The WORST Wrestling Story Every Year (1989-2025)
2022 - The Miz Vs. Dexter Lumis
Triple H is known these days as an auteur, somehow: his competent long-term storytelling is nonetheless such an improvement on Vince McMahon’s inscrutable brainrot that it probably is “cinema” in comparison. His debut feature, however, was no ‘Eraserhead’.
His portrayal of Drew McIntyre was a strong premonition of what was to come, but Paul Levesque’s early forays into main roster booking weren’t all great. He misjudged WWE’s fondness for wrestling and its rich history, by having Tommaso Ciampa pay tribute to Harley Race. WWE fans couldn’t have cared less. Triple H also had a tendency to book overlong TV matches before sensing that nobody gave a sh*t about those, either. Triple H did grasp that WWE fans like heightened, silly entertainment. The problem is that his first stab at this was less entertaining, and more “sh*t”.
Dexter Lumis returned to WWE as a stone in the Triple H infinity gauntlet - which actually describes how well Lumis moved back then. Dexter played the lesser-spotted “serial killer babyface”, which was always such a strange gimmick. The very description should have told WWE it was a bad idea. What next? A heroic abuser of small animals?
Week after week, Lumis would variously distract, unsettle or even outright abduct the Miz. This was odd. Odd and bad. Were you meant to cheer this Lumis feller, or…?
It turned out that the Miz orchestrated the entire thing, because he apparently needed the publicity, but never actually paid the man. What? The Miz is one of the most famous WWE wrestlers.
Booking a match between The Miz and Dexter Lumis was a diabolical idea before a nonsensical storyline was attached to it. Triple H should be in jail.