WWE Product Will Not Improve Until Triple H Has Taken Control from Vince McMahon

The WWE product has been in the doldrums for the better part of the last year. We appeared on the verge of a new era at WrestleMania when Daniel Bryan did the unthinkable, winning two matches in a single night, effectively dismantling Evolution by himself and receiving the confetti-filled WWE Championship victory celebration we all hoped for.

But then Bryan was forced under the knife, and aside from a few appearances here and there, we've haven't seen or heard much from our goat-faced hero in a long time. 

With Bryan out, WWE looked for a shock to the system, and they broke up The Shield, setting in motion the rise of Seth Rollins as a villainous backstage politician and the to-the-moon super hero push of Roman Reigns. It also set Dean Ambrose free to explore his 2K14 version of the loose cannon character. 

Ultimately, though, WWE decided to skip right past building new stars (as they have for much of the last decade) and go back to the same song and dance. That meant put the belt and spotlight on John Cena.

When the crowd truly did not care about Cena holding the belt, they did something very exciting and handed it to Brock Lesnar. However, we assumed that WWE had worked out an arrangement with Lesnar to increase his dates to keep the belt on the show at least for monthly specials. 

Now it looks like Lesnar might not be back until Royal Rumble. And even if he does return for the show, it will be against...wait for it...Cena, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Marc Middleton).

There was a time that when WWE was struggling in the ratings—pulling just a 1.3 in the vaunted 18-49 year old age demo, according to Amanda Kondolojoy of TV By the Numbers—they would come out with something new, exciting and different to catch the audience's attention. Unfortunately, today they would rather bring out Kathy Lee Gifford, Todd Chrisley and NeNe Leakes. 

Meanwhile, as the company's flagship flounders, the much-beloved WWE Network program, NXT, continues to deliver and bring us all a warm, fuzzy feeling of hope for the future of professional wrestling. I need not remind you, but I will anyway, that NXT and the Performance Center are the brainchilds of one of the Internet Wrestling Community's greatest nemesis: Triple H.

All Triple H haters should probably flip to another column at this point, or swallow the bitter pill and continue. You probably don't want to hear this truth: The WWE will not improve until Triple H has taken over complete control from his father-in-law, Vince McMahon. 

I give you Exhibit A. In an interview with YouTube, Twitter and all-things-pro-wrestling-media-reporter Sam Roberts, Triple H discusses his perspective on the Performance Center and the WWE (h/t WrestlingInc.com). He coyly deflects any suggestion that he should or could take over for McMahon in the short term and accepts praise for NXT's critical response while not taking any direct shots at Raw. 

However, he does say, and I paraphrase from the video included here, he just tries to write a show each week that he would want to watch. We need to remember this when looking at Triple H and considering his style. He is a wrestling fan first and foremost. He passionately wanted to get into the business after following the industry as a teenager.

He's not looking at the WWE from the perspective of a television executive. He's looking at the product from the view of a fan. 

Offscreen, Triple H is the Executive Vice President for Talent, Live Events and Creative. That said, McMahon is still hands-on and must sign off on all creative direction for the main roster. Recall, it was McMahon who called for Cena to be pushed even harder after his devastating defeat at the hands of Lesnar at SummerSlam (h/t WrestlingInc.com).

McMahon has reached a point where he is no longer interested in creating new talent. He doesn't want people to come to see specific wrestlers, unless that wrestler is Cena. He wants fans to be loyal first and foremost to the WWE brand.

This is why stars like Rollins, Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes and other talents with seemingly limitless potential to carry the company for the next two decades are left sitting the sidelines while we wonder what Cena is going to do next. 

Triple H is our only hope, wrestling fans. He's the only man in a seat of power who is capable of change. But that change is only possible if McMahon allows it to occur.

Were it up to McMahon, Raw would be three hours of Cena, Total Divas plugs, celebrity appearances and bad jokes force-fed to the announce team. Oh wait, that's exactly what we get every Monday night. 

At least for now it appears McMahon doesn't know or care much about NXT. Let's hope it stays that way for a long, long time.