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Backstage Note on Nick Khan Backing Triple H as WWE Head of Creative Following WrestleMania
Nick Khan recently addressed WWF staff about a number of topics, mostly glazing the company and dismissing fan concerns as a vocal minority. I mean, every head of a wrestling company since the beginning of the business has done the same thing, so it’s not like it’s anything new. Possibly the most notable statement Khan made was his endorsement of Paul “Triple H” Levesque as Head of Creative. Most conversation during the buildup to WrestleMania seemed to center on creative differences between Levesque and his bosses at TKO, who apparently forced him to build one of the main events around Jelly Roll & Pat McAfee. (Which went over so well that neither Roll nor McAfee wanted to be involved after WrestleMania, as they recognized that their popularity wasn’t being helped by their WWE exploits.) There was a lot of rumor & innuendo that Triple H was forced to do things he didn’t want to do, people said things that weren’t supposed to be said, so on & so forth. At the end of the day, Triple H is still the main guy in Creative.
It’s interesting how perception changes as time goes on. I’m old enough to remember when Triple H was hailed as a creative genius due to his work with NXT. Internet fan groups sent him fruit baskets! Now that Levesque runs Raw & SmackDown, he gets a lot more flack for the negatives. Some of those same fans that chipped in on fruit baskets several years ago are now saying they want Vince McMahon back, which just goes to show why Nick Khan & people at his level can talk about vocal minorities and not worry too much about what fan feedback says. Nick Khan also has a bunch of money covering his ears from fan feedback, but that’s another story.
WRESTLING HEADLINES 👊🏽
•Update on Kairi Sane's WWE Status & If Release Will Be Rescinded After Backlash
Image Credit: WWE
There’s always one name among the annual post-WrestleMania list of WWE releases that gets us all in a tizzy. Last year it was R-Truth, this year it’s Kairi Sane. In R-Truth’s case, it was the fact that he was one of the most beloved wrestlers on the roster backstage & on screen. I can’t tell you if Kairi was one of the most beloved members of the roster backstage. I can tell you that I’ve spent the last fifteen months reviewing Raw and have been waiting for most of that time for Kairi to finally stand up for herself against the abuse of her senpai, Asuka. You mean to tell me that after countless episodes of Asuka yelling “KAIRI!” and forcing her to run away from IYO SKY, Rhea Ripley and others in the middle of conversations, and after countless scenes of Asuka screaming at Kairi after another in-ring setback for the Kabuki Warriors, there’s never going to be any kind of satisfying resolution? That makes me want to be like Asuka and scream at these jerks that can’t let us have nice things. Asuka vs. IYO being booked for Backlash tells me there's a slight chance this could all be a ruse, but I'm not sure they want to set the precedent of bringing back one of the announced releases every single year.
Image Credit: WWE
The odds are pretty good that we’ll see some of the folks released from WWE end up in AEW. We might even see some that appeared in AEW previously return, but one of them probably won’t be Aleister/Malakai Black. There were several reports during Black’s AEW tenure about his being difficult to do business with. While Black told a different story about his time there, and I’m not here to call him a liar or anything of the sort, some AEW wrestlers have expressed their disapproval of a return. Most notably, MJF re-posted a message from Max Caster saying “We don’t want him!”, and everybody knows that when the Maxes are against you it’s never a good sign.
MORE MUST-READ LINKS FROM 411MANIA
→The Nature of the Beast: WWE's Black Friday
→Ask 411 Wrestling: Is Roman Reigns Among the Most Recognizable WWE Stars Ever?
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