An article about the Lame

[Guest humongous2002]

From The Top 03.11.03: Triple H/WrestleMania Ideas

Posted By Ross Williams on 03.11.03

As the camera pans across the crowd, a sea of fans sporting Triple H t-shirts comes into view. Actually, that’s complete bollocks. Back in 2001 and 2002, there were Triple H t-shirts in the audience. It’s pretty rare you see one these days. Why is that?

 

Part of it can be attributed to the man being a heel but another part of it can be attributed to people just not going for him. Over the last six months, since RAW officially became the Triple H memorial show starring Triple H with a special guest appearance by Triple H, ratings have declined. Am I going to pin this on Tripper’s nose? Not entirely, but to a large extent.

 

Last week, we went through the Tripper backstory, where we saw his reluctance to put any up-and-comers over him due to his seemingly-increasing paranoia. This is one of the main reasons why RAW finds itself stuck in a rut. Each week, the formula seems to be similar – bring someone out, get them to start making forward movement, drag Triple H out, have him bore the audience with a long monologue which ends up curbing any momentum that the show may have been getting up, have a couple of backstage skits involving Triple H along the way which are of no real entertainment value and then move towards the main event slot of the night, where Triple H will either A/ win the match B/ lose the match and look screwed in doing so C/ involve himself in a match so as to dominate the close of the show.

 

But Ross, I hear you say, what about RAW this last week? The show closed with Rock and Steve Austin! Tripper was nowhere to be seen! True. This just corroborates one of my previous points though – Triple H will let your Austin’s and your Rocky’s have the big slot of the night since they’re ALREADY established. In Tripper’s eyes, there’s enough food at the table for the three of them but DAMNED if he’s going to share any of his grub with anyone who’s not already got a reserved seat on top table.

 

What we needed from Hunter was this level of selflessness several months ago. Back when there was no Rocky or Austin on RAW, what did the show have? The top three faces were Rob Van Dam, Kane and Booker T. All three were seemingly on the verge of becoming very pivotal players for the group and all three ended up on the scrapheap following their brief forays into the penthouse. Don’t believe me? Try these three on for size:

 

1/ Rob Van Dam has been RAWs most continually over Superstar for the last year. Rob is also one of the few RAW competitors who is capable of providing regular **+ in ring action. Rob’s got an interesting (read: marketable) look, great potential for merchandising, a solid catchphrase, a persona that is believable but also enjoyable (if very rudimentary) and a fan base that STILL rallies behind him despite him having achieved nothing of real note in the last 12 months.

 

Rob Van Dam steps up into a feud with Triple H. I can’t remember anything about the feud except that Triple H turned back the challenge with ease. The fact that I can’t remember anything about the RVD/HHH feud except the outcome should tell you something there. Rob was never positioned as a serious threat to Triple H. You can blame Hunter, blame Vince, blame whoever – the bottom line is that a contender needs to look like they’ve got a shot at winning the big one – especially if they’re a face!

 

Rob is promptly moved down the card to make way for Kane.

 

2/ Kane has been one of RAWs most over Superstars since his return to action in the middle of last year. When Kane came back from his biceps injury, he had a new and marketable look, great potential for merchandising, a name for his fans (Kanenites), a persona that is unbelievable but works for him and a depth of character few thought possible from something which originally was just another victim for the Undertaker. Despite having achieved nothing of real note in several years, the fans still rallied behind him upon his comeback.

 

Kane steps into a feud with Triple H. At the beginning, I genuinely felt they were going to do the right thing and pass the belt across to the Big Red Machine (hey, I’m not saying he’s the best choice, just that he’d make a nice change to Hunter). By week two of the feud, I’m beginning to doubt they’ll do it – mainly because Hunter appears to be playing face. The build up to the IC vs World Title unification match continues and Triple H doesn’t seem to be bothered about Kane. He doesn’t seem threatened by him at all. By week 4, it’s pretty bleeding obvious that Kane hasn’t got a chance in hell. As a result, the PPV match is met with apathy and Kane looks feeble in losing, because nobody took him seriously as a threat going in. How are the fans meant to get behind him in a feud if the heel champion does not appear threatened?

 

Kane is promptly moved down the card to make way for Booker T.

 

3/ Booker T has been one of RAWs most over Superstars since his face turn soon after WrestleMania last year. Booker has a marketable look (a man of colour as top liner is nothing to be sneezed at – Ron Simmons excepted), great potential for merchandising, a red-hot catchphrase that the fans love and a ridiculous SportZ Entertainment move to pop the crowd. Despite having achieved little of note since the Alliance was buried, the fans still rally behind him.

 

Booker T steps into a feud with Triple H. Within two weeks, Booker is a footnote in the Triple H story, as Shawn Michael’s second comeback of the year begins to take precedence over Booker’s shot at Tripper. By week three, Booker is only involved in matches with Triple H in order to give Tripper a reason to be weakened when Shawn would do his weekly run in. Booker is pinned unceremoniously by Tripper on RAW before Survivor Series in a tag match and then is the second out at the PPV elimination match. How can the fans get behind someone if the heel champion actually appears to ignore the existence of the individual?

 

Booker T is promptly moved down the card to make way for up-and-coming hungry tiger Shawn Michaels.

 

Of course, we all know that Michaels would go on to drop the strap to Triple H soon thereafter and Triple Hs ego rollercoaster would continue up to this very moment. Scott Steiner was ostensibly brought in just to make Triple H look stronger, but it was just all wrong by this point. Whilst Triple H *was* finally doing the right thing by making the fans believe that Steiner really did have Hunter’s number, it was all for naught since the fans turned on Scott very quickly due to his dearth of skill and antiquated persona. Heck, Triple H even came out of this feud smelling of roses because he looked like a capable worker next to Steiner.

 

Perhaps I’m being a touch simple for some here, but I believe in the classic programmes of A/ heel champion cheats and connives, desperately trying to retain World title from fan favourite and B/ face champion fends off serious threat from villainous heel who want the face’s most prized possession. They’re simple and they’re effective. What progress can a company make when the heel champion is just lazily swatting at his top contenders, making them look ineffective? Heck, it MIGHT just work if the FACE had been the champ, swatting at the ineffective heels, since at least the crowd have something to get behind there, but putting the belt on a heel and making him the strongest man in the promotion only leaves us one thing to do – hope he gets his ass handed to him. Yet here we are, waiting for it for months and it just doesn’t happen. It would be a good build up to the eventual loss but for two small snags: firstly, short term, Tripper’s not making anyone look like a challenge for him, effectively killing any heat instantly and secondly, we’re all completely aware that anyone who drops Triple H for the strap will do so on a seeming fluke and will be losing it back soon thereafter.

 

RAW has been more enjoyable in the last two weeks than it has been in about 12 months. The Rock is the most vital part of this upturn in quality and, as is widely publicised, he’s already put Booker T over in a battle royal and bothered working with The Hurricane, someone that Triple H couldn’t even be bothered to squash during his programme with Kane last year. The results? Booker’s star is shining brighter, The Hurricane is actually worth something again and the product is entertaining for a brief moment. Heck, the Rock even gains from it, since he looks superb in his role as wrestler and entertainer. The win-loss record is unimportant. Rock probably has the absolute worst win-loss record for a headline EVER but he is still very much a bona fide main eventer. This is less about the win or the loss but more about how he handles feuds, who he works with, what he does with them in order to make people look worthy. Ultimately, a collective only move as fast as their slowest member. The Rock makes his opponents look like main eventers and, as such, they are elevated to his level and the match becomes worthwhile. Triple H makes his opponents look like mid carders – what he doesn’t grasp is this only makes him look weak in his role as main eventer.

 

Backstage, there’s not much to say – Triple H pretty much gets what he wants in terms of character development, feuds etc. and ensures that he looks good at the expense of those who could stand to keep him down in future. It common knowledge that more than a few of the “boys” think he’s a magnanimous prick. When you hear about the time that he commandeered a production meeting and decided to inform the entire roster that they were a disgrace, not working hard enough and needed to bust their ass in order to get the break, just like he did, what kind of message does that send? Politick your way to the top? Sleep your way to the top? Vitamin supplement (sic) your way to the top? Spare the bullshit please.

 

That might work if it was the year 2000, when Tripper had a solid argument that he was the absolute best wrestler in the world.

 

This is the year 2003 and people can see right through that now – Triple H is a has-been, someone desperately trying to eliminate every threat to his position on the roster and trying to always make someone look worse than him so that he doesn’t cop the consequences.

 

What can we do about it? Not a huge amount since, until Stephanie is relieved of the pencil (as needs to happen INSTANTLY), Triple H will retain his top line status. However, I’d say that Triple H either needs to find Booker T increasingly threatening over the next few weeks and be visibly scared of him by WrestleMania time or that he needs to continue with the “you’re a nobody” line that he took on RAW this week. Nothing in between – but it needs to be followed up.

 

My current suspicion is that Triple H will do one of two things:

 

1/ Continue to make Booker look like a nobody in the upcoming weeks and then squash him at WrestleMania.

 

2/ Continue to make Booker look like a nobody in the upcoming weeks and then drop the belt to him at WrestleMania to an apathetic crowd reaction, and then use this apathy from the crowd to conVince that Booker’s a flop and that the belt should come back to Hunter – which it will do at Backlash.

 

I will dig out my wallet and put my cash on the line again – Hunter is likely to be very much behind the idea of basing the feud around him not taking Booker seriously, since it’s a win-win situation for him. He’s got an excuse if he loses and can point the finger at Booker if the feud flops, and if it succeeds, he’ll take the credit for giving Book the knee-up. I would wager that they’re going for the “make Booker the underdog” line for the big event, something that I do not think will work, since it’s just going to demean Book and kill heat up front and we’ll be back to square one.

 

If they’re going to go with this, they need to take one of two options:

 

1/ Have Booker beat the Rock on RAW tomorrow and Triple H smirk at him from the entranceway. Booker walks up the aisle toward Triple H and Triple H is still smirking at him, clapping sarcastically. Triple H refuses to be threatened, which backfires when Booker kicks the living shit out of Hunter. The next two weeks on RAW are spent with Booker hunting some Hunter. When it gets to WrestleMania, Triple H should not just be fearing for his belt, he should be fearing for his life.

 

2/ Have Triple H take Booker lightly. Booker beats Hunter at WrestleMania. Triple H claims “fluke” and challenges him for a rematch at Backlash. He takes this a little more seriously. Triple H loses again. Triple H is enraged by this and challenges Book for a gimmick match at Judgement Day, taking it more seriously than he has with anyone else before. We see Hunter in serious training for the match in the weeks leading up. Hunter loses the match again. By now, we’ve established Booker as a serious player, worthy of respect. We can then have Hunter win the belt back on RAW at some point by a completely underhanded heel tactic, thus making Booker stronger as a face and Hunter stronger as a heel.

 

I guess my view is pretty simplistic – a face should be someone that the average viewer thinks will and wills to win and is pissed off when they lose, and a heel is someone who the average fan thinks will lose and wills to lose and is pissed off when they win.

 

We expect Triple H to win now. All of the time. That takes all of the fun out of him being a heel, which takes all the fun out of his opponent as a weak face and, as such, there’s no big fan favourite, no face marketing for RAW, no huge merchandise franchise, no movie, no Mekhi Phifer...

 

Eminem suggests losing yourself in the music. I would suggest that Triple H loses himself in the ring and realises that he’s just part of the show – not the whole thing.

credit:411mania

[Guest SP-1]

Good read. An explosion of pessimistic expectations, but a good read.

[Guest TheArchiteck]

Yah, pretty interesting read.

Pretty much heard it all here though in some sort.

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

It's a shame that every "Smarter" fan, Wrestler and even the biggest of marks can see this but the Higher Powers in WWE can't.

[Guest snowfan]

He was a lot more polite and verbose than most here, but his points largely ring true.

 

snowfan

[Guest Steviekick]

Good article about the HHH situation. In the words of Metallica.."sad but true."

[Garth 0]

That was a good read and everything said was very true about HHH i would love to see him get his ass handed to him at mania. I think what would be a really great thing would be have a no DQ match at mania and have RVD, Kane and any other ppl that HHH has pissed on in the past come out and destroy HHH so Booker gets the win.