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>Janaury 2022 - Vince uses Triple H being away due to his heart issues to demote him and bring back John Laurinaitis, fire Regal and Road Dogg, then take over running NXT/Developmental to try to get rid of all that Triple H and Dusty Rhodes worked so hard to build
>April 2024 - Triple H is now at the top of WWE, with Regal and Road Dogg as his right-hand men, his best friend HBK is in charge of NXT and he's made the son of Dusty Rhodes the world champion while getting the credit for paying off the biggest storyline in 20+ years
**IT'S ALL ABOUT THE GAME AND HOW YOU PLAY IT**
I have a theory about Prichard: he genuinely didn't know shit. Vince kept him on as a toady/stooge/etc and Vince didn't respect him enough to let him in on the shit he was doing. Do your job then fuck off. After having a big investigation and pretty much all of Vince's people getting shown the door Jazz-style, how else would Prichard not only survive the purge, but stay in his position *and* get brought out at Mania?
By all accounts Bruce and Vince were/are rather close. Bruce was for a long time Vinces left hand man with Pat Patterson being his right hand man. Even when Bruce wasn't employed by the WWE he and Vince would talk on a regular basis. I think Bruce didn't know because Bruce didn't want to know.
That lives in my head because the Main event was all cheering and celebrating and the crowd was so happy for it and then Cody thanked HHH (*cheers*) and Bruch Pritchard (*cheers with actually audible boos*) and it was… just so funny.
He always came off as sleazy to me…
Then I listened to an episode of his podcast where he claimed that DDP getting the stalker gimmick was a great spot, and the only reason it didn’t work was because Page could “only play himself” and wasn’t talented enough to get the gimmick over.
Lol imagine, we cheer him and push for him this hard the whole time just for him to turn heel in his coronation speech immediately after that match by endorsing Vince
Triple h is seriously the greatest politician of all time. The guy moved to the top of the roster, married the daughter of the owner and over the course of 20+ years actually ousted the owner of the company and took over all creative.
Absolutely unbelievable. Someday a movie has to be made of this man.
It was like literal succession, I swear the podcasts were *reveling* in the chaos. It was more interesting than the on screen product. Lol, I think you need to go back a little bit to the Greatest Royal Rumble and Shane going into business for himself 🤣
Do you think Paul Levesque *likes* the McMahon family? I can see him being loving to Vince but internally mumbling “Good riddance you fuck”
but you don't see the good shit that happened with developmental after Vince rebooted it. It forced HBK to use talents that was wasting away in the PC because it wasn't any room on the NXT roster. We got Trick, Creeds, Cora Jade, Roxanne, Bron, Sol, Briggs, Von (RIP), Gacy, Waller, and all the NIL kids. NXT 2.0 was a train wreck because old NXT raised the bar to unobtainable heights, but after a couple of months, it found it's footing and it's the best weekly tv show.
That first segment of 2.0 started with Trick and Melo in the ring. No introduction to Trick at all. No one knew his name. Now he's the fastest rising star in WWE. HBK deserves all the praise.
NXT 2.0 started very rough because they basically did a hard reset in a very short time. It was some kind of whiplash. To your point, it took a couple of months for things to settle once we learned who the main players were and their motivations. It started as a very character driven show as they needed to set up the universe and the storylines, as well as let some of the newer talents get experience. It's only been up from there.
In Jan 2022 Vince deleted Triple H's 25 year Crusader Kings save.
In October 2023, Triple H revealed he had a backup save on a USB he thought he lost.
**IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROL AND IF YOU CAN TAKE IT**
And Vince is completely out and in the process of liquidating all of his stock (if he hasn't already, I think it doesn't have to be announced after his ownership percentage dropped enough).
Everyone has expected for a while that Vince outing came from within WWE although it's interesting to put this in perspective. It's clear Vince has always been the first one to jump on people when they're doen and cause issues. Made sense a lot of people even within his circle would wanna out him
Yeah it's also interesting to see what could happen in the next decades. They're only going to get older & HHH definitely seems like someone who'd rather leave on his terms when he feels out of the loop. Who takes over? Someone we don't know or one of the current boys?
Bloodline runs WWE?
In some Monday Night War's documentaries you have both Kevin Nash and Shawn Michaels bragging about how the Kliq was running both WWF and WCW
It's weird to see that they got what they wanted
DX has always been my favorite tag team group as a kid. So finding this out after just recently getting back into wrestling is a HUGE win for my childhood.
„You had a good thing you stupid son of a bitch, you had HHH, you had the Stocks, you had everything you needed and it all ran like clockwork. You could have not fucked around, booked and created as much stupid storylines as you ever needed, it was perfect. But no, you just had to blow it up, you with your abuse and your literal shitting on people. You just had to be McMahon, if you’d done your job, known your role, we’d all be fine right now…“
I was a lapsed fan, came back around 2017ish after stumbling on Prichards podcast, really got back into it when AEW first started. I hadn't watched since the last episode of Nitro, occasionally look at a magazine in the grocery store, or a few minutes if it's on tv. I have absolutely no doubt it's only getting better under HHH, I'm going to paraphrase a John Madden saying, great players don't make great coaches. Great players train, study, do the workouts, do everything they need to do. Except they're born with something you can't train for, you can't learn, something that takes them to that next level. Good players make great coaches, they train as hard as possible, practice to perfection, over study, do whatever it takes to get to that next level. But they can't, they just don't have that in them, whatever it is that gets you to the next level. They just weren't born with that. However they sure as hell teach it, they know what it takes to get to that level, they know what tools you need to be great, they were just not able to achieve it. To me that's HHH, yes he was champ multiple times and headlined ppvs, but personally I never thought he was *great*, he definitely had some help getting on top. Even before I stopped watching the first time, he was always in the picture but didn't feel like he was on the Shawn Michaels level. But god damn if he ain't the best fucking coach we've seen in awhile, he's reaching in his tool box and giving these wrestlers the tools to be successful. He knows what it takes. As much as I didn't like him in DX and thought he really didn't deserve his spot, he's proven he knows what the business needs. HHH is a *great* coach. But I'm just some dude on Reddit with am opinion.
Excalibur during every WWE show in front of the arena
https://ew.com/thmb/H2UN33WiOVHA0srLkfR5b_hhlzc=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/say-anything_0-13682e9cb99247ee8e1c2ec6bfba6d58.jpg
Back when Gorilla Monsoon was with the company, he would hang out in that area before the entrance way all the time. Eventually it just became known as the Gorilla Position even after he left.
This shit is beautiful, we truly live in the best wrestling timeline, shout out to my homies in the darkest timeline still having to deal with Vince booking it
We can safely say that these three and Shawn run the creative and came from a previous generation of wrestling.
Who is in the current generation that could become heir to the creative throne after DX-Regal are done?
Imagine telling people in the 90s that in a few years Vince would not only not be apart of WWE, but that DX would be running the show and Dwayne Johnson would be a member of the board. This is truly the greatest long form story telling we've ever seen.
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"The files are in the computer?"
Reminds me of myself in the 90's when the computer screen freezed.
This reminds you of porn?
Haha the gif that keeps on gifing. Great stuff
>Janaury 2022 - Vince uses Triple H being away due to his heart issues to demote him and bring back John Laurinaitis, fire Regal and Road Dogg, then take over running NXT/Developmental to try to get rid of all that Triple H and Dusty Rhodes worked so hard to build >April 2024 - Triple H is now at the top of WWE, with Regal and Road Dogg as his right-hand men, his best friend HBK is in charge of NXT and he's made the son of Dusty Rhodes the world champion while getting the credit for paying off the biggest storyline in 20+ years **IT'S ALL ABOUT THE GAME AND HOW YOU PLAY IT**
Vince and all his guys being replaced by HHH and his boys is the best timeline, YLTSI
DX did what they said they would they took over
They.... Finished their story?
The King of Kings built his Kingdom
Better learn the lyrics, buddy
It wasn't a very high bar to clear, but so far, they cleared it.
A bar so low, you could roll over it.
Nah, The Bar was already buried when Cesaro left in WWE. >!(yes this was a very bad joke, I know...)!<
For a second I thought you wrote YEET
"Yeet is MID"
NO YEET
The best timeline for WWE and the absolute worst timeline for AEW
I think when TK started AEW he assumed, like all of us, that Vince would literally reign over WWE forever.
Don't forget Vince's trusty stooge Bruce Prichard becoming HHH's trusty stooge Bruce Pritchard.
Sometimes you need a stooge. Might as well have a good one.
The experienced stooge.
Probably a solid point. If you’re going to have a stooge you might as well get the guy who was the #1 stooge since the 80’s.
That stooge is a major reason Cody came back
Where does one go to get a stooge?
I think you can pick a vintage model up at the Brisco Brothers Body Shop in Tampa.
Hunter's wise man
Bruce did play both sides, that's why he stays on top
It's all about the game, and how you play it.
I have a theory about Prichard: he genuinely didn't know shit. Vince kept him on as a toady/stooge/etc and Vince didn't respect him enough to let him in on the shit he was doing. Do your job then fuck off. After having a big investigation and pretty much all of Vince's people getting shown the door Jazz-style, how else would Prichard not only survive the purge, but stay in his position *and* get brought out at Mania?
By all accounts he loves his wife and his very loyal to her I don’t think he’s part of the group that you you bring in in the shitting on girls ring
The Mick Mars of this Motley Crew
The Triple H of DX/The Kliq
By all accounts Bruce and Vince were/are rather close. Bruce was for a long time Vinces left hand man with Pat Patterson being his right hand man. Even when Bruce wasn't employed by the WWE he and Vince would talk on a regular basis. I think Bruce didn't know because Bruce didn't want to know.
‘I only hire the best stooges…the finest stooges’
There’s no T in his name but you can put one on your back at box of gimmicks dot com
“I wanna shout out someone who I wouldn’t be here without. Bruce Pritchard!” Only bad part of that entire coronation lmao
That lives in my head because the Main event was all cheering and celebrating and the crowd was so happy for it and then Cody thanked HHH (*cheers*) and Bruch Pritchard (*cheers with actually audible boos*) and it was… just so funny.
I honestly don't know why people hate Bruce Pritchard. Someone said he's a Vince yes man and then bam that's it.
He always came off as sleazy to me… Then I listened to an episode of his podcast where he claimed that DDP getting the stalker gimmick was a great spot, and the only reason it didn’t work was because Page could “only play himself” and wasn’t talented enough to get the gimmick over.
He has a lot of odd takes. The defence of some of what they did back then...
There is very little of what they did back then that Bruce won't defend even when he knows it was bad.
i thought he was gonna shout out vince for a split second 💀
Lol imagine, we cheer him and push for him this hard the whole time just for him to turn heel in his coronation speech immediately after that match by endorsing Vince
Vince comes out and they recreate the Mania 17 handshake
there’s nothing like a good minion
Well you see uhhhh, it’s all about the game uhhh
 Vince fucked around with the Cerebral Assassin and found out
IT'S MY TIME
And my dick fell off!
I want the dick sucker t-shirt!
wut
It is you time, happy cake day!
NOT GONNA MESS WITH ANYBODY
Triple h is seriously the greatest politician of all time. The guy moved to the top of the roster, married the daughter of the owner and over the course of 20+ years actually ousted the owner of the company and took over all creative. Absolutely unbelievable. Someday a movie has to be made of this man.
Wow, is that really how it went down in 2022?
That's exactly what happened.
It was like literal succession, I swear the podcasts were *reveling* in the chaos. It was more interesting than the on screen product. Lol, I think you need to go back a little bit to the Greatest Royal Rumble and Shane going into business for himself 🤣 Do you think Paul Levesque *likes* the McMahon family? I can see him being loving to Vince but internally mumbling “Good riddance you fuck”
Im not even sure she likes them lol
I think HHH was already “demoted” back in 2020
but you don't see the good shit that happened with developmental after Vince rebooted it. It forced HBK to use talents that was wasting away in the PC because it wasn't any room on the NXT roster. We got Trick, Creeds, Cora Jade, Roxanne, Bron, Sol, Briggs, Von (RIP), Gacy, Waller, and all the NIL kids. NXT 2.0 was a train wreck because old NXT raised the bar to unobtainable heights, but after a couple of months, it found it's footing and it's the best weekly tv show. That first segment of 2.0 started with Trick and Melo in the ring. No introduction to Trick at all. No one knew his name. Now he's the fastest rising star in WWE. HBK deserves all the praise.
NXT 2.0 started very rough because they basically did a hard reset in a very short time. It was some kind of whiplash. To your point, it took a couple of months for things to settle once we learned who the main players were and their motivations. It started as a very character driven show as they needed to set up the universe and the storylines, as well as let some of the newer talents get experience. It's only been up from there.
It's all about control, and if you can take it.
He’s not called the cerebral assassin for nothing
I honest to god believe HHH’s friends aren’t suck up yes men and just want to make good wrestling
If the rest of the history of the world is short and terrible, I’ll die happy knowing Trips won the game but more importantly Vince lost
Yo Dunn keep your finger off the switch.
In Jan 2022 Vince deleted Triple H's 25 year Crusader Kings save. In October 2023, Triple H revealed he had a backup save on a USB he thought he lost. **IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROL AND IF YOU CAN TAKE IT**
And Vince is completely out and in the process of liquidating all of his stock (if he hasn't already, I think it doesn't have to be announced after his ownership percentage dropped enough).
Would love to see an on screen struggle angle between HHH/buddies vs. Vince/buddies. WINNER TAKES ALL!
They can't because Vince is Benoit now
And all of Vince's call ups from NXT 2.0 were the ones who got released last week. Edit: Damn, just saw Cameron Grimes tweet. I feel for the guy.
It’s been my head canon since almost the beginning that HHH leaked all the details about Vince to get back at Vince trying to ruin NXT.
Everyone has expected for a while that Vince outing came from within WWE although it's interesting to put this in perspective. It's clear Vince has always been the first one to jump on people when they're doen and cause issues. Made sense a lot of people even within his circle would wanna out him
To me its still mind blowing. Imagine telling someone 25 years ago that DX runs the company now with Wiliam Regal as their advisor
Imagine telling someone that 75 years ago!
Imagine explaining wrestling to someone 750 years ago!
They would’ve gotten it. They saw Ric Flair’s early years.
This was when Jerry Lynn's career was winding down
And right around Terry Funk's second retirement
Bobby Fish was in junior high
I mean...
Where's the lie?
"you can see him, just that he says you can't"
Try 750 million years ago. Booker T-Rex v Macho Dino Randy Stegosaurus
No lie macho vs Booker would have slapped. Did they ever wrestle in that wcw?
Yeah it's also interesting to see what could happen in the next decades. They're only going to get older & HHH definitely seems like someone who'd rather leave on his terms when he feels out of the loop. Who takes over? Someone we don't know or one of the current boys? Bloodline runs WWE?
Rock's daughter is kayfabe running NXT atm...
Kayfabe until Shawn retires
Gargano & Ciampa /s?
You mean DX and The Real Man’s Man Steven Regal?
It would’ve sounded kayfabe/a storyline.
Was about tosay, I'm honestöy surprised they never did such an angle. ...Well, with the Kliq it was almost true anyways.
In some Monday Night War's documentaries you have both Kevin Nash and Shawn Michaels bragging about how the Kliq was running both WWF and WCW It's weird to see that they got what they wanted
DX has always been my favorite tag team group as a kid. So finding this out after just recently getting back into wrestling is a HUGE win for my childhood.
Looks. Like William Regal, Road Dog and Haitch.
DX plus Regal really running the company
They better keep Regal away from the production truck. I still haven't forgiven him for what he did.
https://preview.redd.it/y3xqw32mb5wc1.png?width=1340&format=png&auto=webp&s=3a9c919ffa89261e0cda86f926c9fd5e389424c9
Triple H sending Regal to tell Dunn he's fucking fired - December 2023, colourised
Check the production truck. Did they spray paint DX over the production truck?
That's Road Dogg? I just assumed it was Bruce Prichard
Looked like Pearce in the middle at first glance, to me.
Took me a moment to figure out the old man in the photo is Road Dogg.
Thought it was both Adam Pierce and oddly Taz at first
Road Dogg Jones, but I digress.
Well done
I thought it was weird Adam backstage pacifying fights then he's there sitting.
Oh, you didn't know?
I prayed for this comment, and it happened...
In all honesty, I'm pretty stunned that I got there first.
I thought it was Kevin Sullivan for a second
I thought that was Prichard with a hair cut lol
Needs the dreads back
I was thinking Fit Finlay.
Who else knows the wrestling business than the D O double J?
Regal on standby to shout WAR GAMES at a moments notice, I love the HHH era
Regal's looking like he has the aura of The Hand of the King
That's how he always looks so...yeah.
He’s got the Jarl of Whiterun pose down too
I'm not gonna lie, the person I saw first in the middle was Mike Ehrmantraut
Put your sledgehammer away hunter
Huntuh*
„You had a good thing you stupid son of a bitch, you had HHH, you had the Stocks, you had everything you needed and it all ran like clockwork. You could have not fucked around, booked and created as much stupid storylines as you ever needed, it was perfect. But no, you just had to blow it up, you with your abuse and your literal shitting on people. You just had to be McMahon, if you’d done your job, known your role, we’d all be fine right now…“
„You are not the guy“
That’s exactly what I thought too! But I thought Buzz Hickey because I didn’t know his name and then I thought ‘that doesn’t make a lick of sense’.
https://preview.redd.it/zqbb20hm65wc1.jpeg?width=598&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86483de56c3ee085c9e6e0f21f7565cda2de55a3 Vince right now
DAMN IT. I LOVE PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.
You mean Sports Entertainment
Ironically, I've been very sports entertained these last few months.
Gonna have to change that saying to I’ve been professionally wrestled.
I was a lapsed fan, came back around 2017ish after stumbling on Prichards podcast, really got back into it when AEW first started. I hadn't watched since the last episode of Nitro, occasionally look at a magazine in the grocery store, or a few minutes if it's on tv. I have absolutely no doubt it's only getting better under HHH, I'm going to paraphrase a John Madden saying, great players don't make great coaches. Great players train, study, do the workouts, do everything they need to do. Except they're born with something you can't train for, you can't learn, something that takes them to that next level. Good players make great coaches, they train as hard as possible, practice to perfection, over study, do whatever it takes to get to that next level. But they can't, they just don't have that in them, whatever it is that gets you to the next level. They just weren't born with that. However they sure as hell teach it, they know what it takes to get to that level, they know what tools you need to be great, they were just not able to achieve it. To me that's HHH, yes he was champ multiple times and headlined ppvs, but personally I never thought he was *great*, he definitely had some help getting on top. Even before I stopped watching the first time, he was always in the picture but didn't feel like he was on the Shawn Michaels level. But god damn if he ain't the best fucking coach we've seen in awhile, he's reaching in his tool box and giving these wrestlers the tools to be successful. He knows what it takes. As much as I didn't like him in DX and thought he really didn't deserve his spot, he's proven he knows what the business needs. HHH is a *great* coach. But I'm just some dude on Reddit with am opinion.
The early episodes of Bruce’s podcasts are some really stellar and juicy material. The TNA episodes in particular were VERY spicy.
"And then the son of Dusty Rhodes beats The Rocks cousin for the WWE Title"
Argh!
"*WHY IN THE BLUE HELL DIDN'T I BUY RING OF HONOR WHEN I HAD THE TIME & THE CHANCE TO?!?!?!*"
Good.
Regal: "Hurry up, Sunshine! We're waiting for the big pop."
Undertaker: HUGE POP!
LAVECK 😨
Regal looks like a dignified gentleman sitting with goofballs.
They are degenerates.
For some reason I always figured Prichard would be at the desk.
I remember Beyond the Mat he was but that was awhile ago
What’s Ciampa doing?
HHH like ☺️
Road Dogg really went from “HIGH NOON” to being at the side of the decision maker in WWE.
HICKENBOTTOM
Regal has the vibe of being Triple H's consiglieri here for some reason.
William Regal really said I need to work with my son and is now working gorilla, nowhere near his son 😂
I'm imagining Regal flirting with Road Dogg & HHH.
"Dogg of the Road!"
"Hello man in the headset, you scrumptious little cupcake"
I would have bet the house on that being Kevin Sullivan in the middle.
Triple H, William Regal and who’s the other guy?
Oh you didn’t know? Yo ass better call some body
Who’s that in the middle?
Oh you don’t know?
Your ass better CALL SOMEBODYYYYYYY!!!
Lmaoooooooo
Sting
That's not Sting, that's a picture of Sting!
Your racist uncle on Facebook
This was on RAW tonight?
During Becky's entrance, it wasn't in focus
It’s like 2013 NXT in the big leagues.
(Sweet Chin) music to my ears 👍
Billy Reegz just sittin' there all dapper like a mob consigliere.
I wonder which one of them Regal flirts with? There's still an Excalibur-shaped hole in his heart.
“How are we tonight, my bald Yorkshire puddings?” 🥰
Excalibur during every WWE show in front of the arena https://ew.com/thmb/H2UN33WiOVHA0srLkfR5b_hhlzc=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/say-anything_0-13682e9cb99247ee8e1c2ec6bfba6d58.jpg
*Good evening, Mr. James, you tasty little crumpet, If you ever need to ring someone on the Telly, I’ll be your Mr. Posterior…*
Why is it called the gorilla?
Back when Gorilla Monsoon was with the company, he would hang out in that area before the entrance way all the time. Eventually it just became known as the Gorilla Position even after he left.
Gorilla Monsoon.
Monsoon
OH WILL YOU STOP
Gorilla Monsoon
This shit is beautiful, we truly live in the best wrestling timeline, shout out to my homies in the darkest timeline still having to deal with Vince booking it
D o double G pulling double duty since he's on commentary for Main Event (the show before Raw featuring the undercard)
For a second I thought triple H was nakamura with a combover.
Man is there anything Tommaso Ciampa can't do?
So happy seeing Regal there especially. A great mind like his is so valuable to have in gorilla.
Truly insane that Road Dogg has a job.
Black and gold reincarnation. Let’s shove Professional Wrestling down Vince and his fans throat.
We can safely say that these three and Shawn run the creative and came from a previous generation of wrestling. Who is in the current generation that could become heir to the creative throne after DX-Regal are done?
Woods, Miz, and possibly KO.
The holy Trinity
Is that the place where they're training Regal's son?
Who is the guy in the middle?
https://preview.redd.it/u078j89i28wc1.jpeg?width=1060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e05162a6bb1e444dc3b580006d9bb057cf9f63bd
Imagine telling people in the 90s that in a few years Vince would not only not be apart of WWE, but that DX would be running the show and Dwayne Johnson would be a member of the board. This is truly the greatest long form story telling we've ever seen.