10 Booking Directions Heading Into WWE Payback 2017
3. A Cerebral Faction
Though it’s been rumoured for months now, WWE has shown a surprising amount of restraint in not building a supposed ‘Triple H Faction’ storyline. In the wake of Samoa Joe being brought in as The Game’s ‘Destroyer’, and Triple H helping Kevin Owens to capture the Universal Championship last year, such a story has felt inevitable for some time.
There’s a deep vein of meta-storytelling running through this angle, even in its current form. Triple H has literally helped Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Finn Bálor make it to both NXT and WWE, inside and outside of kayfabe. As was mentioned on the last episode of RAW, these four men are all former NXT Champions picked out by Triple H. They are inextricably linked through their history as well as their paths to the main roster.
Since Triple H will be looking for actual payback on Seth Rollins for his WrestleMania loss, the weeks leading up to Payback itself serve as the perfect time to further tease, if not trigger, a faction-based storyline.
Yet again, this would give RAW a dominant
heel presence during Brock Lesnar’s absence, and if done right, it could become
as meaningful and important as DX - or at the very least, Evolution.