Triple H's WWE Is Becoming Exactly What DX Rebelled Against in the Attitude Era

Pro wrestling is at its best when there's an aura of mystery going into a weekly show or even premium event. 

Right now, the only aura around WWE is a strange mix of corporate complacency. 

Triple H of the 90s, who ran around with DX during the Attitude Era, sticking it to the man and authority, would cringe if he saw today's WWE, to put it nicely. 

Under the watchful eye of the TKO merger and otherwise, Triple H currently oversees WWE creative for a promotion that wants to appear more like a "real sport" than ever before in a bid to, well, rake in more cash than ever before. 

Sounds harsh, but take a glance at the product. The "real sport' emulated is mostly UFC. That means paying a subscription fee to tune in and see product advertisements on ring mats and tables and Prime bottles as set pieces often. It means checking in to see which celebrities are front row weekly. 

And it apparently means lazy, cash-grabbing-like booking, too. The calendar recently demanded WarGames, so like Hell in a Cell and TLC events of old, the booking randomly threw big names in a match. Roman Reigns showed up. Brock Lesnar was there for some reason, too. The match, complete with a vibe-ruining Yeet session, was a dud with a quick finish that left a whole lot of meat on the bone. 

The onslaught of PLEs and special events feels phoned-in for the sake of doing so. And counterprogramming AEW in near-2026, while proclaiming that promotion as not even being competition, sure lends credibility to AEW. 

Many will point to the John Cena retirement tour as the top example, which is fair. The Rock-Travis-Scott heel turn thing was a disaster. For every one great example, like the all-timer of a match with AJ Styles, there's a weird occasion. Remember Lesnar showing up and wrecking Cena for no reason on ESPN and making a bunch of kids cry? Nice. 

There's some effort in making new stars, no doubt. Building up the likes of Tiffany Stratton and putting Bron Breakker in interesting stuff is great. But it's hard to, for example, to give Triple H credit for helping Dominik Mysterio become a star. That's the booking equivalent of a layup. 

And the layups conversation is where things get really interesting. Triple H was gift-wrapped the Bloodline saga when he took over. The Cody Rhodes story needed the most basic of booking input to have a satisfying ending. It's like taking over as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. At the end of the day, Patrick Mahomes is the quarterback. 

That's why most everything else tends to feel so corporatized and lazy. Jey Uso had an expiration date long, long ago. LA Knight has more than earned a title run. Gunther doesn't need more historic moments. CM Punk's spinning his wheels. Rhodes, frankly, has never been booked all that well. Remember the R-Truth stuff? How about the Karrion Kross saga? Randy Orton is on Jelly Roll-like duty for some reason. 

Hence, every show sort of feels the same. A quick rundown of a Raw or SmackDown episode highlights: 

• The Vision beats someone down
• Big Jey Uso entrance
• LA Knight is mad somewhere
• Giant brawl segment 
• Interference-based ending
• Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky do stuff
• The Judgment Day does stuff
• Bonus: Someone speared through a barricade/topples the Prime cart 

Good luck figuring out which show that was. 

Make no mistake, pro wrestling ebbs and flows. But it doesn't feel like a coincidence that this downward spiral hits right as the TKO/ESPN stuff happens, ads and celebrities pop up everywhere and the number of events manages to increase. Ditto for the mishandling of Las Vegas/overseas WrestleMania rollouts. 

This being pro wrestling, Triple H and those in charge can always course correct. But when the era has managed to botch a John Cena retirement tour, something just feels off about the whole thing. 

This isn't another yearning for the days of the Attitude Era. But maybe the Triple H of that era had the right idea. WWE got huge and broke into the mainstream because it wasn't mainstream and didn't appeal to norms. It can't force its way back into real-sport conversations without feeling inauthentic to itself and chasing away its real fans in the process.