Planet Kayfabe: Time To Play The Game

Planet Kayfabe: It’s Time To Play The Game
By: KC Paul Matthews
May 16, 2025

Hello everyone, and thank you again for reading Planet Kayfabe. It’s May, a month I like to call WWE’s “Spring Black Hole” — that awkward stretch between WrestleMania and the push for SummerSlam in July. There’s also the “Fall Black Hole” in October and November, when WWE typically lies down for the National Football League on Monday nights.

If you’re a new fan and you’re feeling that post-WrestleMania hangover, don’t worry. It’s normal. The TV shows might drag a bit, but at least WWE’s premium events still tend to deliver. This past Saturday’s Backlash, for instance, was fine. The matches were fine, albeit predictable. The main event, which I found to be a waste of time, might have felt like a five-star classic if you were in that hot St. Louis crowd. As a TV viewer, though, all I saw was the true 2000s GOAT, Randy Orton, carrying the remains of John Cena to a presentable PLE-style main event.

Things are a bit dull right now, and with that in mind, I want to talk about “Triple H” — or just Paul Levesque, as I’ll refer to him here since I’m talking about his role as a booker and not an on-screen character. I see a lot of people down on Levesque these days. Some are just trolls, constantly going the cheap heat route of comparing him to Vince McMahon. I had to laugh at the posts I’ve seen claiming Vince booked Braun Strowman better than Levesque, as if they’ve forgotten Braun was 10 years younger and still had working legs back then. Let’s be real — if someone had suggested pushing Strowman a week before his release, those same people would have mocked the idea.

Before WrestleMania, I wrote about how it felt like the momentum of this current WWE “boom” period had slowed down. By this point, I think we can all agree on that, even if you still find the show entertaining. Levesque has done a solid job in his role. Is he better than Vince in his prime? No, but he’s certainly doing better than Vince was in the 2010s — not just with his booking, but in fostering a better working environment backstage. WWE will never be stress-free, but it’s clear that much of the unnecessary anger and bitterness from the talent during Vince’s later years was largely his own doing.

Last fall, I posted on my X account that Levesque has done well, but he needs to take more chances. What do I mean by that? I find his booking style too conservative. He seems more focused on preserving heat than generating it. I’m not saying he should start hot-shotting storylines or throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, but we’re seeing a lot of the same old, same old. For a recent example, just look at John Cena’s heel turn two months ago. How many “you people did this to me” promos have we seen lately? At least four — Cena twice, Becky in the ring, Miro in a pre-tape. Even Cena’s turn itself feels like a cheap attempt to capture the lightning in a bottle that was the “Final Boss” Rock in 2024. But unlike Rock, who cut edgy, unscripted promos on social media to sell his turn, Cena is just doing what he’s always done — going along with the program without adding anything extra to get it over.

So what can Levesque do? He needs to take control. I’m not a fan of this current era where bookers and wrestlers just throw their hands up and let the fans dictate everything, depending on the week and at the mercy of any given town’s whims and desires. If Seth Rollins is supposed to be a heel, then he needs to act like one. The workers need to go back to working the audience, not the other way around. I at least give Cody Rhodes some credit for trying to be a white meat, all-American baby face in an era where that’s supposed to kill your career. You don’t see him out there relying on typical bad-boy tropes. When he told Rock to go fuck himself, the entire fanbase felt it. Do you want to get this new stable with Seth, Bron, and Heyman over as true heels? Get Seth’s real-life wife, Becky Lynch, involved. She’ll get them booed. While you’re at it, change Seth’s music. Also, since Bron’s spear is one of the most over moves in the company, maybe it’s time to give it a rest and just have him stomp a guy down when the crowd is chanting “one more time.” Heels shouldn’t be hyping up the crowd for pops — that’s not their job. Yes, I know any reaction is better than no reaction, but they need to get back to getting the desired reaction and not just being happy with anything. You don’t need to force it, but you should at least try. Instead, its like everyone is working for a pop.

WWE also needs to focus on new stories. The time is now to get started on the next “Bloodline” that could end up being a hot piece of business a year or two from now. Right now, there aren’t any truly hot ones. Rhea Ripley is popular, but doing the same thing every week. LA Knight still has a following, but without a title, what’s his direction? There is certainly nothing wrong with just being a popular midcard act, though; he should be more involved. The women’s division is cold. The tag division is cold. Yes, there are some bright spots, like the New Day are embracing their heel side, but they’re the exception. If Dominik Mysterio is turning babyface, maybe it’s time for a reunion angle with Rhea, only to have her turn on him down the line, this time. Its a little too soon to rest on her being a career fan-favorite. She works great as a heel given her size, facials, and work style, even if it eventually gets  cheered again. That’s fine. She seems to be significantly less restricted as a heel, though. Don’t turn her now, but maybe later this year.

This isn’t a terrible concern of mine, but they must avoid the traps Vince fell into — booking for himself and resenting the fans if they don’t respond as he expects. He needs to stay flexible and not just rely on nostalgic acts. The company got to this point with youth, not just with Cena or even Rock. It was Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes, the Usos, Rhea Ripley, and a strong supporting midcard that brought them here. It is a different era, though. We focus on Paul Levesque because we know him, but he’s not the new Vince McMahon. Yeah, he’s head of creative, but he doesn’t own the company. He still has to perform well and answer to someone one. Vince could do whatever he wanted once WWE was monopolized. Vince created his own world and damn you if you didn’t like it. It was his show and they were performing for him. Now, they are back to performing for you. I still cringe that at clip of Kevin Owens looking completely dejected when he went to Vince backstage at Wrestlemania 33 to see if he liked his match with Chris Jericho, a match that got a very good response from the fans, and Vince just said “no” and nothing else while KO had to awardly stand there after having his Wrestlemania day crushed despite a positive response from the actual paying customers of the show. Its not that era anymore. Vince didn’t care what you wanted and he didn’t have to. Even if Levesque doesn’t care what you want, it is in the best interest of his job to care what you want and at least have some awareness of the company’s audience, unlike McMahon, who was completely out of touch for over a decade at the end of his run.

Even if Levesque takes on my bright ideas, sometimes you just can’t fight nature. Things get hot and things get cold. Both directions are in the company’s control, but to what degree is often a combination of time, place, where society is at, luck, and it just being your turn on the roulette wheel of pop culture. If you grew up in the early 2000s, you likely remember a time when American Idol was the biggest show in America. It was so big that when the season was over, most people could tell you who won. Everyone was following it. In 2025, that show is still on today, but does anyone talk about it? Do you know who the current 3 judges are? Do you even remember what channel its on? The answer is probably ‘no’ to all those questions but do you think its because the singers are all terrible and the song choices are trash? No. Its because society moved on. Much like how Simon Cowell moved on at just the right now and then, shows like X Factor and America’s Got Talent, and even So You Think You Can Dance all eclipsed the ratings monster that was American Idol. Levesque saw it happen in WWE. After the Attitude Era, they eventually still had a lot of the same stars. Yeah, Austin was retiring. Rock was moving on to Hollywood, but a lot of the guys who were there in 2000 were still there in 2002. Many of you look back fondly at Smackdown in 2003 and 2004 and most news sites back then were all talking about how ratings had fallen since the Attitude Era. 2003-05 was a sneaky fun time in WWE but they never climbed back to those Attitude Era numbers. Then by the time UFC got hot, many of the fans felt they aged out of WWE and moved on to that. Society changed. It could happen again and it will be nobody’s fault.

Levesque doesn’t even have to go back to the Attitude Era to see how to navigate the waters once you’re not red hot and bulletproof. Just look to NXT in the 2010s. From 2015 to about 2018, NXT was incredible. The shows were 45 minutes long. You have good action. A nice atmosphere. It was shot and presented very differently from Raw. The commentary was much better than the Vince McMahon-directed commentary on the main roster. Things were so hot in NXT that fans would jokingly say someone was “called down” to the main roster. However, one day it stopped being good. Then it got really bad. I’m not longer a weekly NXT viewer, but from what I hear, the shows have been pretty good and they’re just now, after 2 solid years, starting to reclaim some of that magic they had 10 years ago. Even in AEW’s short life, they’ve already seen a period of high highs and low lows and right now they seem to be at the basic baseline of their viewership. You can learn from them too. Like, if things start to take a downturn, don’t rely on cheap gimmicks like promoting random surprises like Dixie Carter used to do just to have it be the promoter coming out and announcing an on-sale date for some show and don’t make your company look like a joke by exposing your backstage drama on TV that eventually ran off like 250,000 weekly veiwers. Frankly, don’t come off as desperate.  AEW isn’t currently the butt of every wrestling joke that they were for seemingly the pervious 3 years, but it takes a long time to repair a bad reputation.  Look at TNA and even they never reached the heights they experienced in the late 2000s ever again and likely never will.

Don’t ‘Fingerpoke’ and don’t ‘Brawl Out’.   Even if things seemingly decline or slow down with fan engagement, just look to where the energy is. Jey Uso is in a good spot. Gunther has energy. Drew McIntyre,  is doing well but still seemingly incredibly underutilized. He has energy. Cody Rhodes is still popular, but let him rest. Let him freshen up the presentation a bit. Keep going with Jacob Fatu and don’t use him to once again get people to care about Solo Sikoa. LA Knight is still popular but give him something new to do. He needs to have more promo segments. Maybe he needs a tag partner to bounce off like Randy Orton did with Matt Riddle or like Goldust and Booker T way back when. I don’t know. Something. I could run down the names. CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker, Chad Gable, Dirty Dom, Rhea. The talent is there. They may have even stumbled into the next hot thing with Karrion Kross but they need to capitalize on his viral promo NOW. Not at SummerSlam. It’s a fast-paced world and people move on quickly.

Thank you again for reading, everyone. As I said, Levesque needs to take more calculated risks. The ship isn’t sinking, but when you hit rough waters, you need to make adjustments. WWE has a strong crew, and if they want to capture that magic again, it’s time to stop coasting and start steering again. Again, you work the audience. (And yes, relying on nostalgia and a lame duck champion who is retiring this year = “coasting by”)

Have a great weekend, everyone.
Follow me on X at @PlanetKayfabe