8 Ways Triple H’s WWE Is JUST LIKE Vince McMahon’s

Across 2023 and 2024, WWE was a white hot babyface promotion in the midst of a genuine boom period. 

Cody Rhodes flat-out no-sold the Rock’s botched interference spot to finish the story at WrestleMania 40. He was positioned as the greatest babyface of the century. He vanquished Roman Reigns with the help of those he had wronged - and the Undertaker, since Stone Cold Steve Austin didn’t fancy making the trip - in a brilliant, feel-good flex of Triple H’s storytelling muscle. Every detailed, overlapping narrative thread converged to craft a thrilling season finale of Triple H’s first era as the main roster booker. As the year unfolded, WWE fans lived through what are now the good old days. 

Rhodes was such a great champion and talisman that it didn’t matter that his stuff was a bit rote and predictable. It helped that Levesque, in parallel, booked the most personal-feeling saga in years between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. 

Underneath, countless wrestlers became stars. Rhea Ripley was a babyface sensation so well-liked that her tormentors Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan ascended to a level nobody had thought possible under Vince McMahon. Gunther was operating at such an awesome level that WWE was taking AEW to a broadway of match quality. IYO Sky, already phenomenal, developed into a superstar through WWE’s packaging magic. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens were the Randy Savage and Bret Hart types of this ‘Renaissance Era’; artistic greats whose drawing prowess is all too often overlooked. 

Now, WWE more closely resembles the dismal days of the late 2010s than the place to which CM Punk shockingly returned at Survivor Series 2023. 

What happened…?

Big Cass made his return to WWE Raw on August 3, 2026. By October (!), the run was already close to a disaster. 

As Big Bill, Cass was very fun in AEW. His heat sequences were creative and funny. He looked like he was having the time of his life being a prick. That he was immediately presented as a dour guy intent on redeeming himself in WWE was already ominous. Big Cass was set to be boring. This would have been significantly better, somehow. 

Cass has since lost on television to Dragon Lee and Rey Mysterio after his beat-downs of Je’Von Evans didn’t get over. One of two things happened here. 

1) Triple H thinks it’s a good idea for his motivated returning monster to look weak and idiotic, or

2) Big Cass is getting the dreaded punishment booking of yore to teach him some sort of lesson. 

It’s 2, isn’t it? 

What does anybody get out of this bizarre Vince McMahon trademark display of spite? 

If you’re a kid in the crowd who doesn’t know any better, the big guy is no longer scary, and his opponent is more lucky than good. If you’re old enough, you automatically think that Cass is in the doghouse. Dragon Lee gets nothing out of it because it’s more about Cass getting humiliated than it is about Dragon Lee winning.

Cass might just be swell in the long run, once Triple H has worked his evident frustration out of his system, but this sort of thing is spiteful, stupid, and pointless. It’s not just the individual prospects of Big Cass that are of concern; WWE was the babyface company in 2024, and this sort of thing takes an ax to what’s left of that idea.