Would things really be better with HHH/Stephanie in charge?

[psychokiller]

I really don't see much changing with them in charge over Vince to be honest. Stephanie has no creative mind for wrestling at all so she can't do anything to help in any way in that area. Triple H seems like he'd be like Vince where he'd only push the guys he wants just like Vince does regardless of crowd reaction. Just look at what happened with Punk for example. He was the hottest act in the whole company & he destroyed it all due to his ego. I know some will say it's because he was the one wrestling him, but what was the best thing for business was for Punk to go over & be the top face of the company. I just think WWE is in big trouble at this point unless they change their entire philosophy on the way they do things. I think getting Heyman as the main guy in charge of creative would help a lot, but HHH/Stephanie would have to put their egos aside & not interfere in what he wants to do. I'm also even considering getting rid of the WWE Network at this point. I'm giving it a bit more time & if the show still sucks by then, then I'm going to cancel it.

[Deleted]

I used to think so but not so much now.

[PsychoGoatee]

They have a staff of writers, and it would seem they aren't very good. So there's one problem. Granted Vince and Trips/Steph make the decisions, they'll ultimately pick who gets the belt and whatnot, which is important. But there is plenty of blame to go around, and there is a whole staff of people who seem to suck at their jobs at WWE these days. Not counting Finlay and Sara Del Ray etc.

I don't think one person can run an operation as big as WWE. So I agree that Vince fully passing the torch won't have as big of an effect as some are hoping. They need to have a team of people that are all smart about wrestling and all work well together.

[Mid-Carder]

If they stay off TV, I think it could be. But as long as they're on TV, their egos get in the way of anybody becoming the star they should be.

[Slanted and Enchanted]

I've always thought people have jumped the gun on HHH, whether they believe he is going to be a messiah for the company or whether he is going to be Vince 2.0. The simple answer is that we really cannot be certain either way. He does not have as much power as people make him out to have. The final say is still ultimately on Vince with some input from Dunn. I seriously doubt Triple H has any bearing on the main product and some people believe he is going to be just like Vince based on perhaps people believing he is the legit COO of the company. And as for those who believe he is going to the savior of the company based on NXT, I'm sure the main show content will be better once he's actually in charge but I'm not sure if that specific quality of product will pay the bills.

So yeah, 'wait and see' I guess.

[ERON]

I keep thinking back to the Stone Cold podcast where Vince talked about how it used to be just him and Pat sitting by the pool, but times have changed and now they need a whole staff of writers. And I couldn't help but thinking that Vince and Pat came up with better ideas than that whole team of people they have now. If HHH and Steph maintain the notion that a staff of wanna-be sitcom writers who know little to nothing about wrestling is better than 2 or 3 old hands who know the business inside and out sitting around hashing out ideas, when history has proven the opposite to be true, I don't see anything changing.

[Deleted]

I have zero confidence that WWE will ever get on the right side of things creatively ever again. Pockets of brilliance here and there but never any long term improvement.

[radiantsilvergun]

Things will change for sure once Vince bows out. It won't be HHH/Steph at the helm though, it'll be Shane O'Mac. Tradition.

[RowdyRobbyPiper]

Nov 25, 2015 14:38:48 GMT -5 ERON said:

I keep thinking back to the Stone Cold podcast where Vince talked about how it used to be just him and Pat sitting by the pool, but times have changed and now they need a whole staff of writers. And I couldn't help but thinking that Vince and Pat came up with better ideas than that whole team of people they have now. If HHH and Steph maintain the notion that a staff of wanna-be sitcom writers who know little to nothing about wrestling is better than 2 or 3 old hands who know the business inside and out sitting around hashing out ideas, when history has proven the opposite to be true, I don't see anything changing.

What was the rationale behind hiring TV writers instead of a small booking team? What was the rationale behind scripting the promos? Was it an attempt to help the talent who might not be connfortable with ad-libs get the stories across?

[Hit Girl]

HHH is fine if he stays off TV.

Stephanie? Nope. Useless. Talentless.

[Bo Rida]

Probably, HHH seems happy to book things he doesn't personally like as long as it's something fans respond too.

Newz reports suggest they'd throw out Dunn too which will hopefully overhaul the presentation. I've really liked small touches on NXT lately, the lighting for the most recent title match, the tag tournament updates.

There'd still be many of the same issues but at least there'd be some improvements.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Stephanie has been the head of creative for nearly a decade and a half, she oversaw the sidelining of wrestling people, the move to script everything and the many, many years where they seemed to be out to kill the careers of the better talents from developmental by giving them nonpushes. Triple H has been the 4th most powerful person in the WWF for almost as long, 3rd after Steph now that Linda isn't as active within the company, yet his biggest concern for the longest time was making sure that the booking made him look good. Seriously, he married money (Not saying that's why he did it, I have no doubt he and Steph love eachother before anyone jumps in.), he has a job for life yet he remains so insecure about how he will be remembered it's unreal, he has to be the smartest, the toughest, the baddest man on the roster and I'm not sure he will ever move past that.

Hunter and Steph are not fresh faces, they're two people whose power has grown as the company has declined and have had a hand in decisions that have turned people off the product, we're just going to get more of the same whichever McMahon is in charge until they have no choice but to change the creative direction.

[Sicho100]

I don't see how they could be worse, though.

I feel like HHH and Stephanie would really only need to do two things in order to make the show actually pretty good:
(1) Get the f*** off the show. The people booking the show should not be on it - it makes it way to easy for them to end up booking to satisfy their ego, which would often cause the product to suffer. HHH and especially Stephanie today demonstrate this.
(2) Don't change things on a weekly basis. Everyone wants to say that the issue is having dozens of writers that come from outside of wrestling, but I don't think that's the issue. At its foundation, wrestling is storytelling. Soap opera writers ought to be able to tell stories. The issue is that the writers can come up with the greatest stories in the world, but then Vince will change things every week. It's a little difficult to craft a good months-long program when everything gets thrown out week 3 and you need to ad lib the rest.

If they get off the show, and don't get so anxious that they change things up every week and instead let the stories develop, the show can actually become pretty good.

[Deleted]

Triple H being in charge of NXT has shown that he can make a good wrestling show. I'm not saying that this guarantees the main shows will get better, but they couldn't get worse, and at least would be different.

[MolotovMocktail]

I've said it before, there's likely to be little real change. WWE began its slow creative decline around the time Vince took it public, partly because he had to tone down or avoid some content that would drive away sponsors or keep him from attracting new ones, since there's a duty to do what's in the best interest of the shareholders. HHH will have similar pressure. He's dealing with other people's money, and is bound to maximize their profits, even if it means decisions he may not like from a wrestling standpoint. The result: safe main event pushes and sterile, non-controversial programming.

[Deleted]

Stephanie has been involved in creative before, and it wasn't very good. She'll be there to show her creepy smile every time there's a camera and a kid in a hospital bed within 5 feet of each other, or a charity she can claim the WWE advocates, but that's about it. HHH is harder to read. He obviously has a mind for the business, but he's destroyed so many pushes over the last 15 years in order to keep himself looking good that it's hard to decipher how he'll do away from that. Maybe NXT is some indication, but transitioning the WWE product to that level of booking on USA will be harder due to meddling from the network itself.

[Deleted]

I read a while back that Triple H went against Vince for a Reigns turn around the Wyatt feud. The problem is Vince turned him down. Even though Triple H is Triple H, the fact remains that if it's good for business, he'd do it. With Punk, that was a personal issue but from everything else we've seen and given the power he's gained since the Punk feud, things seem fine with him in charge.

And as for "guys Triple H likes", let's look at what we have here. We have The Shield Boys, Owens, Four Horsewomen, Neville, Balor, Itami, New Day as a whole, when you think about it the guys Triple H actually likes...are the guys who most of us like.

I see no problem with Triple H pushing the guys he enjoys because not only does he generally have good taste when he's not on the battlefield, these new wrestlers he heavily goes to bat for deserve it. The main problem with creative is that most of them are trying to appease Vince and keep their jobs. Dunn is overall bad but I'm not going to blame it all on creative at the end of the day. I get a feeling that most of them know what fans want, most of them knows what works in NXT but even with all of that in mind they just go back to the same ol same ol because that same ol stuff is the stuff Vince actually oks. It's not as if Vince takes everything creative says, it's not as if he turns down everything Triple H suggests. He has his own mindset and sticks to it.

[saintpat]

Nov 25, 2015 14:53:30 GMT -5 RowdyRobbyPiper said:

Nov 25, 2015 14:38:48 GMT -5 ERON said:

I keep thinking back to the Stone Cold podcast where Vince talked about how it used to be just him and Pat sitting by the pool, but times have changed and now they need a whole staff of writers. And I couldn't help but thinking that Vince and Pat came up with better ideas than that whole team of people they have now. If HHH and Steph maintain the notion that a staff of wanna-be sitcom writers who know little to nothing about wrestling is better than 2 or 3 old hands who know the business inside and out sitting around hashing out ideas, when history has proven the opposite to be true, I don't see anything changing.

What was the rationale behind hiring TV writers instead of a small booking team? What was the rationale behind scripting the promos? Was it an attempt to help the talent who might not be connfortable with ad-libs get the stories across?

They are producing 5 hours of TV weekly, plus a 3-hour PPV monthly (longer on WM month), not to mention NXT, Superstars and Main Event, and a ton of other content for the Network. They do DVDs where they sit people down for long interviews and discussions, they do commercials for their own products, presumably put together talking points for public appearances by talent (every Raw or SD or house show, one or more talent hit morning TV and radio shows, etc).

Two guys by the pool aren't going to be able to do that.

You need a script for TV, promos included, because everything fits into a time slot. On live TV, that's not as easy to do as you might think, but if Ambrose or New Day goes up there completely unscripted and is just getting around to the point when it's time to cut to commercial, USA Network isn't going to say, "Oh, well, who cares about those advertisers paying us all that money, these guys are cracking me up with their unicorn jokes."

In the days when nothing was live, they could clip and cut around what was needed to maintain the points needed and still take breaks at the right times. They could run the entire roster through an afternoon of backstage promos where Wrestler A steps up and says, "When I catch Wrestler B in Minneapolis, I'm going to crush his skull" and throw away or keep what they wanted, and insert the good stuff.

Whole different world.

[sportatorium]

End of the day, HHH is a wrestler. Probably the only wrestler who can get the McMahons to do anything at all which seems sensible from a wrestling perspective. Is he self-serving? You bet. I do think he wouldn't keep repeating the same mistakes- even if NXT is my only evidence that he would be up to the job.

[darkjourney]

No.. Because especially when they take over I would guarantee their presence on TV would get worse. People forget HHH was given a ton of money to open up that NXT and he had guys like Dusty underneath him with 50 years of experience.


I hope they do take over and see what they can do. The fans won't be able to use VInce as a scapegoat anymore. Like HHH/Stephanie have NO SAY on who gets pushed or what angles get pushed?? COme on now!!!!


And Stephanie doesn't know crap about wrestling. You could find some 8 year olds in the crowd who could book WWE better than her