Why Vince McMahon Has Erased Triple H's Legacy

Ahead of the November 5th edition of SmackDown, longstanding NXT wrestlers Johnny Gargano and Kyle O'Reilly worked the dark match as fans were filing in. News broke of the contest earlier that day, but this was strictly wrestling news bubble buzz rather than something WWE were trying to sell extra tickets with. Two of the biggest stars from Triple H's era were ostensibly performing to impress his father-in-law, and/or remind him who they even were.

And all that's to assume this was even the purpose. Dakota Kai, Raquel Gonzalez have been given the once-over recently and, as of writing, both remain marooned on a show that neither suits nor particularly warrants their rivalry's impending epilogue. Karrion Kross's stripped back ThunderDome-era Main Event walkthrough inspired panic from his supporters in June, and that was proven justified by his November release and a horror-show main roster run in between. Adam Cole dodged the indignity of it all, but only because he decided to dodge WWE entirely after being offered the chance to work his prime years on Raw or SmackDown as a manager.

It would be too cynical to suggest that McMahon is doing this stuff for sh*ts and giggles (though it's easy to imagine Bruce Prichard and John Laurinaitis laughing themselves hoarse about it when Boss Baby's having his 14 minutes of sleep a night), but The Chairman partially foreshadowed some of this specific callousness long before the Wednesday Night War had even started, let alone been lost.

Johnny Gargano was there for that, too...

CONT'D...