titles to Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 39, it was a slow but effective build towards the Usos turning on Reigns, which ultimately led to the iconic segment on “SmackDown” when Jey and Jimmy both superkicked their cousin. Therefore, when Jimmy turned on Jey just two months later, it felt like a large setback in the Bloodline saga that negatively affected the storyline told throughout the year, especially since it led to a disappointing brother-versus-brother match at WrestleMania 40.

Source link