10 Terrible WWE Storylines One Tweak Away From Excellence

2. Triple H Vs Booker T (2003)

Triple H Booker T
WWE

You know this one, and worse still you know where it's going.

Triple H and Ric Flair make thinly-veiled (and not even wrestling scripting thin, John Laurinaitis Divas Division thin) racial remarks towards Booker T after he becomes Number One Contender in time for WrestleMania XIX, including-but-not-limited to saying "you people" don't win World Champions and throwing cash at the former WCW star to reduce him to arena towel boy.

Hideous, hideous television, not least considering how bad the Champion was between the ropes at the time. The promise of a good match was not there at all, even if the company would surely go with the right result and have the babyface win.

And then the heel won.

One Tweak: The. Babyface. Wins.

Triple H played a racist in 2003 for f*cks sake, he should have taken the pin and far worse for his actions. Even by normal wrestling standards, it was the right time and place to relinquish the title he'd cradled as if his own since its very existence in 2002 (save for the one month he let Shawn Michaels borrow it), but it was still all about 'The Game'.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 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 over 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 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana 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