13 Ups & 9 Downs For WWE In 2022

6. The Bad Triple H Comebacks

Tony Khan brings too many wrestlers into AEW, but the reason this is a bad thing is missed by countless online critics thinking with their bias before their brains.

Wrestling has always been a bigger industry than just within WWE's walls, and AEW's potential to be the destination for all of it to thrive was made real by multiple names from multiple locations making Dynamite or Rampage their sudden home. Fan reaction or a quick Excalibur explainer is enough - don't let grifters tell you otherwise - but the sheer quantity and turnover of these is the actual problem. There are too many; so many in fact that you are encouraged to approach any with caution now because your investment may not be rewarded. Are there other scripted television shows where so many new characters would be dropped in at random with this regularity? No, and that's why.

Triple H fell into the same trap but asked different things of his audience. He brought back/in a bunch of wrestlers as a way of making a statement about his stewardship of WWE, but the expectation of monster pops was foolish and the subsequent management of too many of them has resulted in already-quiet fans greeting every new returnee with polite recognition (at best) instead of an actual pop.

WWE had cut way, way too aggressively between 2020 and 2022, and talent was absolutely needed in areas Triple H has attempted to fill. But there's no current distinguishing feature between those returning as rank-and-file and the ones we're supposed to take seriously. Karrion Kross came in on top but went 50/50 with a top star so why should Roman Reigns be worried? What is the value of a Hit Row diss track if they can't fight a lick when the bell rings. The Viking Raiders and Valhalla destroyed jobbers but when they start grabbing holds will the matches last so long that we're left wondering why they bother with all that b*llocks?

There are good and bad ways to do everything (hence this very article and the praise soon to follow), but - like his opposite on the other channel - Triple H needs to pull right back on the hiring spree and actually see what he can do with his collection of talent rather than just papering over cracks in bad booking with tail-chasing and tepid reactions.

Especially when the evidence of its limitations is regularly on show...