MR. TITO: Calling Out AEW Fans Who Want Cancel Culture to Eliminate Triple H from WWE

It’s time to take the gloves off on online AEW marks (some, not all) who are rooting for Triple H to be “cancelled” from the WWE. Just go online within Social Media, below in NoDQ’s Comments sections, or on various forums and you’ll see a group of AEW fans (again, some, not all) rooting for the Vince McMahon stench to attach itself onto Triple H. Why? Because when Triple H has been in charge of the WWE since mid-2022, the company’s business (viewership, attendance, and merchandise) has done nothing but grown. And since mid-2022, AEW has been in turmoil with their CM Punk situation and are really struggling with North American attendance to finish 2023.

Just check out the comments section of my last column entitled In Defense of Triple H’s Response (or Lack Thereof) to Vince McMahon’s Allegations, nothing but baseless attacks towards me for coming to Triple H’s defense and then insane conspiracies that Triple H fully knew and covered up the truth about Vince McMahon’s allegations. And then, wouldn’t you know who won the pony, our good friends at Vice released a news story to VINDICATE ME as Vince McMahon was reportedly creating and signing his own NDAs without the WWE Corporation’s knowledge.

To quote my boy Virtue (yes, we’re getting along lately), you may email or use the Comments section for apologies…

On top of that, there are news stories that TKO Corporation officials were perfectly fine with Triple H‘s responses to the questions. Everyone was somehow grading his performance or comparing it to Cody, as if Cody was a successful EVP of something. Oh yeah, Cody was one of those AEW EVPs who helped bring us amazing things like the Nightmare Collective, keeping himself out of the AEW Title picture, and having AEW pay for a fireworks celebration to announce an expected child (which I’m very happy for him and Brandi becoming parents, by the way). Instead of seeing his AEW through, he left to join a WWE that was still being led by Vince McMahon.

Oh, and speaking of Cody… WHO has been booking Cody since mid 2022? Oh that’s right, Triple H… And at a time when Vince McMahon stormed the castle and began micro-managing the Creative Team once again during early 2023 through Wrestlemania 39, who booked the Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar feud to be successful again? Oh, that’s Triple H. Who booked Cody to just win the 2024 Royal Rumble? Why that was Triple H again… I’m giving what happened last night on WWE Smackdown some time to simmer between Rock, Cody, and Roman because Triple H has proven that he’s a good storyteller. Besides, Cody already proved that he could beat Roman last year, but by not having him face Roman and overcoming him, THERE IS MORE STORY TO TELL.

WWE’s current television deals were set to expire during September 2024. Hence why newer television deals have been announced, with $1.4 billion over 5 years with USA Network for WWE Smackdown and a massive $5 billion over 10 years deal (or $2.5 billion over 5 years) with streaming service Netflix for RAW and future PLEs. Usually with those deals, it’s the 1-2 years before they signed on what matters. If you look at 2022-2023, the following is true:

(1) Merchandise increased and has continued to increase for the first time in years.
(2) Attendance is up for all WWE shows.
(3) Viewership on WWE Smackdown stayed consistently above 2 million, got above 2.5 million or higher during certain Bloodline storylines.
(4) RAW has its moments where viewership pops, but at the very least, it hasn’t declined relative to Cable/Satellite subscriptions significantly decline (may have lost 10 million subs this past year).
(5) Social media and YouTube outreach significantly increased

The FACT is that Triple H has been a creative success for the WWE and with that, they’ve opened up new doors for their content in the future. This Netflix deal has a seriously ability to be MASSIVE for the WWE.

And THAT is why some (but not all) All Elite Wrestling (AEW) want Triple H to fail.

That’s right, you want Triple H to fail because you want WWE to fail in order to somehow make AEW become the #1 wrestling promotion. It’s like a politician rooting for the economy to fail so that the administration overseeing it will be in political trouble with voters. Yet, you don’t realize that if WWE fails, it doesn’t help the wrestling business just like rooting for the economy to fail hurts everyone. Just as I’ve argued REPEATEDLY that I personally don’t want AEW to fail because AEW provides another place for wrestlers to earn a salary and by AEW’s existence, that creates some competitive threat to challenge the WWE to be better.

If only I wrote a column about that last year… Oh yeah: NOBODY Wants AEW to Fail – The Reality Check Required Reading for AEW Fans. Which, by the way, that was written to smack down the allegations by AEW fans (some, not all) who claimed that WWE fans and NoDQ.com was actively rooting for “AEW to fail”.

Think about how STUPID that sounds, particularly when accusing NoDQ.com of wanting AEW to fail… Do you think that Aaron Rift wants to scare away AEW wrestling fans from patronizing his website? That’s the dumbest thing ever… NoDQ is his job and that’s how he provides for his family. Anytime I hear Aaron speak on AEW, he’s very positive… It’s like the Bill Hicks comedy routine about the 1980s trials accusing rock stars of placing subliminal messages in their songs for their fans to kill themselves. Why would a rock star want to kill its audience of fans who pay top dollar for their music and to see them live? So why would Aaron want to purposely portray his website as “anti-AEW” to purposely scare AEW fans? Idiotic thinking.

Does Aaron/NoDQ host a few people in the OPINIONS section that speak their mind on AEW, like myself? Sure… But he also has invited people who right POSITIVELY about AEW, and that’s a FACT! Aaron actually encourages FREE SPEECH and those who only watch AEW or WWE hate it when another promotion is covered or their precious promotion is criticized. For the record, too, I rip the crap out of WWE and have for years. Good lord, speaking of Triple H, have you read one of my many columns that were critical of his 2010s Creative/Talent decisions? And hell, I was ripping his decision for the Fatal 4 Way at Royal Rumble 2024 and many of the WWE marks here were attacking me as “anti-WWE”.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it many, many times… I’m an equal opportunity hater.

And remember WHEN I wrote that December 14th column about not wanting AEW to fail… We were on the heels of CM Punk joining the WWE and having early success, while Tony Khan was in various Social Media fights. That’s in addition to many attendance issues at AEW shows. THINK ABOUT THAT… You AEW marks were claiming that people were rooting for AEW to fail, and I wrote that column to push against it with clear facts.

The CRAZY SOLUTION you’ve come up with to “SAVE” AEW is to have Triple H cancelled.

HHH is a son-in-law, EVP, and a former Board Member. He had to know that a female was having bizarre orgies with Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and Vince’s therapist friend… Maybe HHH was filming it? Why not allege that conspiracy?

NO – As I said in my recent column, why the hell would Vince McMahon share locker room talk with his son-in-law? Though Vince’s own personal morals are messed up, he does NOT want Triple H acting out his sexual fantasies with other women while being married to Stephanie. Dumbest argument ever that Triple H knew about this stuff and just ignored it.

Triple H knew, as the Wall Street Journal reported, when this victim’s friend filed a complaint on her behalf during April 2022 to the WWE Board of Directors. That is well documented and that is when HHH knew and HHH was part of the internal investigation into that matter (Stephanie recused herself instead). As a result of that along with public pressure from news stories breaking, the Board and Vince McMahon mutually agreed to have Vince McMahon resign as Board Chairman and President/CEO of the WWE.

And again, I want to stress here… Vince McMahon was creating and signing his own NDAs without the WWE’s knowledge. The ONLY people who may know what Vince McMahon was doing was the Chief Financial Officers of the WWE who saw the General Ledger tickets that Vince McMahon likely signed to pull funds. Maybe the HR department to help disburse settlement money?

And THAT is why the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating the WWE last year and were quite interested in the Endeavor acquisition of them. Remember, Vince McMahon actually paid the WWE back for those settlements, but that’s not how you do it. That is potential financial fraud committed by WWE Corporation for not properly disclosing that and is the genesis of a few class-action lawsuits floating around there about the WWE. Furthermore, the Federal Government is looking into the WWE again and I GUARANTEE they’ll have tax evasion and financial fraud allegations generated as a result of this. That’s $20 million that Vince McMahon pulled out of the WWE to keep people quiet.

If those NDAs were created personally by Vince McMahon himself and performed without WWE Corporation having those documented, then they were illegally performed. THAT is part of the victim’s lawsuit against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE.

Instead of focusing on the FACTS, some AEW fans want this controversy spread onto WWE officials who are helping WWE succeed right now. Their #1 target is Triple H and that’s sad.

What they don’t get is that competition breeds quality… If Triple H is doing a great job for the WWE, then that SHOULD push Tony Khan to do a better job in AEW. But if Triple H does a poor job in WWE, you automatically assume that AEW will reap the benefit. WRONG… Did you miss 2019-2021 when the WWE still had issues and actually had talents jumping to AEW? For every Jon Moxley or Chris Jericho who have had valid success in AEW, I’ll show you Miro, Matt & Jeff Hardy, Andrade (who returned to the WWE, by the way), among many other free agents. Guys like Christian, Adam Copeland (Edge), and Daniel Bryan are great talents to have, but each are older haven’t moved the needle. And I’d argue that Jon Moxley has regressed with his idea that blooding often draws.

That’s the dirty secret of the Monday Night Wars… WWE and WCW began on equal footing during 1995 because the WWE declined to them. From 1993 through 1995, WCW didn’t really grow that much but at least became stable and profitable under Eric Bischoff‘s tenure. Then in 1996, Bischoff created separation from the WWE and grew significantly above them because he SIGNED NEW TALENT and had GREAT CREATIVE IDEAS. New World Order (NWO) idea, need I say more? And the Cruiserweight Division with exciting new talents like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio, Ultimo Dragon, Juventud, Psychosis, and many others… Bischoff raided ECW and parts of Mexico/Japan to stock WCW with exciting talents.

Oh, and why did WCW begin to decline? BAD CREATIVE and refusing to push NEWER TALENT above OLDER TALENT.

And why did WWE began beating WCW during 1998? Because they were pushing NEW TALENT and had GREAT CREATIVE IDEAS.

Why is Triple H succeeding right now in the WWE? Because he’s pushing NEWER TALENT and has GREAT CREATIVE IDEAS. That followed 2001-2022 having BAD CREATIVE IDEAS and often refusing to push newer talent, despite OVW/FCW/NXT constantly restocking the WWE with newer talent. Again, I blame an inexperienced Triple H for the 2010s portion of that.

Why is Tony Khan failing right now? Because he LACKS NEWER TALENT and has BAD CREATIVE IDEAS.

Sorry about the capital letters, but I need to make a point by keeping things as simple as possible.

Instead of wishing that Triple H knew everything about Vince McMahon’s sexual fetishes and wishing for him to be cancelled from the WWE, which would hurt the WWE… Why not look in the mirror as AEW fans? Why aren’t you holding AEW more accountable for its actions and decisions?

Let’s review what All Elite Wrestling and Tony Khan have done for the past few years, shall we? First, let’s dive into a recent signing. Will Ospreay. I understand that the diehard New Japan fans love the guy, but did you know that NOBODY watched New Japan’s show on AXS when it aired? Even when replays 5, 6, even 7 star matches were played, NOBODY watched it. Everyone’s favorite wrestling journalist loves New Japan and that creates the impression that they are actually popular in North America. Well, I’m here to tell you that they are not. When Ospreay has appeared on AEW television, he didn’t pop ratings or attendance figures. And if AEW thinks that signing Okada can boom their business, then they have another thing coming. Most mainstream wrestling fans have NO IDEA who these wrestlers are from New Japan and their lack of charisma, personality, and mic skills are just giving them another athletic guy when AEW has plenty of those guys.

Could someone tell me who the future is for AEW? Maybe it is Swerve Strickland, but Tony’s creative can be weird with him too and I think he’s getting over based on his own merits. Haven’t we been wondering why Wardlow has been under-utilized for the past 2 years since his “big win” over MJF? Unless AEW develops a Cruiserweight or Lightweight division, I just cannot see their love of pushing smaller guys like Hook or Sammy Guevara unless they put lifts in their shoes and force them to eat sandwiches. Sorry, but that match between Hook and Samoa Joe was a joke. How is your much heavier and experienced AEW Champion selling for someone who is almost twice as small? It’s like the argument above, you bring the guy on top down to you…

Overall, the AEW shows just aren’t interesting… Viewership and attendance are down for a reason. Nobody, outside of the diehard AEW audience (some of which attack me as “anti-AEW” endlessly), wants to watch Tony Khan’s failed leadership on display. And nobody can tell me what the EVPs (Bucks, Omega) have done lately to assist.

Rather than rooting for Triple H to be cancelled, why not desire for Tony Khan to be held accountable for stupid creative and talent decisions? When another wrestling promotion thrives, that should piss off its competition to want to thrive too. Instead, they were legitimately worried for a few months that WWE was going to take their Warner Bros. Discovery deal away. No, a LACK OF QUALITY will cause that deal to be taken away OR be renegotiated at a less than stellar rate. If you’re expecting a 5 year, $1 billion deal for AEW shows that draw less than 850,000 per show (Rampage and Collision are REALLY struggling right now), then I have a bridge to sell you.

Go ahead and cry your alligator tears about how the dastardly Mr. Tito is “anti-AEW” or “pro-WWE”, and then attack Aaron’s fine NoDQ website for being the same. Cry about it in the comments section… BUT, I’ve got your quotes from my last column about your desires to CANCEL Triple H and I can find more of this nonsense on Social Media and other forums.

FACTS:

(1) Triple H has zero corporate incidents on his record.
(2) ZERO proof that Triple H participated in a cover-up of any Vince McMahon issue. In fact, he was part of the April to June 2022 Board of Directors investigation of the victim.
(3) Vince McMahon was creating and then signing NDAs himself without WWE Corporation’s knowledge.
(4) Triple H, as a Board member, publicly recommended against Vince’s early 2023 return (as co-signed by Stephanie and Nick Khan).
(5) Triple H has been a great leader since mid-2022 and most of WWE’s numbers have increased under his returned tenure.

BUT here is the utter crap that you alleged in my LAST COLUMN, as I’m posting these in case you decide to delete your own quotes:

• RikishiReigns: Mr Tito you are wrong here. HHH definitely helped cover up the crimes. He should be fired and erased from the WWE like Vince is

• mark: Lol, Anybody with a brain knows up is up and down is down

• TKW: He did none of this. Levesque is the public face of this company. There is no excuse for him to be so under-prepared. Furthermore, his likely lie that he didn’t read the complaint? His father-in-law (founder of WWE) has these allegations thrown at him and he can’t take an hour to read the complaint? Why was Brock Lesnar pulled from the RR? I thought he didn’t read the complaint… (TITO: Because LEGAL probably read the complaint and advised Endeavor/TKO who advised HHH)

• TKW: And like I said, I’m not coming from a place of what he “knew”. I’m coming from a place of ignoring the co-founder of the company in a lawsuit all but confirming a toxic culture in WWE to some level. Trafficking? That’s huge. And for Paul to just kind of ignore it is a bit shady, and also ridiculous.

• mark: I mean Triple H has been by Vinces side since the beginning. H was always Vinces boy long before Steph. Anybody acting like Triple H didnt know anything are being silly&nonsensical. The allegations towardsVince and people in WWE are seemingly endless.This scandal is the tip of the iceberg. Triple H knew&covered it up&turned the blind eye bc thats just the way things are and its totally normal. WHen you are in a culture like WWE,all of this is totally normal. All of these horrible things are just normal to the people on the inside&its all covered up thru the years when it ever leaked to protect the business.

• TKO: And while we can’t prove it, and I hope the lawsuit goes to a discovery phase for this reason alone, I’m pretty sure that (logically), Paul and Steph and Shane (and many more) knew to some level of what was happening. And they just let it continue…

• Jason: When Triple H dodges questions, they defend him, make excuses. When Tony Khan does it, nope! unacceptable. E fans are hypocrites and double standards

• Steamy Ray Vaughn: I have a very hard time believing that Triple H, who worked very closely with Vince and who is married to Vince’s daughter didn’t know that anything was going on. Especially given that there were others alleged to have participated in the actions. I can believe that he wasn’t aware of the entire depth of the depravity and the inhumane treatment Vince caused this woman, but completely unaware that anything at all was going on? I don’t buy that. If that is true, per his duties on the board of directors, he had an obligation to put the best interests of the corporation over any personal interests he may have had.

Getting to Steamy’s last point, if you read my LAST COLUMN, I fully acknowledged that it’s very likely that Shane, Stephanie, and Triple H all knew Vince McMahon had affairs. If you’ve read or watched any interviews with Vince McMahon, he 100% acknowledges that he has cheated on his wife Linda McMahon REPEATEDLY. Nobody is disputing that… I believe that the genesis of Shane McMahon’s heat with his dad and not always wanting to be in the WWE is because Shane is very close to his mom, Linda. It probably hurts him to see his dad cheating… I’m sure Stephanie isn’t thrilled about her dad’s actions, either.

BUT they didn’t know the EXTENT of Vince’s behavior, which he was purposely keeping secret. Again, FACTS, they are hard to ignore:

(1) Vince McMahon created and signed his own NDAs/Settlements without the WWE Corporation’s knowledge.

(2) The affair with this victim ended during early 2022 when Linda McMahon found out.

PROOF from the victim’s own lawsuit… The affair ended when Linda found out, and then Vince did another one of his secretive NDA/Settlement things. WWE Board only found out because the victim’s friend filed a complaint to the WWE Board of Directors during April 2022 and that’s when everything began to become troublesome for Vince McMahon.

YES, everyone KNOWS that Vince McMahon cheated… But to the extent that he cheated, involving his friends to traffic victims, sharing things via mobile phones, and the NDA/Settlements he was hiding from everybody… Yeah, Vince McMahon kept things from everybody.

I keep making this point… Why would Vince McMahon BRAG to Triple H, his son-in-law, about the awful things he was doing to women? It would be like at Thanksgiving dinner “hey Triple H, me and Johnny Ace were banging, defecating, and peeing on this chick and I have been doing weird stuff like this for years”. NO, because Vince doesn’t want Triple H to cheat on his daughter!!!!!!!

For all of you AEW fans and marks (some, not all) who want Triple H cancelled, just get ready for a letdown. Endeavor is quite impressed by the guy and knows that he’s NOT and I repeat NOT Vince McMahon professionally or personally. He’s a good guy who has been unfortunately put between a rock and a hard place because Vince McMahon is HHH’s father-in-law. Yet, at the Royal Rumble 2024 press conference, Triple H acted professionally as a top executive while also protecting the people he loves (Linda and Stephanie). PLUS, remember that Vince McMahon is his 3 daughter’s grandfather and I’m sure they are equally aware of what is happening at their ages of 12-16.

As someone who has been critical of HHH’s performance in the WWE during the 2010s, along with his political antics as a wrestler from late 1990s through 2013, I’m very confident in saying that Triple H has become a great guy. Look at all of the photos of him embracing his NXT call-ups like a father and NONE of his call-ups have been extremely bitter about him, even after Vince McMahon later terminated them with cuts. Many of those NXT wrestlers have come back to the WWE and HHH is trying to get them over. Trust me, Karrion Kross isn’t going to happen but Triple H is trying because he CARES about the talent.

Triple H is a devoted husband, loved father of his kids, and has been a major positive backstage for many wrestlers who were sick of the negatives that Vince McMahon brought.

Why are certain AEW fans JEALOUS of Triple H insomuch that they want him cancelled? What good will that do? You are ignorant to think that a declining WWE will help the wrestling business… What AEW needs to do is get their crap together, assemble a strong creative team, utilize Jim Ross to help with Talent Relations, and just slowly earn the trust of wrestling fans after the horrific events of 2022-2023, particularly involving CM Punk. Tony Khan needs to STAY OFF social media and hire a public relations manager to speak on his behalf.

The ironic thing is that AEW fans are blind to why AEW is struggling right now… Tony Khan has become Vince McMahon, and we’re talking the Vince McMahon of the 2010s and early 2020s. No, he hasn’t been sexually abusing office workers, THANK GOD FOR THAT, but he’s micro-managing everything in the company instead of delegating authority. Vince McMahon is 100% guilty of doing the exact same thing, which is why Triple H thrives by doing the opposite. HHH delegates authority and empowers others to succeed, and thus WWE’s success is a collective one with everyone happy right now. How is it that Andrade HATED his last WWE tenure, goes to AEW, and then counts down the time left on his contract to return to a WWE led by Triple H? Trust me, there are others on that AEW roster about to jump back to the WWE too.

Look in the mirror, AEW fans, instead of begging for Cancel Culture to destroy Triple H. Triple H making WWE successful is GREAT for the wrestling business and we should keep encouraging him to continue whatever he is doing to make everyone inside WWE happy right now.

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