TRIPLE H named as Head of Creative for WWE

If Friday night’s announcement of Vince McMahon’s retirement wasn’t music enough to my ears, today’s announcement was. One thing I referred to in my blog about Vince over the weekend, was who would now be in charge of WWE’s creative? Yes it was definitely for the best that Dinosaur Vince was gone, but who would follow him in being in charge of what we saw on our TV screens? Well, for me we have the best possible answer.

I could only dream that Paul Levesque would be named as head of creative for WWE. My worry was not only his previous health troubles, but also a possible conflict of interests when (to compare it to a more regular place of work), the person in charge of HR was now also their supervisor/manager. But to be fair, HHH did essentially both of those roles in the Black and Gold era for NXT. And that went pretty well for the long part, until Tony Khan and his millions came along, made a cooler and bigger version of NXT with a bigger platform and simply the allowances to be able to grow and grow. Tony Khan had to answer to… Tony Khan, so his vision could go as far as he wanted. Regardless of what you wanted to say, and as much as me and everyone else LOVED Black and Gold NXT, Vince McMahon was still in charge. That was why despite successes in NXT for the likes of Karrion Kross and Aleister Black and Bobby Roode, they were never even close to as big stars when they made the jump to Raw and SmackDown, because Vince just didn’t see them as much I guess. I mean, Keith Lee went from DOUBLE champion in NXT, to fucking ‘BEARCAT’ on Raw in a stupid singlet…

NXT was this cool little brand that people liked for some reason, but it was never close to Raw and SmackDown and never would be. That was what Vince thought. That’s Triple H’s thing, let him deal with that, and then when someone gets hot down there, let me take them and do whatever I want with them, cause WHAT I SAY GOES! Adam Cole? NXT grand slam champion? And one of the top stars on the brand for his whole run? I want him as a MANAGER… Christ…

And then when AEW was going to be a thing, Vince’s idea was lets use this cool brand Triple H has created, and use that as the tool to beat AEW up with. Lets have NXT invade main roster and lets give them the big win over Raw and SmackDown at Survivor Series.

And then if NXT doesn’t do as well as AEW, then we’ll just blame Triple H for the whole thing and we will change EVEYTHING! And that’s exactly what happened. Hence the creation of NXT 2.0. And yes to be fair I do adhere to the argument that NXT 2.0 works better as a developmental brand than Black and Gold NXT did, because it sets people up for the main roster and VINCE’S vision better. With Vince running both, there would be less of the dramatic changes to people’s characters we have seen in the past, when people went from HHH’s NXT to Vince’s Raw or SmackDown. Well… FUCK THAT SHIT now! Vince’s is vision is no more, thank FUCK! But I don’t watch NXT 2.0, so I’ll leave that be in this blog. I trust that Shawn Michaels and his team will do a good job getting the future main roster stars prepared adequately.

So… now what? For years I wanted this, and now it’s happened what will Raw and SmackDown look like? Well first of all I should make the point that what I DON’T think would be a good idea is to directly replicate Black and Gold NXT under the banners of Raw and SmackDown. Now HHH is pitching to a far wider audience, a more diverse audience, on a ungodly bigger scale, with far more people (fans and performers) to please and use adequately. But I’m sure Triple H is well aware of this, and I’m sure that brining in someone with his philosophies and creative vision can only be positive. Helps that you’re a WWE Hall of Famer, a 14 time world champion, a widely respected and like figure backstage, oh… and your wife runs the company now…

As someone who watched NXT religiously from 2016-2021, here’s just SOME of the things you MAY see implemented and changed on Raw and SmackDown in the next few weeks and months… HOPEFULLY…

LONG TERM BOOKING

How many times have we seen guys and girls on Raw and SmackDown get a push, and then 3 weeks later Vince gets bored and they’re back down the card? With whatever storyline they had going on gradually faded out… Cedric Alexander, Apollo Crews, and maybe the best example was Aleister Black… Weeks of vignettes and promos, he makes his in-ring arrival, and then he’s gone and given his future endeavours. In NXT of old, we had storylines and rivalries that went on for months, and in once particular case YEARS (see image above). Stories that had a start, middle, end and then maybe another story that was built off the back of that. GREAT! Continuity is the key to pro-wrestling storytelling for me, stuff that makes sense and makes the TV product compelling to watch. It’s what makes you not want to tune in next week, but makes you HAVE to do so, because you can’t miss a beat of the story.

BEING YOURSELF

Karrion Kross went from the unbeatable 2x and reigning NXT Champion, to wearing a dumbass stupid costume and losing his Raw debut in minutes… LA Knight is (or was) running a bloody modelling agency… Pete Dunne turned into BUTCH… WHAT?! It makes you wonder what the point of their NXT runs are when they go to Raw and SmackDown and have EVERYTHING changed? Previously the idea of brining people to NXT was to give them a soft introduction to WWE, in terms of how the company works and to the part of the WWE audience that watches NXT as well. It surely can’t do anyone any good if you change everything about the character, especially with the performer having to get to grips to the differences between Raw and SmackDown, as well as a new role to play… Again the continuity point I raised before must be figured into NXT call ups going forward, as well as those who come in to WWE. Cody Rhodes coming in to WWE as the exact same act as he was in AEW must no longer be something that’s unique, if it ain’t broke and all that…

world WRESTLING entertainment

For someone who ran a wrestling company, I don’t think Vince McMahon likes the actual wrestling stuff too much. And I get it, he wants and very successfully did make his company more than a ‘rasslin promotion. But the in-ring stuff should still be the main focus, the bread and butter. The NXT TakeOver shows became renowned for being amazing and featuring fantastic matches start to finish, and given the talent that’s on the Raw and SmackDown rosters, WWE are more than able to have each PPV and TV show have great matches all over the place. I can’t tell you the amount of times in the past I’ve skipped through most matches on WWE TV shows in the past, because they barely lasted a few minutes or they were just so basic and un-inspiring they didn’t need to be paid attention too. The old NXT TV shows had at least one banger match each week, and like I said WWE have the talent in abundance, they’ve got to start having good matches more often than not. Let your wrestlers WRESTLE, no more of what we had on SmackDown some weeks back when every match went just a few minutes, have less matches but have them go longer and have the time they need to be great if needs be. A WRESTLING company’s priority should be the WRESTLING… surely…

Size DOESN’T matter

How many times down the years have we heard about Vince having a ‘type’ (steady…)…? People who you look at physically and just know if Vince will like them or not. Adam Cole was going to be made a manager, he immediately stuck a singlet on Keith Lee, we had rumours a couple years ago of the ‘big’ guys in WWE being sent to a special class at the PC to learn how to work (?)… All this is just horseshit. Your size as a pro wrestler, or your look, shouldn’t dictate if you succeed or not. There’s plenty of ways to skin a cat surely? In Triple H’s NXT he had Drew McIntyre drop the title to Andrade, Adam Cole lose the title to Keith Lee… further back he put the title on people like Neville (PAC), Bo Dallas even… Do you think Vince McMahon would’ve ever made Bo Dallas (regardless of his star power or ability) a world champion? I doubt it. Nobody should be pre-judged by their size or physical appearance. Personal opinion I get, but maybe when WWE recruit new people, they shouldn’t be just going for college athletes that are chiselled from stone… Be more open minded and you open yourselves up to getting in the most talented performers, as opposed to the most physically appeasing…

‘You Can’t Win Anything with Kids’

Football fans will remember the famous line used by Alan Hansen when discussing the Manchester United team of the time. And he was right. But what Manchester United actually had was the correct mix of youth and experience, the youngsters learning from the elders and raising their own game in the process. And I know I said I was going to talk about what main roster WWE could look like going forward under the creative direction of Triple H, but this point is more referring to NXT 2.0, which looks like it is headed up these days by Shawn Michaels. My hope for that brand is, as has been rumoured, they alter their recruitment policy once again and become more open to bringing talents from the indies in to not only have a spot in WWE for themselves, but also to help along those NXT 2.0 stars fresh out of the PC. For me NXT 2.0 right now seems to be a lot of green wrestlers taking on other green wrestlers, and nobody improves because they both suck because neither knows YET what they’re doing. I think NXT 2.0 could benefit from keeping the greener talent in the PC a little longer and not rushing them onto TV, and maybe with HHH and Michaels relationship they can talk more about the talents from main roster who could go down and lend a hand to 2.0, as Natalya and AJ Styles did a little while ago…

Rome wasn’t built in a day…

My previous point about long term booking kind of goes hand in hand with this one, and I’ve probably overlapped… but I don’t want to say how NXT Black and Gold would gradually push guys and girls, and they wouldn’t just give up after a few weeks… I can only hope HHH’s Raw and SmackDown has a lot more of these slow build stories. I could write a whole blog about the ‘Who attacked Aleister Black?’ in NXT, but it was such a great example of a long story, that had many twists and turns, and got many people more over as a result, but it’s just one example of how taking your time and gradually building stories and individuals can make for such good TV.

Everyone deserves a 2nd chance

Some of the first things I thought about when Vince retired, and more so today when Triple H got the creative head role, was who this might benefit on the roster. Triple H made Johnny Gargano his absolute top babyface, and made Karrion Kross a double champion… both left WWE after their time with NXT was done, both are currently free agents as are both their wives, and I should say both Candice LeRae and Scarlett are tremendously talented as well. Could any of those (ideally all 4) come back now? I’d say it’s a lot more likely with HHH at the helm… That can only be good right? And will we now see second chances for those who Vince had seemed to of given up on, as the top level anyway? And my ultimate dream… could this mean… HE… is let back in…

HERE COMES THE GIRLS!

NXT Black and Gold, as the Women’s champion of the time Shayna Baszler recently claimed, had THE best women’s roster I’ve ever seen assembled! And they had some BANGER matches and storylines, Io vs Candice, Shayna vs Rhea Ripley, Asuka vs Ember Moon, heck the women’s evolution STARTED in NXT for god sake! The booking of the women has been something that WWE and even recently AEW has been criticised, and I’m sure Triple H will have the spotlight shone on him and how he books the women. So I hope he books them how they deserve to be, given the platform and stars he made of women in NXT, I’m very hopeful WWE’s women’s division will be something to be envied in the years to come.

BIG FIGHT FEEL!

Maybe this was helped by the fact there were only 4 or 5 NXT TakeOvers a year, and maybe it will be hindered by the fact WWE make their money from their TV deals as opposed to PPVs these days (given they’ve already got their Peacock money for the PREMIUIM LIVE EVENTS, so they’re grand)… but NXT TakeOvers and their main matches always felt important. Like they were must-see and the culmination of something special. I’ve had people say to me that the upcoming SummerSlam card isn’t all that good… Now that’s a different topic for another day, but for that to even be a debate for WWE’s 2nd biggest show of the year is a shambles! Often I remember looking at a TakeOver card and thinking WOW, and I think this is the case with most AEW PPVs as well, but again maybe because WWE have one of these a month it’s hard to make everything seem important all the time… but that’s their job surely? I just remember how the first Ciampa vs Gargano match, or the War Games NXT matches feeling massive… even matches lower down TakeOver cards felt big… aside from Roman Vs Brock, can you tell me anything else on that SummerSlam card feels unmissable? Something isn’t right about that, and Triple H’s job will be to have the build-up to big matches be much more compelling and to make the payoff be something people have to see!

‘Tony, cut the shit!’

Now NXT being an hour and then only 2 hours long (Raw is 3) helped this, but when NXT was an hour, I never felt like there was much shit on the show. everything I saw had a purpose, but my god we don’t half see some shit on Raw. This might be Triple H’s hardest issue to solve, or maybe the easiest, but there’s got to be a lot more quality control for what happens on Raw and SmackDown. So many just god awful segments that has to be something Triple H looks at changing dramatically How you do this would be have to vary depending on what it is… Maybe pre-record more stuff so you can edit after if needs be? Maybe just booking better stuff? Maybe scripting promos less where needed and letting people talk like humans and not like robots? Just maybe that’ll make people want to watch your TV shows more…

So that’s just some of my thoughts on what Triple H’s Raw and SmackDown could look like going forward. It may be something we have to be patient about, but I’m hopeful in the future both shows will be far better for us fans, and far better for everyone who’s involved in putting them together.

This new era of WWE with Triple H running the creative is a HUGE chance for them to win some people over, and to win some fans back. In my opinion, particularly with the continued rise of AEW, it really is now or never.

Josh.