10 Disastrous WWE Booking Decisions Triple H Has Already Botched

7. Trivialising Top Dolla's Botch

Sami Zayn
WWE

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.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back almost 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett