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| Funny, I had that same look when he announced himself for the team Screen Grab via WWE.com |
To be completely fair, all the booking inertia rejection boos that dissipated from around Roman Reigns when he rejoined The Shield just reformed from the aether and attached themselves to Jason Jordan. You can't book Smackdown as a bunch of marauding invaders AND have them get the biggest pop in the match by far because one of the guys on the other team has Reigns/John Cena "You're Pushing Him Too Hard, So We're Going to Boo Him Like the Entitled Man-children We Are" heat. So super-savior Triple H swoops in again so he can make all the kids in arrested development who unironically say "All hail!" swoon. It would be offensive if he were the first part-time dude to get himself into the match, because he's drunk too much of his own Kool-Aid and forgotten the last time he had a good match was when he had The Shield and Daniel Bryan to hold his hand.
However, Triple H is the fourth part-timer of varying providence to throw his hat into this match. That's about three part-timers too many to be honest. I can take John Cena being in it, because John Cena is still, y'know, good at his job, at least the part that requires him to play fight with other sweaty men in barely any clothes. Besides, having a dearth of Cena on the show is a plus, given how easily he's always worn out his welcome if given too much time with the microphone. I saw Kurt Angle wrestle with my own two eyes last month at TLC: Tetanus, Leprosy, and the Croup. I don't wanna see that in a setting that doesn't involve weaponry. I've seen Shane McMahon wrestle every match he's been in since coming back. I don't wanna see that in a setting that doesn't involve him indulging his dad fantasy of being a stuntman.
Somewhere along the way, WWE went from bold company pushing the envelope with new guys and wrestlers other companies missed the boat on to a promotion that just can't stop clinging to the past. It's one thing to have a nostalgia act here and there, but to build a set piece match for BRAND SUPREMACY and feature three guys who barely wrestle and the last guy who is on the HBK schedule and is a self-proclaimed "free agent" feels like WWE is taking a giant shit on the stakes it artificially set up for itself from the beginning.
Of course, those who see this point of view and disagree with it may end up building a straw man that folks like myself hate seeing old guys. Buddy, let me tell you, age ain't nothing but a number if you can back it up. Goldust, for example, is a guy who can still go if RAW creative let him. Hell, RAW has a bunch of wrestlers that it could have put in Angle's and Triple H's spots aside from Jordan, but it's like, where is the build for anyone outside the main event? Three hours-plus of runtime every Monday, and RAW barely has any midcard, especially since guys like The Miz holding midcard titles feel more important than that standing. But hey, the show definitely needs two separate segments of Stephanie McMahon screeching at and debasing wrestlers for whom she can't bump.
So instead, Survivor Series gets Triple H playing the conquering hero, subbing in for a guy with the wrong kind of heat (who's definitely gonna turn and cost either Trips his elimination or the entire team the match), once again building on his rep as WWE's resident good cop. Why can't it be enough that he brought back fuckin' War Games and is looking at producing yet another critically acclaimed, crowd-pleasing edition of NXT Takeover the night before? I don't know. What I do know is, wouldn't it be a lot better if instead of Trips, that the RAW team maybe walked...
...with Elias?
