WWE Is Trying to Be Marvel While Forgetting What Made It Special

Triple H wrote the latest chapter in a tumultuous 2025, garnering headlines this week for comments made during an appearance on All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg.

When discussing WWE's creative approach, he said (h/t F4WOnline.com for the transcription):

"People within our business sometimes take this wrong, but we don't write the shows based on 'That'll be a great match.' We write it on the stories that we can create, the protagonist, the antagonist, how does that work with each other, telling stories that can resonate with people that maybe they've experienced in their real life, some type of fantastical version of that."

However, to say the company does not book with the idea of producing great matches ignores a large portion of what earned The Game rave reviews among fans and helped spark the wrestling boom he helped lead. They appreciated the more wrestle-centric product, with clean finishes and fresh matchups.

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The Bloodline story was, and still is, an epic piece of booking that spanned five years and still has tentacles in today's programming. If Roman Reigns, The Usos, and Sami Zayn were not having banger matches to accentuate the story, though, fans would have quickly lost interest.

Rhea Ripley is, arguably, the biggest Superstar created under Triple H's regime and a huge part of her evolution was not just the on-screen relationship with Dominik Mysterio.

The fact that she could step on a major stage such as WrestleMania and have one of the most physical WWE matches of the last five years against Charlotte Flair or steal the show against the likes of Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Iyo Sky, and Naomi also played a part in her rise.

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Gunther became a top-tier main event star on Raw, evolving from the intercontinental title to the World Heavyweight Championship and beating top names along the way. He did not do that because of some overly complicated story arc dreamed up in a writing room. He got over with the audience because he was the best wrestler on the show and a chest-chopping menace to fan favorites.

More than his over-the-top mannerisms or theme song, Seth Rollins finally achieved undisputed main event star status because he connected with the audience through his in-ring work. Cody Rhodes would likely never have achieved the main event stardom he has if he hadn't had three consecutive Match of the Year candidates against The Visionary.

To suggest that booking for good matches and/or a quality in-ring product is not a priority would undermine the heart of a key component of pro wrestling. After all, if all fans wanted was compelling television, there are several dozen streaming services featuring series produced by teams far more adapt at writing them than WWE Creative.

Pro wrestling will forever be at the heart of, well, pro wrestling.

Yes, the story is important. It is key to the industry and what makes the suspension of disbelief within the context of the match itself more palatable. The story is the setup for the match, because without the tension, dispute, anger, rage and frustration, there is no reason for the contest to exist.

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A bad or underwhelming match can render months of creative effort meaningless and leave the audience with an unsatisfying conclusion to their emotional investment.

Beyond all of that, fans are paying record ticket prices to go to WWE shows and one would be hard-pressed to find any of them who should be OK with the chief content officer of the company telling you they are not concerned with the quality of the primary element of its product.

Triple H was not finished there, though. He compared the pro wrestling empire to the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than UFC, stating, "I would say we're much more akin to, like, the Marvel Universe, where you're planning out long-term where the movies fit and how they go with all the characters than we are direct MMA."

Except that has come back to bite him, too, with justified criticism of him and his team's ability to consistently tell a story without it bogging down in the middle or hanging around for the next major development to happen.

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Imagine how differently the MCU would be viewed if only the Avengers movies were any good. What if Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel all underwhelmed and left the series limping along until something cool occurred in Avengers: Infinity War.

None of it matters if the matches are not booked to be great and only the tent-pole shows, such as Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and SummerSlam keep fans' hopes high for some major surprise or story development.

And finally, Triple H and Co. set themselves up for failure whenever they boil down their business to simple storytelling, especially when said storytelling has underwhelmed and overpromised amid renewed interest in the product.

When there is no great match to distract from the creative slump that all bookers inevitably fall into, the overall presentation suffers and fans look elsewhere for entertainment, be that professional sports (Raw tied its record low for Netflix vs. World Series Game 3) or other wrestling companies.