MR. TITO: Are the Wheels Falling Off of Triple H’s WWE Management Reign?
With current Triple H regime in the WWE, I’ve been giving them the benefit of the doubt based on how well the storylines and talent opportunities have been since June 2022. The Bloodline got better, Sami Zayn’s career was revitalized, Cody Rhodes’s arrival and push to relevancy has been handled moderately well, Seth Rollins is thriving, Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair are blossoming into complete studs, NXT has reversed course, and overall, wrestlers are happy with the new WWE culture.
But this story about Road Dogg being elevated to “co-writer” to WWE Smackdown does NOT sit well with me. Sorry, but did everyone forget 2017? Sure, we could argue that it was Vince McMahon overwriting Road Dogg and micro-managing the Smackdown roster for that year… HOWEVER, did you not see Triple H’s NXT writer doing a fantastic job from the Draft to the end of 2016? Smackdown’s roster during the last quarter of 2016 was efficient, as Cena vs. AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose was a great main event scene, Women’s Division worked well together with the rise of Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella feuding well with Carmella, and then you had the Mix and Dolph Ziggler catching fire with their characters and their feud.
Then, Road Dogg joined as Lead Writer during early 2017 for Smackdown and suddenly, the creative ideas were complete trash. Remember that Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton feud? Remember the Jinder Mahal push from RAW jobber to Smackdown main event?
Again, you could argue that “Vince McMahon overwrote Road Dogg”, but why didn’t Vince overwrite Triple H’s NXT lead writer during late 2016? Why did Triple H’s guy have balls to stand firm on his storylines, while Road Dogg was either a terrible writer or let Vince McMahon walk all over him? Then, in a sign of MAJOR immaturity, Road Dogg hopped on Twitter (now “X”) to argue incessantly with wrestling fans about his storylines.
The Easy Button is to just blame Vince McMahon, but a good creative mind is going to present Vince his ideas well and convince Vince that his way is better. Road Dogg clearly wasn’t that great creative mind during 2017, yet he’s somehow making his way back to WWE Smackdown as a co-lead writer. That’s such a shame because based on his 2017 performance and his immaturity shown attacking fans, along with actually listening to this doofus conduct interviews for years, Road Dogg is clearly not qualified for this role.
Maybe Road Dogg will just be a vessel for Triple H’s ideas as opposed to Vince McMahon’s ideas from 2017, if that were the case? But even if he’s just doing what Triple H wants, I’m starting to worry about Triple H lately.
Again, I want to stress that I do have a legitimate level of TRUST when it comes to the Triple H administration, but admittedly, there are some recent events and patterns that are creating concerns with me. And I want to list these because maybe there might be yes-men collecting in WWE who will go along with whatever Triple H wants instead of providing constructive criticism. My worries about Road Dogg is that he’s a STOOGE who doesn’t think for himself and just waits for whatever someone tells him to do. Furthermore, he doesn’t have creative ideas himself beyond coming up with the catchphrase “Oh, you didn’t know?”.
Let me list my concerns with the current Triple H WWE administration…
Road Dogg as Smackdown Co-Writer
See my concerns above. Again, look at the viewership from late 2016 and then see how it declined with Road Dogg in charge during 2017. Orton/Wyatt was a complete mess and pushing Jinder as an extensive World Champion was a joke. Then, fighting with online fans who were trying to hold his BAD creative accountable.
Wrestlemania 41 Card
Sorry, but I’m just lacking the excitement for Jey Uso and Charlotte Flair being #1 contenders, with Jey not ready for the main event (he’s Daniel Bryan 2.0 with marks screaming loudly for him but lacks long-term benefit after title is won) and Charlotte being run into the ground already with her 14 Women’s Title reigns. Furthermore, Seth vs. Punk vs. Roman LACKS excitement and I strongly disagree that an older John Cena should not just wrestle Cody Rhodes, but even be in the discussion to defeat Rhodes for the WWE Title. If Wrestlemania 41 ends with Jey Uso, Charlotte, and Cena walking away as champions, it’s going to be a LONG SUMMER of declines.
Too Much Quantity
Sorry, but major mistake of increasing WWE Smackdown to 3 hours on the USA Network while RAW remains a 3 hour show on Netflix. Then, you have 2 hours of NXT on the CW Network. On top of that, NBC airs Saturday Night’s Main Event once per quarter with 2 hour specials (we had 2 of them this quarter, for whatever reason). As if exposing your developmental system wasn’t enough for NXT, WWE is going to present WWE Evolve on Tubi soon. In addition, once a month features a 2-4 hour Premium Live Event on Peacock.
Who has time to watch all of these shows? You’re seriously demanding just 8 hours to watch RAW, Smackdown, and NXT per week which inhales 3 Prime Time nights for anyone.
LESS IS MORE… Reason why the NFL does better than NHL, NBA, and MLB is because they don’t flood television with non-stop content.
I wouldn’t get too excited about the TNA deal… That’s another show that WWE will be spreading their talent thin towards and again, over-exposing the WWE.
Too Much Sponsorship
I get it… TKO and Endeavor want to maximize their dollars… But they are doing to at the expense of whoring themselves for the almighty dollar. Sponsors all over the ring, this segment is sponsored by this, this segment is sponsored by this, this match is sponsored by this, this match is sponsored by that… The event is brought to you by… And then the whole allure of Netflix is that it’s a streaming network WITHOUT COMMERCIALS. So what does Netflix feed the majority of its RAW viewers? Freakin’ commercials.
As I said before, nobody will complain about the sponsors unless the quality begins to dip… Well, we’re getting there.
We need a definitive answer on the Rock, please.
The “will he/she, won’t he/she” only works for television shows and soap operas, not pro wrestling. Teasing that the Rock is going to be involved, moving forward, and then pulling him back has been poorly mishandled. What was in the note that he handed Cody? Why was the Rock at Badd Blood? What was the purpose of the Rock at the first Netflix RAW? Why was he pushed as the “final boss”, but suddenly he’s acting like a babyface during 2025? And why is he NOT involved with Wrestlemania 41?
It felt like WWE promised more Rock involvement but following the awesomeness of Wrestlemania 40, they’ve pulled back. I understand the uncontrollable variable of him being a Hollywood star, but don’t float long-term storylines like him handing a note to Cody Rhodes on the RAW following Wrestlemania 40 without something set-in-stone.
WWE is overpricing everything and will pay for it later.
Honestly, Wrestlemania 41 tickets in Las Vegas are unexpectedly sluggish. For one, the cheapest ticket is $300 which is around the amount that I paid for Club Level seating at the Royal Rumble in Indianapolis. Higher prices will serve you well when the product is GOOD, but if your Wrestlemania 41 build-up is weaker and pushing Charlotte, Cena, and Jey rather than Roman, Rock, and Cody is your business plan, many fans will start turning away from investing in the WWE. Especially as inflation rears its ugly head with Chicken-based products becoming more expensive, which will drive up prices of substitute goods too along with the ridiculous idea of tariffs. WWE price gouging us now will have consequences later ESPECIALLY if creative gets worse (looking at you, Road Dogg).
Why is Jordynne Grace in NXT?
How can you hype someone as a “big free agent signing” and then feature them in the developmental show? Doesn’t make sense… While NXT does have a great women’s division and my comments should NOT take offense towards them, it’s just the optics that look weak. I could understand some of the females who have been working internationally joining NXT, as they are lesser known, but Jordynne was in last year’s Rumble and was featured prominently as TNA’s Women’s Champion.
Theme Music STILL SUCKS
This is honestly the easiest fix that Triple H has failed to address for the past 2.5 years with him in charge. Why is there ZERO effort to find a reasonable composer to create original WWE tracks that can be catered to fit wrestlers better than the TERRIBLE CRAP made previously and can be sold easily on iTunes to make the company more revenue? I don’t get it… The music sounds like it came out of a toilet and yet nobody cares. It’s likely that WWE Corporation and TKO are literally spending as little as they can on music as a cost cutting measure rather than helping to enhance the entrances of their wrestlers.
Wrestler Names STILL SUCK!
Triple H’s NXT system has always provided terrible names to wrestlers. Karrion Kross has to be the wimpiest of names ever made, but that’s the tip of the iceberg. Good wrestler names help market the wrestlers along with theme music. When Brian Pillman Jr. was renamed to a girl’s name in “Lexis King”, I threw up.
Most of the Re-Signings have been BUSTS!
Aside from Chelsea Green, who has more intuition and aspirations than most human beings, Triple H’s re-signings of the 2020-2022 WWE releases have been mostly busts. Authors of Pain SUCKED and pairing them with another BUST in Karrion Kross has proved that further. How Kross survived the chopping block is a miracle… I’d be very cautious of re-signing the terribly tattooed Aleister Black as he didn’t make a difference in AEW, so why should his WWE return move the meter any? Ditto with Rusev, who flopped badly in AEW as Miro. As much as you want to criticize Vince McMahon, he RARELY gets burned when releasing wrestlers or not signing them to newer contracts. Even he isn’t stupid enough to let good money walk out the door, and there wasn’t much there with the 2020-2022 releases that he commanded.
Too Many Titles
We have 2 pairs of World Titles, 2 pairs of midcard titles, and 2 pairs of tag team titles… On the Women’s side of the ledger, you have the same situation but just 1 tag title. NXT has many titles as well… The other day, I heard someone suggest defending TNA Titles on WWE programming. Huh? That would be as stupid as Tony Khan having Ring of Honor titles defended on AEW programming. LESS IS MORE… Fewer titles increase the value in those titles.
Don’t get me started on those stupid Crown Jewel titles. Ugh.
2026 Royal Rumble was sold to the highest bidder, what is next?
Between the sponsors shoved on everything, price gouging at WWE events, and selling the Royal Rumble to Saudi Arabia, it shows what financial whores that TKO and Endeavor are and Triple H isn’t sticking up for the fans. At the end of the day, Triple H will nod and agree with what his TKO overlords want and will spend less money on things to improve the WWE’s product instead. TKO/Endeavor’s accountants will squeeze as much money out of fans, corporate sponsors, and countries/states who are willing to depart money and then keep costs low on the other side of the ledger. Sound business practices, yes, but pissing on loyal fans is beyond wrong. North American fans deserve the bonuses of the big WWE events and not a country who belongs to an oil cartel OPEC who has been price gouging for years. Seems like Triple H just nods his head to this shameless cash grab and that will reduce his spine for fighting for other WWE matters.
Aside from Bron Breakker (John Laurinaitis signing) and Jacob Fatu (Free Agent signing), where are the next big stars?
One of my biggest criticisms of Triple H was during the 2010s when his NXT developmental system was not supplying the WWE with the next main eventers. His top signings were Kevin Owens and Finn Balor. While Owens has had a good career, Finn Balor was the most overpushed wrestler ever and not fit to be the World Title with his soaking wet 190 pound short frame.
So far since Triple H returned to Talent Relations during June 2022, who has he signed on the MALE side that has been of interest? While NXT is a fun show to watch, I’m just not seeing “NEXT MAIN EVENTER” with anybody flowing through there. Bron Breakker was NOT his signing and Jacob Fatu was a free agent who went directly to the WWE roster (say, that can happen? What about Jordynne Grace???). Some of their talents feel like upper-midcarders at best, but lack exceptionalism to make it as a top-drawing Main Eventer.
*****
So there you go… See, AEW marks, myself and NoDQ can openly criticize WWE and hold them accountable as needed.
I have real worries that WWE may have PEAKED at Wrestlemania 41 and have been riding off the fumes since. In my opinion, Wrestlemania 41’s event needs to be rebooked and feature CM Punk and Roman Reigns in the Main Event against Cody rather than placing them in a meaningless Triple Threat with Seth Rollins. John Cena should NOT be wrestling for the WWE Title, let alone defeating Cody Rhodes for the title.
Again, if Wrestlemania 41 results in Jey Uso, Charlotte Flair, and John Cena as champions, WWE has major credibility problems on their hands and it’s as if Triple H has become reactionary (Jey Uso) and reliant on older hands (Charlotte and Cena) as Vince McMahon. Might as well hire Vince McMahon if you’re going back to that asinine style of booking.
And screw Road Dogg as co-writer for Smackdown. Your 2017 writing SUCKED SO BAD that you should NEVER be allowed to handle the creative of another professional wrestler ever again. There are more capable human beings than you to lead Smackdown’s creative and I cannot wait to hear stories of how many internal WWE employees have been demoralized when having to answer to Road Dogg rather than being considered for the co-writer role themselves.
I need to remind myself on how bad the 2010s were with Triple H in charge of Live Events, Talent Relations, and Creative as an EVP… Maybe, just maybe, he was handed a great Bloodline storyline that nobody could get wrong and all he had to do was just be a little nicer to talent, versus marginalizing them like Vince did, to be successful. But now with Wrestlemania 41’s creative looking a bit shoddy, maybe Triple H got lucky with what he inherited and the same bad managerial skills of the 2010s are still here?
I’ll give him until Wrestlemania 41 and its aftermath to truly assess his situation. Something is just a bit off since Wrestlemania 40, the possible peak of the WWE and maybe Triple H’s tenure already.
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