5 WWE Stars Most Likely to Be Negatively Impacted by the Triple H Era

Paul "Triple H" Levesque usurping Vince McMahon as WWE's head of creative late last month has left fans with huge optimism for the future of the product.

SummerSlam being as strong of a show as it was proved The Game is quite capable of running Raw and SmackDown effectively and that his vision for both brands will be much more satisfying than what we have been subjected to previously.

Several Superstars have already benefited from the changing of the guard, most notably Ciampa and Karrion Kross. They're bound to be focused on much more going forward than they were when Vince McMahon was at the helm.

Of course, that means others will be forced to give up their spot in favor of these fresh faces. Stars and angles that McMahon was high on prior to his retirement may not be as much of a priority going forward.

Fans will likely have no complaints about who Triple H chooses to build his brands around and award more opportunities to, but the following five athletes should be worried about their current pushes being in potential jeopardy.

Ezekiel/Elias

Shockingly, Elias parading around Raw as his younger brother, Ezekiel, was among the best parts of Raw coming out of WrestleMania 38.

The gimmick was so silly that it was actually entertaining and, to his credit, both Ezekiel and especially Kevin Owens made it work to the best of their ability. Their feud was supposed to culminate in a Money in the Bank ladder match qualifier prior to the pay-per-view, but Owens' month-long absence from Raw caused the rivalry to go unresolved.

Since then, Ezekiel has barely featured on the program. He's had a tag team match here and there, but for the most part, he's been spinning his wheels creatively because the powers that be had no clue where the character goes from here.

It started out entertaining enough, but there's not much more that can be done with the character in his current form. Additionally, there are plenty of other underutilized names on the Raw roster who deserve a chance to shine more than Ezekiel does.

Elias was never pushed as anyone important during his time in NXT and you can expect similar results with Triple H once again in creative control.

Veer Mahaan

On the July 18 edition of Raw, the final show Vince McMahon was responsible for putting together, Veer Mahaan was briefly interviewed backstage. He attempted to startle Sarah Schreiber, flashed a grin at the camera and laughed before walking off.

It was the most personality he's shown since redebuting on Raw following WrestleMania 38, and although that's a step in the right direction, it almost appeared as if Vince had already given up on him as an undefeated monster heel after only three months.

Mahaan won his feud with The Mysterios but has barely been featured on Raw since. He has yet to reach "damaged goods" status and Triple H can easily turn his push around, but it may take some time before than happens.

It's worth noting Mahaan received minimal television time during his stint in NXT despite being signed since early 2018. He's much more polished now than he was then, but if Triple H saw star potential him, he likely would have been a bigger deal during his run on the black-and-gold brand.

The best thing Triple H can do with Mahaan is turn him face and allow him to be the person fans see on social media. But he'll likely be stuck in limbo until that happens, if it happens at all.

Lacey Evans

Lacey Evans' last few months of being back on WWE TV have been all over the place and through no fault of her own. She's bounced between brands, gone from face to heel, had her delay debuted and has refused to face Aliyah (in storyline) in recent weeks.

WWE announced last week on SmackDown that her match with Aliyah would be postponed due to Evans not being medically cleared, though no additional details were provided. She was also missing from Friday's edition of the blue brand for the No. 1 Contender's Gauntlet match and there's been no word on when she'll return.

Triple H appears to be in the midst of recasting everyone who has been in the wrong role as of late with Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey both being examples of that. Evans has always been a natural heel and could remain in that role, but taking her off television for a bit and bringing her back as a babyface is an option as well.

Either way, between Liv Morgan being the SmackDown women's champion and Charlotte Flair and Rousey returning eventually, Evans may not be a focal point of the division as much as she was when McMahon was around.

That's in addition to Sasha Banks and Naomi possibly resurfacing soon, so the renewed push for Evans could wind up being a short-lived thing.

Maximum Male Models

Although this stable consists of several Superstars, the entire act constitutes as one selection because their collective futures are in doubt, at least for as long as they're saddled with these limited characters.

Maximum Male Models were doomed to fail before the gimmick got going, but everything that has happened with them since then hasn't helped, either.

LA Knight's transformation into Max Dupri was discouraging, the debuts of Mace and Mansoor were delayed on multiple occasions for no real reason, and Dupri disappeared at one point only to resurface two weeks later.

All in all, it's been a bizarre few months for these talented individuals who deserve far better than what they've been given. This nonsense will only get all of them so far, and seeing as how it was a Vince McMahon creation, Triple H is virtually guaranteed to not share the same vision for them as he did.

It's commendable that The Game doesn't want to abruptly pull the plug on it, but the writing is on the wall. Maximum Male Models should be slowly phased out in the weeks to come, and their absence from Friday's SmackDown indicated that could be the case.

From there, Dupri/Knight, Mace, Mansoor and Sofia Cromwell can all branch off on their own while WWE finds the right roles for them that don't involve walking down runways and wasting precious television time.

Omos (with MVP)

After almost two years on the Raw roster, it's clear Omos simply isn't main roster-ready at this point in time.

Despite that, Vince McMahon tried his hardest to give him an aggressive push as a dominant heel. He showed noticeable improvement alongside AJ Styles and worked well in that role, but there hasn't been anything remotely interesting about him since their split at the onset of 2022.

The pairing with MVP has helped with Omos' lack of mic skills, but everything else about his presentation and push has felt forced. Bobby Lashley emerging from their feud on the winning end left him directionless, so now would be as good of a time as any for Triple H to move him back to NXT for further development.

On Raw, there's nothing for The Nigerian Giant to do that would be worthwhile other than tower over his opponents. It always makes for an impressive visual, but his matches have left a lot to be desired so far and they aren't going to get much better on the main roster.

McMahon would have been too stubborn to admit the Omos experiment was a failure, but Triple H should be more willing to recognize where WWE went wrong with him and give his spot to someone who's ready to take full advantage of it.

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Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.