Triple H as head of WWE creative: What has gone right and wrong

What Triple H has gotten right: Less is more (and the rejuvenation of the secondary championships)

Restoring the credibility of the secondary titles: For the last couple of decades, midcard titles have meant as much to WWE as passing plays mean to a military academy football team. Since Triple H took over creative, though, we have seen a renewed focus on the Intercontinental and United States championships.

GUNTHER’s 412-day (and counting) reign as IC Champion particularly stands out, but even if you ignore his stellar work, WWE under Levesque has made more of an effort to feature the secondary belts in high-profile matches and has avoided booking the champs to take random losses in non-title matches. It’s not perfect (see: Austin Theory) but it’s far better than it used to be.

Following through on advertised matches: It’s a low bar, but it’s one that WWE has failed to hurdle, abusing the “card subject to change” disclaimer to cover for their erratic booking tendencies. Under Triple H, though, the company has improved at delivering what it promised to give.

In the same vein, WWE has also done a better job of booking angles to set up matches that are scheduled for weeks in advance. Yes, WWE still lags behind other promotions in this regard, but it’s refreshing to see the promotion not solely rely on its brand name to draw fans in.

Making the PPVs feel like big events, especially the international ones: While you can nitpick some aspects of the recent WWE pay-per-views, all of them have felt like must-see events. Yes, the locations have played a big role in that, but Triple H and company deserve credit for tailoring the cards to the specific locale (booking Sami Zayn in the Elimination Chamber main event or making Bad Bunny the host of Backlash, for example).

We’ll see if WWE can keep the momentum going with SummerSlam, and we’ll see if the US-based B-shows match their overseas counterparts, but that doesn’t erase the successes the company has enjoyed with these PPVs.

Better patience with pushes/storylines: The Bloodline saga and The Judgment Day’s recent rise is carrying most of the weight here, but it still reflects how much more disciplined the company has become with its storytelling.

Sometimes, that has been to WWE’s detriment (and we’ll discuss that more in a bit), but it’s hard not to look at the popularity of stars like Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Sheamus, Seth Rollins Rhea Ripley, and Cody Rhodes and not attribute some of that to the character development that comes from steady storyline progression.