WWE: 10 Reasons Why the Triple H Storyline Is Falling Apart

One thing is for sure: WWE Raw's conspiracy angle (which has seen some unseen person attempt to sabotage Triple H's run as COO) has, through a combination of rash booking and misguided priorities, greatly faltered in recent weeks and went from great television to soul-sappingly awful television in a frighteningly short amount of time.

Who's behind the conspiracy? Hey, at this point the more pertinent question may be: Who really cares?

With this in mind, let's go into some of the reasons this once-promising power-struggle angle fell apart...

Awesome Truth's Return Makes No Sense

So, Awesome Truth became convinced there's a conspiracy and someone is working against them. They viciously attack several referees, leading to HHH firing them on Raw. They protest their firing by running in at Hell in a Cell and taking out everything in sight, including a referee and two helpless cameramen.They then get arrested by police. The following day the duo announce on a Youtube, played on Raw, that they are now suing WWE for wrongful termination.

But then new GM John Laurinaitis comes out at the end of last week's Raw and announces the two are back in WWE, and Awesome Truth come out like all happy and smiling like there were no issues whatsoever.

Um...what about them trespassing at a WWE show and interrupting the main event? Have WWE just simply forgiven that? Threatening a lawsuit? That has presumably been dropped too, with little or no questions.

Of course this may make slightly more sense if it had been established on television that the pair are part of the conspiracy with Laurinaitis and Vince McMahon...but that has never been outright said. In fact they were complaining the conspiracy was against them in the first place.

Broomsticks

During Monday Night Raw's surreal opening segment, Triple H—enraged that most of the roster had walked out the previous week and were protesting outside of the arena, refusing to come back in—tore of his jacket and vowed the show would go on regardless, announcing: “I don't care if I have to take off this suit, strip down to my underwear, get a broomstick in this ring...I'll wrestle a broomstick for two hours, hell I've wrestled a lot a lot of those guys in the parking lot. A broomstick can probably give me better match that most of them.”

Yes, HHH, our supposed babyface, just compared the majority of the WWE unfavourably to broomsticks. An unbelievably arrogant, counter-productive comment, we don't know what HHH was thinking when he said this, or what Vince was thinking for green-lighting it (if it was indeed in the script and not something Hunter just made up the spot).

Indeed, this comment was so bad, it greatly damaged HHH's credibility and likability in this storyline: why exactly should we root for a guy who is more than happy to trash most of his hard-working roster?

Besides, HHH's attempts to put over a broomstick were dumb: everyone knows they're too stiff in the ring and they are far too wooden on promos. They don't shake hands, either, and are known for being rather prickly and quiet backstage.

Vince's Return Was Badly Done

Let's make it clear: The return of Vince McMahon to WWE Television should have been a huge deal. It was reportedly meant to the pay-off to this entire conspiracy storyline, after all. Done correctly, it would could have been a gripping, hugely dramatic segment: the ousted owner coming for vengeance and claim back what his, even if it meant betraying his own family.

Instead, a worn-down looking Vince simply wandered down the aisle, to a decidedly tepid reaction, and flatly told HHH that the “Board of Directors” had decided an erratic HHH was doing WWE more damage than good, and that he was being removed from power. It was a huge anti-climax. And the in-ring confrontation between Hunter and McMahon didn't make terribly much sense: are we really supposed to think the Board of Directors didn't even talk to HHH before deciding to remove him from power? And why did they ask Vince, the guy they got rid of, remember, to deliver the news? This was a huge letdown.

The Heels Are Right

HHH is the babyface here. Or so we're told.Except he doesn't really come off that likable. And the heels seem more than justified for complaining about him.

A problem of this angle is that all the criticisms of the heels are valid: during his time as COO Triple H has shown himself to be incredibly petty, stubborn, unwilling to listen to others, ignorant to their concerns and entirely unable to deal with the problems Raw faces.

No wonder they want rid of him; he's the worst boss, ever!

The Babyfaces Look Like Ass-Kissers

Following on from the heels being justified in the walkout angle , it should be noted the main event babyfaces came off looking incredibly bad here.

In fact, during's Raw's opening segment, after HHH insisted the show would go on, John Cena, Sheamus and CM Punk all came out, one by one, to heap lavish praise Hunter for not caving into the demands of the roster, and vowing to stand alongside him and management.

Coming off as toadying company men, this was an awful, counterproductive segment. Even the once-rebellious CM Punk suddenly became a pro-management, corporate drone, harshly criticising the protesters for acting out and branding them “hippies.” Wonderful.

This Storyline Is Being Booked on the Fly

“We're not sure where this is all going,” Vince McMahon told HHH on Monday Night Raw. Vince was ostensibly talking about the Board of Directors struggling to find a GM, although he may as well have been talking about this storyline.

By all accounts, Raw is being booked on the fly these days. These days the show gets written, and rewritten countless times, usually according to Vince's mood on that particular day. As a result, the writers are booking themselves into a corner (rumour has it, WWE had no clue how they were going to tap up the walkout storyline when the angle was performed on Raw) and the whole storyline is suffering from a lack of cohesion and planning.

The Walkout Angle Was a Terrible Idea

Just who got over from this, anyway? HHH looked like a stubborn fool. The midcard babyfaces and heels were made to look like complete sheep who would do whatever John Laurinaitis told them, the main event faces (Cena, Punk, Sheamus) came off as corporate cronies; heck, even the production people, who abandoned Hunter last week, lost face.

It seems only the broomstick emerged with any credibility.

Triple H Has Become Too Overexposed

As COO of WWE Triple H was all over the show. His removal from power might be a blessing simply because it means we'll see less of him.

Not content to be opening Raw every other week with long promos and appearing in seemingly ever other backstage segment, he was also a big presence on SmackDown too. The WWE booking team were determined to get him over. Apparently forgetting he was already over and didn't need all that airtime.

Ideally, this storyline should have seen up and coming babyfaces, like Sheamus or Air Boom, spring to Hunter's defence and vowing to defend WWE from the conspirators. Getting a main event rub in the process. Instead, as Hunter was pushed forefront of this angle, it became HHH vs. the World. And, of course, as his stubborn opening promo on Raw last week illustrated perfectly, he even managed to come out on top in that rivalry too!

A a time when WWE should be building top acts for the future, focusing solely on a forty year old part-time wrestler certainly doesn't seem the smartest course of action.

HHH Doesn't Seem Terribly Bothered About Being Ousted

This conspiracy storyline hinged on a brave HHH defiantly hanging onto power, despite powerful unseen forces working capriciously against him. But there's one problem: HHH isn't particularly bothered about running the company and has indicated a few times he thinks the COO position is more trouble than it's worth.

Indeed, aside from briefly threatening his replacement John Laurinaitis backstage, he didn't really sell his demotion at all and took it relatively well when Vince broke the news to him (contrast this to Vince's reaction when Hunter told him he was fired back in July, the old guy was in tears and completely distraught). By the end of the night, he seemed more focused on teaming with Punk and beating up Awesome Truth than he did with reclaiming power.

THAT Episode of Raw

The Oct. 10 edition of Raw will live on in the minds of WWE fans. The mere mention of it will send a shiver down their spines. It will make them want to bolt the doors and hide under bed. It will haunt their dreams. It has gotten under their skins...and will stay there. Forever.

Well, OK, we are exaggerating. But not by much.

This was easily the worst episode of Raw in history. The show with Jeremy Piven and Dr Ken looked like In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede by comparision. A utterly disastrous, soul-sapping piece of television, as the night went on it veered wildly from simply very bad (HHH trashing the entire roster at the start) to mind-numbingly stupid (Rosa Mendes somehow managing to botch simply standing in a corner) to extremely unsettling (JR's humiliating treatment).

The intriguing conspiracy storyline, which was at the centre of the show, was sullied greatly just be being featured so heavily on it, and it's going to be a struggle to build it up again.