16 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Triple H
12. He Failed To Sign The Elite In 2018
Imagine if, in late-2018, rather than going on to create All Elite Wrestling along with Tony Khan, Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and Hangman Page all instead signed for WWE.
The wrestling timeline as we know it changes irreversibly, but would be the one Triple H would have overseen had he gotten his way around the negotiation table at the time. The infamous McMahon Family apology segment on Monday Night Raw was even allegedly part of the deal - the old guard were trying to explain away WWE not being good enough ahead of bringing in an entire group of game-changers in one go to prove that they were committed to change.
The offer was a decent one - all members would come in on good money (a comparison to AJ Styles' contract at the time was given as the example) and be given an unprecedented three-month opt-out if they weren't happy with the creative their characters had been given. All of them would debut on the main roster, apart from Page, who'd start on NXT but with main roster money. Obviously, none of it came to pass, but the wrestlers not signing the deal was the only way WWE couldn't win. Even if they'd had a Rumble-to-'Mania run and decided against sticking around, the damage to their collective credibility would have surely put an end to a second promotion blossoming, and likely would have hobbled the independents that had risen amidst the success of Bullet Club writ large.
Alas, 'The Game' found himself in a situation he couldn't win for a change. It was time to get used to that too...