WWE announced on Monday that, following the sudden retirement of Vince McMahon from all of his positions within the company, Paul “Triple H” Levesque will be stepping in as the new Head of Creative on top of his new role as WWE‘s Head of Talent Relations. This is, to put it mildly, the dream scenario many WWE fans and critics alike have been praying for. A quick glance at social media shows the unbridled excitement that surrounds the company now that, first the first time in roughly 40 years, its creative direction is being spearheaded by someone not named Vince McMahon.
In fact, if you’re reading this right now there’s a good chance you’ve been swept up in that excitement as well. Perhaps you were following Levesque’s run as he oversaw WWE’s NXT brand (considered by many to be the best weekly pro wrestling product of the 2010s). Or maybe you’re a lapsed wrestling fan looking to jump back in now that someone else is taking the wheel. You won’t have to wait long to see what the Levesque regime looks like — WWE is running Monday Night Raw inside Madison Square Garden tonight — but before we all start popping champagne and ringing in a new age of sports entertainment, it might be wise to look at what “The Game” is taking over. Because if you haven’t been following WWE closely as of late, you might be shocked by the company’s current lack of creative momentum. Let’s take a look around WWE’s main roster and see what we have to work with:
So that’s about a thousand (mostly) negative words on WWE’s current situation, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Given WWE’s current television contracts with NBCUniversal & FOX along with the decade-long Saudi Arabia deal, the company will still bring in an obscene amount of money no matter what Levesque decides to do with the onscreen product. Plus the premium that TV networks place on live content isn’t going anywhere and Raw & SmackDown still draw solid television ratings, so the outlook for upcoming future television deals look bright as well.
And then there’s Levesque’s own preferences as a booker. The Black & Gold Era of NXT he oversaw placed a higher emphasis on long-term storytelling and in-ring action rather than weeks of repeating rematches with disqualification/count-out finishes and childish backstage skits. He wasn’t known for tearing up scripts hours before a show, nor did he have an ever-growing list of terms that were banned from promos and commentary. You shouldn’t count on Levesque transforming WWE’s product right away, but there are plenty of tiny improvements he could implement as early as tonight.
How do you feel about Levesque running WWE Creative? Is WWE’s entire product about to improve? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments!
