This past Monday night on Raw, Triple H called all the talent to the ring to ask for a vote of confidence in his abilities as COO. Apparently Raw has been spiraling out of control for the past couple of weeks, and no one feels very safe.
...
Um...you do realize this is wrestling, right?
There are so many things wrong with this angle, it almost made me change the channel.
Why didn't I change the channel?
Maybe because I wanted to believe that Triple H, a man who has been in this business for so long and has been part of some of the greatest (and worst) angles in the history of the industry, could not possibly condone himself to participate in a storyline so mind-numbingly preposterous as what we were presented in the closing moments of Raw last Monday.
And by "closing moments," I mean, "twenty minutes."
Honestly, did we really need this angle to go so long? Did we really need to hear arguments not just from one wrestler on behalf of the locker room, but wrestlers, referees, divas, and announcers? This angle could've been done in 5 minutes (of course that would mean no 5 minute entrance for "The Game") and had the same effect. Instead we suffer through diatribes from Triple H, Wade Barrett (why?), Christian, Beth Phoenix, some referee no one really knows, and Jerry "The King" Lawler.
Why? Wasn't one argument enough?
Okay, let's start at the beginning.
Let's remember that just a couple of months ago, the show was on fire with John Cena and C.M. Punk fighting over the WWE Championship. It was arguably the most exciting angle in the last two years. It was fresh, honest, and unpredictable. It was everything a wrestling angle should be.
Then WWE threw Alberto Del Rio in the mix. I guess that's their "curveball." I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. Punk was still the focal point of the show, and after cycling through the same talent for the last five years, I thought perhaps we'd finally get some new blood at the top of the WWE roster.
Then, for no reason in particular, Vince McMahon was fired and Triple H replaced him as COO.
Let me just say that I absolutely loved the chemistry between Punk and McMahon. Punk was, as far as WWE was concerned, everything his name implied. He was a misfit. He didn't have the polish everyone expected of a WWE Superstar, but he had more talent in the ring and on the mic than 3/4 of the roster. He didn't need scripted promos. He didn't need anyone to tell him how to walk or dress. He didn't need to be handed a gimmick. He was great because he was real, and that has always been a formula for success across the industry.
Vince McMahon, in turn, needed no lessons on how to play the "evil emperor" of the WWE. There was genuine disdain between the two, and they needed little coaxing to put that on display for the world to see. It was a perfect platform for Punk, and a great scenario for Vince, who had gone through this all before. It seemed like we'd finally reached the next-gen iteration of the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin/Vince McMahon feud.
Then it all came to a screeching halt when we entered an all too familiar element:
Triple H.
From the moment his music hit that night and he relieved Vince McMahon of his duties to the company, it was an omen, and we all knew it.
Over the next few weeks, the showed devolved into backstage politicking between Triple H and Executive Vice-President of Talent Relations, John Laurinaitis.
Suddenly Kevin Nash is back, and then he's gone. Then the Miz and R-Truth are fired...for attacking John Cena, CM Punk, a referee, and Triple H.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that sort of what wrestlers do? I mean, is Raw really that much more chaotic than it ever was?
Wrestlers complain about feeling unsafe and unprotected in the work place.
Hasn't this always been the case? I mean, this is Monday Night Raw, right? This is wrestling, right?
Mark Henry attacked Jerry Lawler a few weeks ago, putting him through the announce table and forcing him out of work for a couple of weeks. Why has no one fired him? The Miz and R-Truth have been raving about an alleged "conspiracy" in the WWE for weeks, months even, yet now is when they are both suddenly "fired"?
When Triple H fired the Miz and R-Truth, he claimed he would do it at the end of the night so that he could "get one more main event out them."
A main event? Isn't putting two chopping-block candidates in a main event match more of a reward than a punishment? You're telling me they were so valuable to the company that he couldn't possibly find anyone to replace them in this particular star-studded tag team main event? With all the "world class" talent on your roster, you couldn't think of a pair of individuals to match the caliber of these two men you've been subjecting to mid-card status for the past three months?
Also, last time I checked, when someone is "fired" from the company, aren't references to them usually discouraged on live broadcasts? Not only are Miz and R-Truth mentioned regularly throughout the broadcast, but WWE actually goes the extra mile to ruin whatever credibility this angle might have had by airing a YouTube video of the two apologizing to the WWE Universe for their actions...y'know, just in case we forgot who they were, those dirty rotten scoundrels.
By the way, attacking someone in a cell after their match: doesn't that sound like something Triple H would do? I mean, he strides in wanting us to believe that thanks to his Hall-of-Fame career, he has better judgment than Vince did. We want to believe that Triple H is the same guy that knocked other men around in cells and cages and parking lots. We want to believe that this is the same, lewd, crotch-chopping rule-breaker that we know and love.
But he's not. Triple H has now donned a suit to become the very thing he once stood firmly against: the voice of authority. He has become wrestling's biggest hypocrite. Everything that C.M. Punk stood for is what Triple H once stood for: the voice of a rebellious group, a segment of the demographic that wasn't being heard. In 1998 it was people who wanted to give their boss the finger or tell them to "suck it". In 2011 it's simply the voice of a breed of wrestling fan who wants something a little more real in their product. For him to now stand against Punk and tell him that he is out of control is insulting to the fans who watched Triple H grow from a snobby, sarcastic, sophomoric hoodlum to one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time. Triple H made a career out of sticking it to the McMahons. Now he was merely their re-enforcer.
Okay, so everyone feels unsafe because they've been subjected to the sort of unpredictability that was once commonplace on WWE TV. Now, Johnny L. wants to take Triple H out to the ring in front of his entire talent pool to ask for a vote of confidence.
Can someone explain to me exactly what Laurinaitis' job description is? He's the Executive Vice-President of Talent Relations (who is the President of Talent Relations, by the way, and why haven't they shown up yet?). I can understand that if Superstars have an issue with the boss, he's probably the proper channel to go through, but does John Laurinaitis really have the power to axe Triple H from his post simply on a vote of no confidence from the roster?
You see, none of this would be a big deal if WWE hadn't set a precedent for it years ago. Back in the day, if someone had a problem with how things were being run, they'd go to the WWE Board of Directors, who would then make a decision on how best to balance the power that Vince McMahon was abusing. You see, they couldn't fire Vince because he signed their checks, but they could take action to make sure that his powers did not go completely unchecked. They probably did this at great personal risk to their own jobs. The balance here was the voice of Linda McMahon, Vince's wife, who provided the perfect shield for the men actually casting the votes.
You might be tempted to say that his has no bearing now. Linda is long gone, so the Board of Directors has no power.
But wasn't it the Board of Directors who fired Vince and installed Triple H?
So what are they doing now? Just watching Raw spiral out of control and thinking, "Hey, we made the right call"? Why doesn't John Laurinaitis just go to the Board and tell them, on behalf of his talent, that he feels Triple H is doing a poor job of maintaining control of the show and until order can be restored, he's pulling his talent from the broadcasts? Once he's got it cleared with the Board, he can make a grand entrance into Raw and shock Triple H with the news, and the talent could make their mass exodus.
But, of course, this would put the focus on someone else besides Triple H. We've now gone from fighting over championships--which, frankly, is what wrestling is all about--to legal debates, lawsuits, justified (or unjustified) firings, and now, a strike.
Triple goes into this long monologue about the state of WWE, tells the talent to suck it up, and then asks for a vote of confidence. Then we have to listen to Christian, Barrett, Phoenix, the refs, and King talk about how everything is so unsafe.
I don't follow Smackdown! all that closely these days, but what exactly happened to Christian and Barrett to make them the spokesmen for an unsafe work environment? If it was that big a deal, wouldn't we have heard about it on Raw?
Then Lawler steps in the ring and makes his case. He was put through the announce table and feels very unsafe. Keep in mind, the guy that put him through the announce table is standing right there at ringside.
Then the King makes the most ridiculous statement of the entire angle. He tells us he believes there is a conspiracy in the WWE, but that it's not of Triple H's doing.
What?
At what point in this entire fiasco did we ever see evidence that there was a conspiracy? When did this "conspiracy" stop being a simple gimmick for R-Truth and suddenly become legitimate? All I saw was a few wrestlers get attacked, a ref get knocked around, and a commentator go through the announce table. Maybe if I was working for Wal-Mart, I might find these things disconcerting, but this is Monday Night Raw. What exactly about a few disgruntled wrestlers violently venting their frustrations makes anyone feel like there's a conspiracy?
But let's say, for the sake of argument, that there is a conspiracy. Let's assume that someone out there just wants to see Raw go down the tubes.
Exactly what evidence do we have that Triple H is not the one behind it? When was that ever presented? What proof does the King have that it's not Triple H pulling the strings?
And why, all of a sudden, did the entire roster share King's sentiment? In 1997, following the "Montreal Screw-job", Vince McMahon gave his talent the opportunity to walk away from the company if they had that much of a problem with the way he dealt with Bret Hart. Many men took that opportunity, including Mick Foley. But, like most of the other men who left that night, he was back quickly as he couldn't count on getting a good deal from any other wrestling promotion (he'd been through them all already.) But even as Mick walked away, that didn't suddenly cause the entire locker room to empty.
I realize there's a difference between an angle and real life, but both have to be logical to a degree. What exactly did King say to convince the entire roster to depart? What was so compelling? What evidence was presented to make everyone, including the fans, suddenly buy into this "conspiracy"?
Let's take a look at our champions: Mark Henry, Alberto Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, and Beth Phoenix. Five of these seven are heels. Mark Henry is the man who put the King through the announce table. What suddenly made him decide to walk out? It seems foolish to me that someone who is sitting on the top of the mountain would suddenly walk out on the company due to chaos that he himself was a part of creating. Del Rio took advantage of the chaos to secure his second WWE Championship. Why did he walk out? Kelly Kelly just bitch-slapped the hell out of Beth Phoenix. One was the champion and the other was causing chaos. Why did they walk out?
I could see if it was John Cena, or The Undertaker, or Triple H himself that decided to leave. They are respected men in the locker room and carry great weight with their co-workers. No disrespect to Jerry Lawler, but does a commentator really command the kind of respect that would cause an entire roster full of talent to simply abandon their livelihoods? I doubt that very much.
You see, I think what people are expecting is that Johnny boy is gonna step forward and tell Triple H that it was him. He's got some kind of pact going with Kevin Nash. He's always on the phone. Maybe he resigns Nash and Miz and Truth and they come back as nWo 2.0 (sorry, make that 3.0...TNA covered 2.0 when it unveiled Immortal.)
Some people are saying it's Stephanie McMahon. Maybe she's out to sabotage her husband in a classic case of dysfunctional McMahon-a-mania.
Here's what I say:
What does any of this have to do with wrestling?
Wrestling angles traditionally build up to wrestling matches. Someone please tell me what confrontation will blossom from this convoluted mess. Is Laurinaitis going to fight Triple H for control of Raw? Is Stephanie going to wrestle her husband? Are Nash, Truth, and Miz gonna fight Trips in a handicap match where he bashes all their skulls in with a sledgehammer? Will Triple H reform D-Generation X (or DX 2.0) to combat this new faction?
In any case, the focus has now officially been taken from the wrestling and put on the shoulders of Triple H in an angle that few can understand and even fewer care about. The show did not end with a champion holding his title high. It didn't end with a challenger down and out, waiting to see how he would get his revenge next week. It didn't end with an active member of the roster in the frame. The show ended with Triple H standing the middle of the ring.
Alone.
That speaks volumes as to where the show is headed.
I will tell you who is sabotaging Raw. It's Triple H. He needs to come out and say he was the one that pulled the strings for Nash, Truth, and Miz. Maybe it was his conspiracy. Ever since he came back to television, the ratings have gone down, and so has the drama. Wrestling fans don't care about politics. They care about wrestling.
Unpredictability doesn't mean you can simply forsake logic. In fact, it usually requires an extra dose of logic to explain. In this case, they've completely lost touch with their fans. I was not shocked by the walk out on Raw, I was relieved. Maybe this is just some grand scheme by Triple H and WWE to clean out their product and get a fresh start. They've recombined Raw and Smackdown!, maybe this is just the next logical step. Maybe with no one to interrupt him, Triple H can finally get WWE back on track.
