When Triple H appeared at the beginning of NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in August, it was definitely out of place. The heel COO and one-half of The Authority was playing to the crowd and firing them up for a major NXT event. Despite it being out of character, you could kind of give him a pass. But at TakeOver: London Wednesday night, Triple H was three days removed from suffering an epic beatdown at the hands of Roman Reigns at the TLC PPV. The beating was so severe that he was hospitalized (in storyline) and coughing up blood (according to Stephanie McMahon). Vince McMahon sent her from Raw in Philadelphia back to Connecticut to care for her wounded husband. And yet, were to believe that he healed up well enough on Tuesday to board a transcontinental flight to London so he could be on camera for the opening of TakeOver? Sure, Triple H referenced the beating and said hed have to be dead to miss it, but still, doesnt showing up on WWE TV looking relatively fine just two days after you supposedly were hospitalized cheapen the beating? Is he going to be selling the injuries again on Monday night at Raw? Its understandable why he wanted to be there to open up TakeOver, but if youre showing up in character, youve got to maintain some level of consistency. It just took you out of the moment a little to see him standing there.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
