Triple H's Backstage Power

[Rendclaw 0]

I doubt Vince willed the company to HHH, anyone with a half of brain (yes Vince has about that much) knows that leaving something in the will to a husband/wife of a child is foolish...but he probably will give it to Steph, which of course leads to Hunter owning it pretty much.  Maybe once he cant wrestle anymore he'll bow out gracefully like Shawn Michaels Kevin Nash, and Ric Flair

Which is to say, not at all.

 

In a sick perverted way, I *hope* the WWE dies within 5-8 years. If the talent has saved up enough money, they should be all right and maybe, just maybe, from the ashes of the E will come something that gets back to what made wrestling great in the first place.

 

WRESTLING.

 

I was listening to BTR doing an interview with Steve Corino, and he was talking about how RoH's success is directly linked to their video/DVD sales and how neither they or MLW is not in a position to be in direct competition to the E yet, and how TNA has to seriously get their ducks in a row as far as booking goes.

 

Think about this: If the E were to straighten up and fly right tomorrow, doing everything they are SUPPOSED to be doing to garner true success for the company, what would happen? The industry itself would get a shot in the arm, and the other feds would get drawn along in its wake. TNA is arguably #2 in the food chain, with RoH and MLW pretty much on its heels. If the E truly *did* give the fans what they wanted, it would mean much higher ratings, better PPW draws and buyrates, right?

 

It would also mean that the competition would have to start doing better, or be left in the dust.

 

Its the Tiger Woods theory. Back when he was completely dominating men's golf, it meant more money for the other players. While they secretly hated Tiger because they could not beat him or at times even come close to it, it meant higher purses for events, more endorsement deals and so forth. Their quality of life got better, because they were making more money off of Tiger kicking their collective asses. It also meant that if they cared about winning, they had to get better, and eventually they did.

 

Networks would be looking for TV deals, and not just with the E, who has their UPN deal for Smackdown. Other feds would start getting offers, and that is the ONE thing that is keeping TNA from becoming a legitimate threat to the stranglehold the E has on the wrestling industry.

 

Vince got a serious wake up call when WCW, with the power of a national cable network behind it, came to within a hairsbreadth of putting him out of business for good. It forced him to get better, more creative, and push his staff and talent to do the same thing.

 

Now under some alleged shady business dealings after some SERIOUS mismanagement, WCW ended up being bought up by Vince, who decided to never be in that position of vulnerability ever again.

 

So he hires subpar writers, allows certain members of his talent get away with all kinds of serious power plays, running all the way up to marrying his daughter and heir to his empire, and simply odes what he wants with his shows, instead of doing the best to put on a quality show with the best talent he has available. He also pays his talent very good salaries, but kills their passion for the business by allowing above mentioned power plays and his subpar writers to put them in rather degrading storylines (Kane and Booker T come immediately to mind).

 

With him being the only game in town, with the rest being nothing but sideshow attractions to him, he puts into effect a reverse spin on the above-mentioned Tiger Woods theory.

 

He has the best available to him, but he does just enough with it to keep his main source of support (the marks), hungry for more, while keeping the business in general suppressed to the point where no other promotion can ever be a serious threat to him.

 

The problem with that is that it can only work for so long. I say 5-8 years, 10 at the most.

 

Just my opinion, take it for what its worth.

Edited August 1, 2003 by Rendclaw

[Guest Lil Naitch]

Shane was put over the fucking Big Show for the first fall of that match that ended the Invasion. Why did Shane wrestle in the main event to the blowoff to the Invasion? Cause he was a big part of it, that's why. He walked after they lost and wasn't heard from for awhile.

 

What Spotlight? Please.

Actually, Shane pinned show after everybody else had hit his finisher on him, and then was murdered by the WWE superstars and Tombstoned by Taker to end his involvement. And originally, Vince was supposed to be in Show's shoes, but for some reason backed out.

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

Weren't they saying basically the exact same thing months ago? We all know that HHH is in Vince's ear, which is nothing new, since wrestlers have been doing that since Vince took over. He's always put a select few above his own son, so this really isn't news. I wish people didn't start threads for every little thing, especially when the topic is so flimsy that the thread's sure to fizzle out quickly.

[Guest CronoT]

Weren't they saying basically the exact same thing months ago? We all know that HHH is in Vince's ear, which is nothing new, since wrestlers have been doing that since Vince took over. He's always put a select few above his own son, so this really isn't news. I wish people didn't start threads for every little thing, especially when the topic is so flimsy that the thread's sure to fizzle out quickly.

You call 3 pages in one day for a non TV/PPV Thread slow?

 

I think somebody's expectations are a little high.

[Guest Dmann2000]

That's because according to insiders like Meltz, Steph has a better head for wrestling than Shane

Then what the hell was with the Dawn Marie/Al Wilson angle earlier this year, or Steph and Vince coming up with the "Stephanie had sex with Vince's business partners to get him what he wanted" segment? Not to say Shane's any better though, because anyone who pushes for Test, makes wrestlers look inferior to him once he(Shane) comes back to TV, and takes pointless bumps that also make wrestlers look weak, is no better than a clueless, breast-sagging, soap-opera-loving bitch or a senile, toupee-wearing jackass, which leads me to believe that WWE will eventually be going out of business(duh!) because of the McMahons' incompetence on knowing how to run a wrestling promotion.

Well if they're incompetent, how in the hell did they manage to keep the thing running for 20+ years?

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

Weren't they saying basically the exact same thing months ago?  We all know that HHH is in Vince's ear, which is nothing new, since wrestlers have been doing that since Vince took over.  He's always put a select few above his own son, so this really isn't news.  I wish people didn't start threads for every little thing, especially when the topic is so flimsy that the thread's sure to fizzle out quickly.

You call 3 pages in one day for a non TV/PPV Thread slow?

 

I think somebody's expectations are a little high.

I wasn't just talking about this thread, since yes, there has been some nice discussion here and there throughout the thread. Just seems that there are usually a lot of new threads started daily that don't need their own thread. And just for the record, several pages for a thread doesn't exactly equal great or even good discussion. For proof of that, look no further than your typical RAW thread.

[Guest Big McLargeHuge]

Whoa, whoa, whoa...What's all this about HHH and backstage power?  I never heard about any of this before.

Newbie....

 

Paul Levesque (Triple H) used his relationship(s) with Stephanie McMahon to get what can only be described as a then unheard of amount of backstage power. This means he was telling Vince, albeit politely, who he would job to, who he wouldn't job to, when he would work, and who he would or wouldn't work with.

 

The stories about Levesque manipulating angles and matches backstage are legion. But, the one that most people still remember very well was the Booker/Triple H WM switch.

 

The orignial plan for the RAW Title match was for Booker to win the title, and for him and Triple H feud over it for a few months, probably ending with Triple H winning it back at SummerSlam. (This was before Goldberg was signed on.)

 

The backstage skits between Booker and Triple H leading up to WM portrayed Triple H as a racist, and even the commentators were in on it, with Jerry Lawler repeatedly mentioning that Booker served time for the armed robbery of a convience store.

 

According to leaks from the creative and booking teams, Triple H was livid that he was going to be jobbing to Booker for the title. So, approximately 2-3 days before WM, the end was changed, with Booker T going down.

 

What really made this match stand out, and not in a good way, was that almost every other match with two main event caliber wrestlers had the jobbing guy go down after 3 "finishers." Booker T was hit with the Pedigree once, and then lied there for the delayed cover and count.

 

Booker was then reduced to lower mid-card hell, until his feud with Christian for the IC title, which is still going on now. Since the IC champ is usually the "unofficial" #1 Contender for the World Title, Booker may get his chance again; but don't be surprised if when Booker starts getting really over again, he mysteriously goes on a losing streak, and can't even win the IC title.

Whoa, is this legit?

 

I was off the net at around WM.

[Guest mach7]

Unreal.

 

Vince needs to SO die so Shane can take over.

That's some great grammar there, chief.

 

...aaaand kudos to Trips. I love to see stuff like this happening. Especially to a McMahon. Fuck 'em all, big or small. It's all about the Game, baby.

[Guest Ripper]

That's because according to insiders like Meltz, Steph has a better head for wrestling than Shane

Then what the hell was with the Dawn Marie/Al Wilson angle earlier this year, or Steph and Vince coming up with the "Stephanie had sex with Vince's business partners to get him what he wanted" segment? Not to say Shane's any better though, because anyone who pushes for Test, makes wrestlers look inferior to him once he(Shane) comes back to TV, and takes pointless bumps that also make wrestlers look weak, is no better than a clueless, breast-sagging, soap-opera-loving bitch or a senile, toupee-wearing jackass, which leads me to believe that WWE will eventually be going out of business(duh!) because of the McMahons' incompetence on knowing how to run a wrestling promotion.

Well if they're incompetent, how in the hell did they manage to keep the thing running for 20+ years?

Well look at them now. They are only making about 200 million in profit now. They are only drawing about 6 million viewers a week now. They are only NEARLY selling out arenas instead of selling them out in hours.

 

I mean seriously people, name one francshise or business in the United States of America that isn't going to tough business right now. Bottom line is the WWE is still pulling in a great profit (although they are having to skinny out the roster to keep the profit margin steady) and they are still pulling in great ratings. They aren't going anywhere. Something HUGE would have to happen before this 200 million dollar company goes out of business, and it won't be because Vince and family are on the screen.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

I love how HHH's show, RAW pretty much kills SmackDown week in, week out in terms of ratings and all, but HHH is a cancerous evil doer who is financially killing the WWE.

[Guest Ripper]

I love how HHH's show, RAW pretty much kills SmackDown week in, week out in terms of ratings and all, but HHH is a cancerous evil doer who is financially killing the WWE.

Yeah...but Smackdown is up against Friends and every other big time ratings show on television...and STILL does good ratings. But the WWE is going out of business.

[Guest Loss4Words]

The summary of what happened in the HHH/Booker T feud is grossly misleading. HHH doesn't refuse to do jobs. HHH is just *so* beloved that the thought of him doing a job isn't entertained. And HHH himself has no power. HHH just has influence over the people who do. There is a difference.

 

What happened with HHH was not that he just completely refused to job to Booker. He just came up with all these reasons not to do so and it made sense and they listened to him and changed the finish.

 

The reason HHH has been able to maintain his influence over the past three years is because while he is obviously out for himself, he has never taken the direct route. He doesn't directly insult guys like Jericho and RVD to management, he probably just throws out a comment like "Hey, once RVD gets his act fully together, you should push him to the top", which lends the impression that RVD is not ready, even if he is.

 

You're all giving HHH too much credit in thinking he just goes around barking orders. That would be too obvious and totally expose him. The reason he's made it so far is that Vince genuinely thinks he cares and that he is selfless.

[Guest Anglesault]

I love how HHH's show, RAW pretty much kills SmackDown week in, week out in terms of ratings and all, but HHH is a cancerous evil doer who is financially killing the WWE.

I love how when he voluntarily takes hiself off Raw, ratings go up and then go back down when he coes back.

 

He just came up with all these reasons not to do so and it made sense

 

To whom?

[Guest Loss4Words]

Whether you agree with the decision, keeping HHH strong for Goldberg made sense in theory, although it totally ignores what happens to Booker. I think the wrong decision was made, but I can see how they thought it was the right one.

[Guest DarthLordOfWrestling]

Unreal.

 

Vince needs to SO die so Shane can take over.

If Vince dies than it won't be Shane's buisness. It'll be either Steph's buisness or Tripple H's.

[Guest Ripper]

If Vince dies, how in the blue hell do any of you know who the company would go to? Seriously.

[Guest Choken One]

Likely...The company will still be Linda's in some capaticy...right?

[iggymcfly 0]

If you remember, right after No Way Out, HHH was trying really hard to get Booker over, with his promos about how "people like him" would never deserve the title. However, Booker just sat there the whole time with his one blank facial expression, and then put no heat into his beatdown of Flair backstage. If the finish of the match was changed, it has a lot more to do with Booker's complete lack of acting talent than with HHH's political power plays.

[Guest CanadianChick]

See, I'm glad Booker didn't get the belt. Of course, that's just me though.

 

And if Triple H does in fact play politics to keep his belt, it's not too hard for him or anything. Look at his major feuds in 2003. (by the way, this isn't exactly my opinion, just a point of view one could take) Steiner: got booed, can't work match, shouldn't be champion. Booker: Step below, can't act, isn't very solid in the ring, shouldn't be champion. Nash: Can't work, isn't very over, shouldn't get title. Goldberg: Too stiff in the ring, is a 'disappointment'.

[JN News 0]

See, I'm glad Booker didn't get the belt. Of course, that's just me though.

 

And if Triple H does in fact play politics to keep his belt, it's not too hard for him or anything. Look at his major feuds in 2003. (by the way, this isn't exactly my opinion, just a point of view one could take) Steiner: got booed, can't work match, shouldn't be champion. Booker: Step below, can't act, isn't very solid in the ring, shouldn't be champion. Nash: Can't work, isn't very over, shouldn't get title. Goldberg: Too stiff in the ring, is a 'disappointment'.

The only person who should be worthy enough to get the World Title is Jericho. He has both acting & wrestling talent. However, Hunter Hearst Hogan's ego is so huge, that he can't even bare to put over Jericho even once.

[Guest CanadianChick]

Right now though, he has an excuse, since both are heels. But I get what you're saying.

[Guest JRE]

A woman shouldn't be on a wrestling booking team anyway.

Now what the fuck was that suppose to mean? If someone can write well, they can write well. Gender doesn't matter.

Agreed. I remember reading about how right before WWF left USA, they had a woman who sat in on the writing team and helped control it. I think she was a representive for USA, and they said she did excellent. This was like early 2000, which has some of the best Raw's EVER.

 

My memory is fuzzy, though.

Yeah, I believe she came in in 98 or 99. She stressed continuity, production value, and characterization. I'm not sure how much she was there in 2000, as the Viacom deal was sealed pretty early on. I read this all in Sex, Lies, and Headlocks.