10 Disastrous WWE Booking Decisions Triple H Has Already Botched
7. Trivialising Top Dolla's Botch
When Top Dolla Shockmaster'ed his attempted dive on the December 16th edition of SmackDown, the fanbase at large couldn't help but make fun of a stunt gone comically, comically wrong.
It helped and hindered his case that he styled it out by acting as if he was greatest luchador in wrestling history. In his defence, there wasn't much to do beyond owning the moment, but the fact that he escaped physically unscathed to the naked eye gave licence for people to make light of how preposterous it looked.
Then it became canon.
It's interesting; Michael Cole is extremely diplomatic when the move happens. Presumably following his instincts and attempting to protect the talent that fell like dominoes for the tumble anyway, he notes that the blown spot is "the reason he doesn't do that often". Compared to how he acts around Hit Row now, this is like watching Vince McMahon the jovial announcer three weeks before Montreal changes everything.
After a pathetic skit framing all the babyfaces in the locker room as bully jock pr*cks making lame gags at Top's expense, Cole became the most savage of the lot. Burying the man and the entire stable on the reg, this is Triple H's mean streak coming out in the form of a booking tactic that has never ever worked. Every show needs jobbers and Hit Row are at least that, but 'The Game' feels like he's taking out his own failures as a talent-spotter on those that everybody else knew needed a little longer to incubate.