The Problem With Triple H That No One Wants To Talk About
Changing The Game might not be QUITE as easy as Triple H made it look in his first week on the job.
WWE was the very best version of itself for large spells of SummerSlam 2022.
Against a stadium backdrop shot to look bursting with people despite one completely empty side, a spectacular opening match was enhanced by an even more impressive post-match angle, yet another celebrity-turned-wrestler entered in a credible and enjoyable encounter, and Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar confounded critics and expectation with mind-bending use of a digger in the main event.
Deep into the years of WWE making little-to-no narrative sense week to week, this was the platonic ideal of everything a Sports Entertainment circus event could and should always be.
The Premium Live Events are more-often-than-not the strongest offerings from WWE anyway, but not typically because they're simply great on their own terms. This contemporary paradox comes from Raw and SmackDown descending into content churn and sludgy retreads, all as Fox and USA Network fat-cats rub their hands together at programming that walks the tightrope of both live sports and scripted entertainment. There were highs during SummerSlam that transcended those qualifiers. Matches and moments that were exciting and - whisper it - generated interest in actually tuning in the following week to see the follow-up rather than waiting four weeks to see how all this month's chess pieces have been rearranged on next month's board.
It was fitting - in something right out of the Ruthless Aggression "era", an event featuring a bunch of committed and push-hungry wrestlers concluded with conversation about Triple H. How was the first SummerSlam of the Triple H era? What bits were the most Triple H? What couldn't Triple H change in time for showtime? And on the discourse went. 2003 Hunter would have loved that. In 2022, it represents the brand new microscope he'll find himself constantly underneath.
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