Grading Triple H's Booking Since WWE WrestleMania 42

Triple H entered WWE WrestleMania 42 facing criticism for his booking on the road to the event, with many focusing on the overuse of celebrities, the lack of long-term storytelling, disjointed storytelling, and an absence of vision.

The show itself was a mixed bag, with critics panning the first night of action while applauding a much better and more rewarding second night.

How has the WWE chief content officer's booking fared since, though?

Find out with these grades for his handling of the main event scene, midcard and women's division in this post-WrestleMania WWE.

Main Event

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The Monday after WrestleMania, Jacob Fatu interrupted new world heavyweight champion Roman Reigns' victory lap and kicked off the latest chapter in the Bloodline saga by building on his victory over Drew McIntyre at the event, challenging The Tribal Chief and declaring that he wanted everything for his family that Reigns had.

It was a hot start for Raw, built around a rivalry fans had only been teased with during Reigns' battle with Solo Sikoa's MFTs. The ensuing match at Backlash was excellent, too, and highlighted the champion's desperation to win by exposing a turnbuckle and using it against Fatu.

Unfortunately, the entire build dragged from there. Repetition, a recent trademark of Triple H's creative, reigned supreme as fans were treated to several brawls, two contract signings, and The Samoan Werewolf's reliance on the Tongan Death Grip, culminating in a biteless Tribal Combat match that was physical but ultimately amounted to little more than a glorified street fight.

On SmackDown, the absence of Randy Orton following his WrestleMania loss to Cody Rhodes led Gunther—who inexplicably had no clear path to anything meaningful heading into the biggest show of the year or coming out of it—to challenge The American Nightmare for the Undisputed WWE Championship.

Some heated verbal exchanges and a sleeper or two from The Ring General attempted to heat up a feud that, with a little forethought and planning, could have been red-hot. Instead, it felt like an afterthought entering Clash in Italy, and the finish there did not help matters.

The bright spot has been the evolution of Sami Zayn into a heel, though the creative team does not appear to be fully committed to putting the title on him...yet.

The Raw brand was definitely the better booked of the two, thanks to the focus and attention paid to Reigns and the latest from the Bloodline, but the lack of a plan for SmackDown immediately after WrestleMania made Rhodes look anything but WWE's QB1 and further cemented that show as the clear No. 2.

Grade: Let's split the difference and go with a B-

Midcard

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There has been improvement here on the Raw side, with the clear definition of an Intercontinental Championship picture.

Je'Von Evans, Rusev, JD McDonagh, Rey Mysterio, and "All Ego" Ethan Page have firmly been established as top contenders to Penta's title, and the result has been some fun singles and tag team matches.

Page's bout with the luchador at Saturday Night's Main Event, in particular, easily could have headlined that show, and fans would have accepted it because of how hot those Superstars are right now.

The SmackDown side of things has been less defined, though.

Trick Williams won the United States Championship from Sami Zayn at WrestleMania, then beat him to retain it in a rematch at Backlash.

Since then, he has found himself in the crosshairs of a budding rivalry between former friend-turned-rival, Carmelo Hayes, and NXT call-up Ricky Saints. Those two have wrestled against each other twice already as repetition has reared its head.

The lack of depth in the midcard on Friday nights has become apparent, though there appears to be little urgency to do anything about it. Matt Cardona, Damian Priest, and Ilja Dragunov could all help, but they are either busy with other things or underutilized entirely.

The best thing Triple H has managed to do with the midcard since the biggest event of the year has been finding a happy medium when it comes to using Danhausen. He has been presented in a way that allows him to remain an enormous, breakout star without overexposure.

Grade: C+

Women's Division

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If there is one thing that has taken a step back since WrestleMania, it is the Raw women's division.

Liv Morgan won the Women's World Championship at WrestleMania, but an injury to Stephanie Vaquer has prevented their rivalry from flourishing since.

As a result, Morgan has also been left with little to do on Monday nights. The bright spot is her slow-burning tension with Roxanne Perez, which should see The Prodigy leaving The Judgment Day and challenging her for the gold at some point.

Becky Lynch continues to be excellent, but her rivalry with Sol Ruca is still in its infancy, so it is too early to fairly grade. She did put the NXT call-up over at Clash in Italy on Sunday when Ruca won the Women's Intercontinental Championship, adding another young name to her list of talent The Man has elevated.

The SmackDown women's division has been significantly better at the top, where Rhea Ripley has had to navigate a rivalry with Jade Cargill while learning to trust Charlotte Flair as a friend and partner, rather than the rival she had known throughout her career.

The Women's United States Championship picture is still a mess, though Tiffany Stratton is a big enough star for WWE that she has elevated the title's prominence. However, the creative team's refusal to commit to Giulia is baffling.

Finally, the tag team picture is interesting in that the champions are a makeshift duo (Brie Bella and Paige), but they managed a big win over Nia Jax and Lash Legend on Saturday Night's Main Event, paying that rivalry off.

Where they go from here, though, is anyone's guess.

Grade: C+

Overall Grade

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When 2023-24 is your measuring stick, anything is going to pale in comparison.

Those two years saw Triple H at his finest, meshing long-term storytelling, superb in-ring action and pre-taped vignettes that kept even the underutilized stars on TV and relevant.

Sustaining that level of storytelling is difficult, and the WWE Hall of Famer has struggled at times. His booking has also been meddled with by TKO executives, who have specific elements they want featured in the product, such as the Pat McAfee bust at 'Mania. An abundance of live event specials further hampers the ability to tell the kind of long-running stories that fans initially embraced.

However, Triple H has abandoned some of the other elements that made him successful.

In their place are repetitive TV matches, talent that disappears entirely, and a lack of vision and forethought leading to late-game changes. Most recently, Drew McIntyre was suddenly inserted into the King of the Ring tournament, replacing Royce Keys, who replaced Talla Tonga in another match.

Despite frustration over the current state of the product, and with an understanding that business priorities—such as a flood of advertising clogging up television and PLE time—play a role, one would be hard-pressed to argue that WWE is worse off with Triple H at the creative helm than with his predecessor.

Even a lackluster Triple H-produced show is better than the worst that fans were exposed to previously.

Has post-WrestleMania been perfect? No, but it is still a watchable product, benefiting from a sudden youth movement in the form of Williams, Evans, Page, Oba Femi and others seeing increased screen time.

Grade: C+