All the Ways WWE Has Already Changed in the Brand-New Triple H Era

The following Monday’s Raw gave fans even more of a reason to be excited about the future under The Game, thanks to several changes that became apparent early and often. Changes such as:

• A second chance for Ciampa on the main roster
• There were matches with actual stakes, such as the two triple threat matches that gave way to a No. 1 contender’s match between Ciampa and AJ Styles.
• The elevation of the United States Championship by way of those bouts. That title felt infinitely more vital than it has in a long time as a result of the focus on crowning a new No. 1 contender.
• The tease of future character development and matches, suggests there is a direction the creative team is headed rather than making things up as it goes.
• Theory was nowhere to be seen after being overexposed for the last two months.
• More organic promos, thanks to the loosening of scripted material.

Those were not the two biggest, most prominent changes, though.

In his first chance to leave an impression as the head booker of WWE, Triple H made changes that were felt immediately in the women’s division and at the commentary table.

The Revolution Will Be Prominent Again

It has been three years since the women’s revolution that engulfed WWE culminated in the main event of WrestleMania 35. While there have still been instances in which the women’s division has been featured significantly, it absolutely fell into a pattern of sameness, thanks to the company’s reliance on the same three or four wrestlers to carry the mantle.

Staleness became a major point of contention among fans and at SummerSlam, Triple H immediately set out to alter that, reintroducing Bayley, rehiring Dakota Kai and promoting Iyo Sky to the main roster.

If that was not enough, he ensured they would not be relegated to a single segment on Raw. Instead, he prominently featured the trio across three different segments of television. They interacted with the injured Becky Lynch, red brand champion Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss and Asuka.

In short, they instigated battles with several top stars and ignited a rivalry that suddenly feels like a top-tier story on Monday nights. In fact, other than the focus on crowning a new No. 1 contender to the United States Championship, it can be argued that it was the main storyline on this week’s broadcast.

When you factor in how dominant Rhea Ripley has been allowed to look while backing up Finn Balor and Damian Priest in Judgment Day, it becomes apparent rather quickly that Triple H understands the value of women’s wrestling having brought it to the forefront in NXT and is prepared to return it to a place of importance on the main roster.

Again, that is not to say that Lynch, Belair, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey have not been promoted and heavily featured on shows before. Instead of focusing just on the champion and her top challenger, though, he instantly gave six or seven different women something to do in angles that mattered, rather than throwing them into meaningless tag matches that accomplished nothing for anyone.

Also of note was the absence of Lacey Evans from the previous Friday’s SmackDown after it was revealed that she “was not cleared to compete,” with no further explanation. In her place was Shotzi, who scored a television win over Aliyah and had some mic time before being cut off by Rousey.

Might that be a statement about the current state of Evans’ character and the creative mastermind’s opinion of Shotzi? It certainly bears watching as he continues to mold and shape the women’s roster in his vision.

Given his track record in NXT, where many of the previously mentioned performers rose to stardom in the first place, there is plenty of reason to be excited about that.

“A lot has changed”

Michael Cole said the above line to Corey Graves Saturday night during the SummerSlam broadcast when his color commentator mentioned that he liked the play-by-play guy better when he did not have an opinion.

While he said it in an off-hand matter, that one sentence served as the perfect representation of the tone and content the commentary team has taken since Triple H took over as head of creative.

Saturday night, Cole showed more personality, energy, urgency and excitement for the product than we have seen in years, through no fault of his own. Anyone who mistook him for a lifeless shill learned quickly that, without the boss shouting in his ear, he can be an engaging play-by-play and the true voice of WWE.

Like Jim Ross, he was invested in a way that he had not been allowed to be in quite some times. Like the wrestlers, who are no longer held to the demands of a poorly written script, he was allowed the opportunity to let himself shine through and the result was the best commentary performance in recent years.

He recalled past elements of the performers’ careers, former character elements that McMahon wanted no focus on. After all, fans do not have short attention spans.

They are passionate and can recall the history of certain wrestlers, their past incarnations and the titles they have or have not won so stop insisting on presenting the here and now instead while covering up the past.

Speaking of which, fans were fans, not a collective universe or whatever buzzy term the boss was trying to pass off as the new norm.

While small changes, how the product is presented to the viewing audience will be a hugely significant part of Triple H changing the perception of it.

During the Attitude Era, Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler were integral in putting over the most important moments of that time. Their voices are attached to some of the most iconic moments in wrestling history because they were allowed to call it as they saw it, without having to shill 16 different corporate sponsorships, sticking to an arduously written script, or dodging pronouns as they would spontaneously combust if they dared utter a single “him” or “she.”

When the wrestlers and people calling the action care about what they are doing, the audience will, too, and that is as important a change as Triple H can make right now.