HHH injured neck, collapses

[jester 0]

HHH is trying to be Flair, but has become Dusty Rhodes.

That sums it up perfectly.

 

Let's call him Dusty Rhhhodes from now on.

[Guest Mos_Def]

I just want the WWE to be better.

 

Fuck morals, fuck karma.  Him on TV hurts the product, and is killing my interest in it.

 

And it's not about the paycheck anymore, HHH is in the family now, it's about Ego.  The man goes out there every Monday and jerks it off.

 

Eh, I don’t think Raw’s are that bad…matter of fact I usually enjoy them…Then again, I don’t live with this internet-fueled, persecution complex where I feel like some tortured soul having to withstand the WWE oppression…show has its good points and bad points, I move on…

 

Another point is that HHH is just a physical manifestation of the WWE’s new post-Attitude philosophy. Very white-bread, conservative, god-bless America corporate bullshit. HHH is the guy they feel most comfortable with. A good hand they can count on so to speak. They don’t have to worry about him hurting somebody, falling off the ring rope twice in one match (like Jericho did in SS 2001), or losing interest like Goldberg.

 

A camera hog? yes. He has become the sun to the WWE’s earth. Would it be beneficial if he disappeared? Probably, but not as much as people think it would. Saying that he is killing the show might be a bit strong. The philosophy of upper-management would remain the same. Can change the wrestler not the system.

 

I mean, the guy still puts on reasonably good performances, whether through promos or matches. Its not like he mirrors one of the old WCW guys from the late-90’s. He’s still in his prime and all that.

 

Lastly, HHH is no fool. This shit with Steph might not last forever. If he and Steph had a falling out, he would need to cobble every dime resting in the crevices of his couch, because his bank account would be under assault. Every paycheck counts, he could be back at square one at any moment.

[Guest Mos_Def]

If I could be serious for a moment, the whole thing I'll never get about HHH is that his best interests and the McMahons' best interests and therefore the health of the WWE are all intertwined now, so the argument that he's just doing what's best for himself and we can't blame him for that doesn't make sense. He's really just hurting his own financial interests by burying guys who clearly had potential to make his family a lot of money.

That’s a debatable point.

 

Its not like the WWE is in financial dire straits with him on top. Outside of the internet vacuum, he is not a major detriment. Again, I think that’s something that people have convinced themselves of. The WWF would not be Shangri-La if HHH wasn’t around, with Jericho or Benoit pulling in 9.0 ratings and 3.5 buyrates.

 

The handling of RVD and Booker T are less defensible, and both cases has HHH’s fingerprints all them. RVD with his cool ass demeanor, and exciting ring style could have appealed to a wide cross-section of fans. RVD is a unique talent unlike Jericho or Benoit. Its incomprehensible that vanilla Benoit got a win at Mania instead of RVD considering that RVD has so much more mass-media potential.

 

We can blame HHH solely, but I feel that the WWF doesn’t want an RVD on top. RVD is not corporate or conservative enough for Greenwich. Hell, they don’t seem to like anyone that even goes off the top rope

 

Booker T should have never had his race marginalized if HHH was planning to win their match. With his pull, HHH should have squashed it. He was dead wrong for that. Probably speaks more of the company than him.

[Guest Mos_Def]

I'm sorry, but I've been watching this bullshit for like 20something years now and I wouldn't even rank HHH in the same standing as Dusty fucking Rhodes. What has HHH done for the business besides KNOWN people? He wasn't HBK, he just knew him. He wasn't Bret Hart, he was just the friend of the guy Bret hated. He wasn't Hulk Hogan, he was just the guy that came along sometime after him. He wasn't The Rock or Stone Cold, he was the guy that was in the company same time as them and got some spotlight after they left. He wasn't Ric Flair, he was the guy that took advantage of him in his old age.

 

heh...Yeah…I’m hovering around the 20 year mark myself. HHH is definitely not on the level of a Stone Cold, Hogan, or Rock, but he isn’t the Brooklyn Brawler either. He had a hell of a 2000 year. As far as him thinking he is a legend… I wouldn’t want to crawl inside his brain, so who knows. I just know that he doesn’t “deserve” a neck injury. You cant fuck around with one of those.

 

Lol at HHH taking advantage of old man Flair....I dont know about that one, I'd put that onus on Flair himself. Seems Flair is prostituting his "legacy" in order to eek out a few more minutes in the spotlight, and to put a few more dollars in his pocket...Duke is pathetic

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Do the math.

 

HHH takes up, what, 20-30 minutes of every Raw? And that's direct focus, not counting video packages and JR talking about him in every segment. He has the longest interview time by far. He has the most PPV time also. The amount of time and attention HHH takes up on RAW per year, they could build FOUR new stars. Two in the first half of the year, two in the second half. And guess what? Those stars would be sustained rather than the "fuck with, fuck off" strategy that HHH has employed for the past 5 years. So they'd be ACTUAL stars, rather than guys like Randy Orton and Chris Benoit who end up being failures because they can't stay up top for long... just like Batista will be. Four new stars means four possibilities of turning the company around (and the company IS in bad shape, or I've been reading their financial reports all wrong, that they are not in the red is a testiment to cost cutting than revenue growth), and with HHH there that means NO possibilities for a turn around, at least on RAW. And that's what HHH is waiting for. He wants to be the one who saves the WWE and turns it all around.

 

Raw and Smackdown both are horrible shows right now. Anyone who has a sense of what good wrestling is would know that. And so what if I have a persecution complex? They openly insult internet fans and they insult our intelligence with every shitty angle and plot hole. I've fucking stuck with them through BOTH bad periods, just like everyone else here, and they can't even give us the benefit of mediocrity. The show is so fucking boring now with the same guys saying the same things and nothing has changed.

[Slayer 0]

[HHH] wants to be the one who saves the WWE and turns it all around.

What a kick in the quad it'd be if he winds up as the one who kills the WWE instead

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I think HHH is in a state of denial. Despite the WWE freefalling for the past 4 years (which, coincidently, has been when he has been fucking around on top), he probably sees it as being a case of "the rock is gone, austin is gone, there is no competition, the wrestling business is cyclical" bullshit that has been spouted off for the past, well, 4 years (how long IS a wrestling cycle, btw?). I imagine he sees himself "making" Batista like he was about to "make" Randy Orton, but Randy failed because he "wasn't ready for it and was too young but his time will come" kinda thing, whereas Batista earned it or something. Still, HHH will find a reason for his pet project to fail and take the title back and the find someone else to "make". All the while he'll continually suck the heat from everyone on the roster and do nothing with it, because he's plateau'd, can't go any higher, and can't accept it.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

It's a shame too, cause he could have (or still could) drawn real money w/ Shelton Benjamin if he wanted to. Benjamin has got the most long-term star potential as a wrestler/performer than anyone else on the roster.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I wouldn't want Benjamin anywhere near HHH. HHH stooges too much for anyone to take his reaction to Benjamins moves seriously. Benjamin, unfortunately, is best suited to work with Benoit on RAW (I say unfortunately because Benoit isn't a big enough "name" to effectively put Benjamin over the top. He can get Sheldon to the next level, but not over the top. The matches would be great, but what Benjamin needs is something more than that.) Batista isn't good enough or established enough, even if his position is right. Jericho generally can't do anything for anyone now. Maybe Guerrero could. Eddie would probably be the best bet. Benjamin would work so well on Smackdown, now that I think of it.

[Slayer 0]

"stooges"?

[iggymcfly 0]

"stooges"?

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure he means sells like crazy for everyone he faces to the point that it becomes meaningless. I mean he even sold for the first five minutes of the Rosey/Hurricane match before making his comeback.

 

And if you really wanted to get Benjamin over, it's simple. Let him work his way through the upper midcard on Raw, and then go to Smackdown, and say that Kurt was his protege, but he thinks he's surpassed him now, and he wants to prove he's the better man.

 

Honestly though, both wrestlers need to turn first, because face Benjamin has a built-in ceiling due to his shitty mic skills. Did you hear the boos in his segment with Jericho? I think actually, that the simple act of turning heel would help get him over more than anything that HHH could do right now.

[The Czech Republic 0]

he probably sees it as being a case of "the rock is gone, austin is gone, there is no competition, the wrestling business is cyclical" bullshit that has been spouted off for the past, well, 4 years (how long IS a wrestling cycle, btw?).

I remember going to my first live show in June '96, and one of the first things my dad told me that wrestling goes through cycles, where in the mid 80s it was so huge with Rock n Wrestling and Hulkamania, then it just disappeared. Don't know how that's relevant, I just thought I'd share an anecdote.

 

Hey, another anecdote: first match I ever saw in person that night in Rockford was the battle of future locker room fuckwads, Bob "Spark Plug" Holly losing to Justin "The Hawk" Bradshaw.

[alfdogg 0]

Honestly though, both wrestlers need to turn first, because face Benjamin has a built-in ceiling due to his shitty mic skills. Did you hear the boos in his segment with Jericho?

That's a fairly ridiculous argument. Jericho is the most popular guy on RAW aside from Batista; if you stick Shelton in there to get cocky with him, of course people are going to boo him.

[Secret Agent 0]

Right now JR is pretty popular too. On WWE.com the poll that ask Who do you think will win next Monday night on RAW? JR or The Game? JR is leading with a whoping 60.94 % percent of the votes.

[Lightning Flik 0]

Johnny, that's more because everyone's thinking Batista will interfere in the match and cost HHH the match.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

If wrestling is cyclical, then define the cycle. Because by that logic, in 1 year the turn around will begin. The WWE doesn't need a hot angle like the NWO as WCW did in 1996, because under the wrestling-is-cyclical theory, then product doesn't matter because its just the natural inclination of Americans to watch wrestling after a set period of time.

 

Benjamins mic skills don't suck. He has the perfect bad-ass voice which is unique in the WWE. Unfortunately, he has been conditioned to read whatever the writers give him, and the writers don't have a well-defined character for him so they can't actually design a good promo (working under the presumption that they even could design a good promo, which isn't the case) for him to say. They need for him to cut promos at house shows and not work from a script so he can get more comfortable on the mic. Jericho would have been a nice foil to spout off with if he didn't have a tendancy to bury his opponents in his promos.

[iggymcfly 0]

Well, if wrestling is cyclical, the bad news is we still have two years to go before it gets good again. Because, Batista's reign is exactly like Diesel's. (Charismatic bodyguard turn on heel champion.) At that rate, we should see the new Austin two or three PPVs from now, and then he should finally hit it big at WM XXIII.

 

I can't really say I see Batista and Orton going to TNA though.

[CanadianChick 0]

Jericho would have been a nice foil to spout off with if he didn't have a tendancy to bury his opponents in his promos.

I don't think he buried Shelton last week. I liked that little exchange they did.

 

The cyclical arguement is fine and dandy, but I do find it too much of a coincidence the same guy has been on the top for the entire down period. Now, he did get a healthy head start with the Invasion angle, but if he was an effective draw, it still wouldn't be a down period after three years of him dominating the title scene.

[2GOLD 0]

Shelton has a defined character.

He's black and there ain't no stopping him now.

 

Man Rudo, you just don't pay attention to the characters anymore. How could you miss the well defined "cocky black man" character the writers have set up for him?

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Shelton has a defined character.

He's black and there ain't no stopping him now.

 

Man Rudo, you just don't pay attention to the characters anymore. How could you miss the well defined "cocky black man" character the writers have set up for him?

It's evolved from his past character of it being "All About the Benjamins!"

[Guest Hass of Pain]

I like HHH, and obviously I hope that he isn't seriously injured. The one thing that I love about HHH is the fact that he seems like one of the few guys in WWE who really loves the old school and is still a student of the game at this point. He obviously idolizes Ric Flair and Harley Race, rocks the Ole Anderson/Harley Race facial hair these days and can build a hell of a dramatic match. WWE needs more people like that, and whereas guys like Hogan and Kevin Nash were intent on never improving once they got to the top, HHH is always trying to make himself better and he is way better for the company than The Undertaker. The speed of his recovery from his quad tear was insane, and his workout habits are even more insane. He and Ric Flair took Randy Orton and Batista under their wing, traveled with them and you hear stories Dave Batista tells about sitting at dinner with HHH at midnight and just wanting to go to bed and HHH sitting for two more hours talking about nothing but the business and how Dave could improve his game. I respect the hell out of HHH's passion and I think his mindset is a hell of a positive influence on World Wrestling Entertainment.

 

I also think that he gets too much blame for things like Shelton Benjamin. HHH made Benjamin look gold, put him over huge in their first two matches and then set him free. When Shelton Benjamin didn't have the biggest heel on Raw selling his offense and making him look like a star, he wasn't quite ready to be a star on his own yet. He's getting there though.

 

I think that the biggest problem with HHH is that he's the most dominant heel on Raw, so once anyone beats him for the title they have already had the biggest match that they could possibly have and are left with nowhere to go but down. I also think that if The Rock or Steve Austin were still around full time, the fans would treat them as the biggest stars on their show as they do HHH because they were around during the second boom of professional wrestling.

 

I totally disagree on the statement that Raw would have been better without HHH as they could "build four stars in the same amount of time". Have you seen Smackdown? They have nothing but time to kill on Smackdown, and no one is really looking like a star and the pay-per-views aren't drawing very well at all. Why? Because you need old stars for new stars to get the rub off of. I love Kurt Angle, but he can't draw or give the rub like HHH can for whatever reason, and John Cena can go over JBL a million times but it won't make him a HUGE star because he's beating a guy who most fans don't regard to be a big star.

 

HHH is pretty much the only guy left who can give a young star the kind of rub that Batista got at Wrestlemania. But when the smoke clears, HHH is still there and the fans still see him as the biggest star on the show. I don't think is entirely HHH's fault, but he doesn't help the situation either.

 

I think that by far the best thing to do with HHH is send him to Smackdown in the draft and have him form a new Evolution with Matt Morgan, Rob Conway and Charlie Haas and have him chase John Cena unsuccessfully for the title while Batista is given the chance to fly on his own on Raw.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

Triple H is in the family now. You never have to worry about family holding out for money. That's why te McMahons became so prominent on the TV screen. No McMahon is going to do anything to help the competition. He's here and he's going to stay so get used to it.

[iggymcfly 0]

Hass of Pain, great post. You pretty much expressed my exact feelings about HHH, and you were absolutely dead on the mark. The only thing that keeps you from getting post of the year status is that last paragraph.

 

Evolution's almost as played out as DX now. HHH just needs to turn on Flair, and go back on his own.

[Guest Heppyhack]

Benjamins mic skills don't suck. He has the perfect bad-ass voice which is unique in the WWE. Unfortunately, he has been conditioned to read whatever the writers give him, and the writers don't have a well-defined character for him so they can't actually design a good promo (working under the presumption that they even could design a good promo, which isn't the case) for him to say. They need for him to cut promos at house shows and not work from a script so he can get more comfortable on the mic. Jericho would have been a nice foil to spout off with if he didn't have a tendancy to bury his opponents in his promos.

See, this is the biggest problem with the current crop of WWE wrestlers. More than anything else - more than the cookie cutter style of punch, kick, headlock matches, more than HHH, more than bad booking. There are very few there who could cut a money promo. Hell, there are few there who can do anything other than act as Ovaltine and send the audience to sleep. I've no problem with scripted promos, but none of them (virtually) can act, which makes it tedious to listen to. HHH can cut a promo well. Ok, he may ramble, and end every sixth word with "-uh" but he can cut a promo.

 

If they're going to get these guys reading scripts then they need to get them voice coaching, acting lessons, and the senior guys really need to work with them about delivering promos properly. Its a sad state of affairs that Rhyno uses his time off after neck surgery to go to acting classes and voice coaching, then gets absolutely no mic time.

 

If HHH really wants to put people over, he should take them aside one afternoon and he and Flair should teach them how to work the mic properly. Almost any storyline could be made servicable, if not great, by some decent selling on the mic, rather than the shop dummies you get at the moment.

[The Kid 0]

I find that wrestling booms happen about every 6-7 years so we should be due for one in a couple of years. Just wait it out, then wrestling will be "discovered" again.

[what 0]

I find that wrestling booms happen about every 6-7 years so we should be due for one in a couple of years. Just wait it out, then wrestling will be "discovered" again.

The only way I see another boom period happening is if HHH suffered a career ending injury. As long as he's around, he's going to stay the #1 guy on Raw and nobody will discover wrestling if HHH is the top dog.

[Taker666 0]

The only way I see another boom period happening is if HHH suffered a career ending injury. As long as he's around, he's going to stay the #1 guy on Raw and nobody will discover wrestling if HHH is the top dog.

Seriosuly, I may sick of Triple H as much as everyone esle, but this "Triple H needs to be injured" bullshit needs to stop.

 

So you mean to tell me that the ONLY way wrestling is going to be popular again is if Triple H suffers a career ending injury. fucking pathetic, I mean really. Triple H is not the next coming of Hitler. hes just a TV show performer. wishing injury, or in this case, hoping he stays injured really shows how some people around here are fucking morons.

[Guest Hass of Pain]

Hulk Hogan was every bit the oppressive tyrant that HHH is percieved to be, and that didn't stop WCW from becoming hugely popular and wrestling booming again with Hulk Hogan still on top.

 

HHH isn't the problem, the problem is that WWE is just recasting different actors in the same tired play they have been putting on for eight years now.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Well, if wrestling is cyclical, the bad news is we still have two years to go before it gets good again. Because, Batista's reign is exactly like Diesel's. (Charismatic bodyguard turn on heel champion.) At that rate, we should see the new Austin two or three PPVs from now, and then he should finally hit it big at WM XXIII.

 

I can't really say I see Batista and Orton going to TNA though.

The Wrestling Industry started growth in 1996 with WCW and the NWO angle. We are looking at the premise that _wrestling_ is cyclical. So keep your eyes open next year~!

 

Batista as Diesel?

 

No.

 

I refuse to believe it.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Jericho would have been a nice foil to spout off with if he didn't have a tendancy to bury his opponents in his promos.

I don't think he buried Shelton last week. I liked that little exchange they did.

I liked it too. But Jericho has a habit of the "Stinko Malenko" and "Chris BenOYT" quips that stick to a wrestler; where he makes fun of them, they don't defend themselves from it, which in-turn puts them in a less-serious light. The good thing there was that Benjamin gave as good as he got, but Jericho demeaning his title-holder status does nothing.