Why WWE and Triple H Were Right to Bench Bron Breakker

It's been a long time since pro wrestling fans have seen WWE no thanks a supposed top guy in the way they have Bron Breakker. 

Fans and WWE alike had clearly earmarked Breakker as next big thing material for five-plus years. He appeared to be on that track while involved with a stable featuring Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman. 

But now? Breakker has been, in a word, benched. 

Maybe it won't be a long-term thing. But there's also a scenario where Breakker has seemingly hit his glass ceiling. 

Weekly WWE programming has stressed this well enough. Breaker is back from injury but taking losses and, at this point, is more of a bodyguard in The Vision, than anything else. Maxxine Dupri would appear to be the breakout star from that group, which is not what anyone would have predicted when it was formed. 

Then we have WWE Unreal, which just featured footage of Triple H and Co. going away from Breakker as the Royal Rumble winner for fear of fan backlash. 

Triple H even dropped this during the segment: "So the risk with Bron Breakker is everything from, can he actually do it? Can he mentally handle it? Will fans accept it? So you have to really be sure."

It's unwise for fans to just hand-wave off WWE Unreal as a scripted thing, too. It's not like they have done anything to build prior feuds and characters around what happens on the show. And really, oftentimes, the show makes those involved with the creative process look like fools, if we're being honest. 

So, about Breakker. If nothing else, WWE appears to be rightfully cautious about creating another "Big Dog Roman Reigns" situation. It doesn't help that he suffered an injury that impacted WrestleMania plans, nor does it help that Oba Femi is the true next big thing in a way that Breakker simply cannot be. 

And there is both the problem and truth of the matter: Breakker doesn't have it. Honestly, he's felt like a community project for a while now. All fans seemed to agree his promo game, for instance, was weak. It was pretty common to see positive sentiment about his promos by the week, with social media full of "he's getting better" and "that was a good one!" discourse. 

Which, on its own, isn't a bad thing. But when the community seems to agree a guy isn't ready, albeit in a positive way, it's probably best if he isn't taking down Royal Rumble matches just yet. 

Perhaps it's worth wondering if Breakker eventually repackages himself a bit on the journey, though. "Bron Breakker" on its own has a little WWE 2K create-a-wrestler vibe to it. Leaning into the "Steiner" last name might be a good thing in the long run. 

Then again…getting away from "legacy" allegations can be a good thing, too. There's an angle here where he and WWE lean into the WWE Unreal footage. It's easy to root for him if they do so and he's an anti-corporate, anti-Triple H sort of guy who can rise above the messy TKO-WWE stuff and climb up the ladder without the help of a stable or whatever. 

In that way, Femi's rise and so blatantly stealing the top spot as a new main-eventer could be a sort of cliched blessing in disguise for Breakker. The road he's taking isn't what most expected, but there's still room for Femi-Breakker to carry the next wave, if not headline things like WrestleMania in time. 

Rarely, anyway, is the path so predictable for a wrestler. If this new way of booking a rising star is WWE learning from the past, and Breakker can leverage it into something good and more long-term sustainable, then everyone emerges a winner, no matter how dire things seem right now. 

Given his talent, lineage and everything else, Breakker will be fine either way. But if he's going to hit that peak everyone seems to agree is incredibly high, pulling the plug on a too-early push was a (pretty rare) good call by WWE creative.