Triple H Responds to WWE Fan Criticism of Creative Ahead of WrestleMania, 'Nobody Bats a Thousand'

WWE head of creative Triple H discussed his booking philosophy and his thoughts on fan criticism regarding his creative decisions this week.

During an interview with SmackDown play-by-play announcer Joe Tessitore (h/t Derek Holloway of Ringside News), Triple H acknowledged that not everything he books is going to be great, partly due to the balancing act that comes along with it (beginning at the 11:58 mark of the video).

"It's a funny thing when people say, you know, if you're online or you hear fans talking and they're like, 'I didn't like that.' Yeah, I know," Triple He said. "Believe me—I'm the first guy going, 'That didn't work. That wasn't good. We screwed up there.'

"Sometimes you're putting things out there and you're like, 'Eh, this'll be decent.' It's not going to be A++. It has to ebb and flow throughout the year. There are times when you're like, 'This show will be good.' It's not going to be guns blazing. And then there are times when you know you've got to put your foot on the gas.

"The trick is keeping everybody in that same mindset. We talked about thinking about tomorrow—because all the time people make suggestions like, 'What if you did this?' And it's like, yeah, that's amazing—it just doesn't leave us anywhere to go.

"So you have to balance what you do today that's epic with what you get to tomorrow. It's always a mix and a challenge to balance that out. Nobody bats a thousand—I'm no different. But you try as best as possible to manage everybody to stay in the same ballpark."

Triple H's decisions are under a microscope now more so than at any other point in the year since WrestleMania 42 is set for this weekend in Las Vegas.

While the booking has received praise for some of the matches and rivalries, such as Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk and Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi, other moves have been panned by the WWE fanbase.

Chief among them is Pat McAfee's introduction into the storyline between WWE champion Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, who are headlining Night 1 of WrestleMania on Saturday.

It seemed like a strange move given McAfee's lack of history with either man, and because of the fact that Rhodes and Orton have so much history to draw upon that they didn't necessarily need something else attached to their rivalry.

Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News) reported that it was actually TKO CEO Ari Emanuel who made the call to infuse McAfee into the storyline.

Triple H didn't mention anything about Emanuel's involvement, but if that is the case, it shows that Triple H isn't necessarily able to make the final call on everything.

However, since he is the creative face of WWE, Triple H is always going to get the bulk of the criticism and the praise for what plays out on WWE programming.