WWE News: Triple H & Vince McMahon At Odds Over Finish To ‘SummerSlam’ Main Event
Triple H and Vince McMahon haven’t seen eye-to-eye on several WWE superstars lately, resulting in more last-minute decisions than usual. Vince was looking to reignite Alberto Del Rio and give him a push coming out of the brand extension, but Triple H was convincing enough to hold off on anything of the sort. Triple H has felt disrespected by Del Rio since his return, feeling the Mexican Aristocrat’s insubordination and busy social life have gotten in the way of a once-promising career.
Del Rio’s recent Wellness Policy violation could be the last straw, certainly in Triple H’s mind, and the former champion’s days in WWE could be numbered. We also recently reported how Vince openly questioned Triple H’s judgment in regards to Dana Brooke. Dana’s recent singles matches on RAW had many, including Vince, scratching their heads as to why she was elevated to the main roster when she probably could have used more seasoning in NXT.
It will be interesting to see where the RAW women’s division heads after SummerSlam, seeing how Charlotte won back the title without Dana’s help and Sasha will be out for about a month dealing with nagging injuries. It’s hard to believe Vince would insert Dana into the title picture after recent debates with Triple H, though around the time of her call-up, reports surfaced that Dana and Charlotte were headed for a feud of their own sometime down the line.
A long-running debate between Vince and Triple H centered around Finn Balor as well. The Chairman and The Game didn’t necessarily argue about Balor’s talents, but more so in terms of when to bring him up to the main roster. Vince had been pushing to promote Finn long before his eventual arrival, while Triple H wanted to wait to make sure something special was waiting for him once he got there.
Triple H didn’t want another of his prized pupils getting lost in the shuffle like Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, The Vaudevillains, Tyler Breeze, and The Ascension had over the course of the last year. Vince and Triple H obviously got on the same page in this case, with the Demon King becoming the first-ever WWE Universal Champion and the first WWE superstar to win a major title in his pay-per-view debut in the history of the company.
And that leads us to the main event of SummerSlam. According to Daily Wrestling News, Vince and Triple H did not agree on the finish to the Brock Lesnar-Randy Orton match all the way up through late Sunday night. Triple H was pushing for Orton to go over while Vince felt Lesnar should have ended the show with the victory.
With what transpired, Vince clearly got his wish, though it’s debatable how a TKO victory is perceived as opposed to a clean pinfall. Brock bloodied Orton to the point that the referees had to call the match as doctors tended to the fallen Viper. It’s a finish we haven’t seen very often in a WWE ring, but Vince’s intentions for Lesnar were to keep booking him strong while keeping him away from the title picture until at least the Royal Rumble.
Triple H, on the other hand, was campaigning for a Randy Orton win because Orton will be around much more than Lesnar. Hunter also felt that by giving Lesnar a main-event victory, it would send a bad message to the rest of the locker room. In a sense, the rest of the roster would see it as Vince rewarding Brock even though he failed a drug test while competing in the UFC.
We’ve reported in the past that one of Vince’s top priorities is to feature Lesnar as best as possible, especially for the marquee shows like SummerSlam and WrestleMania. Vince wants to make sure WWE officials are doing all they can to create money storylines and big-time opponents for The Beast and felt not enough was done this past year when Lesnar wound up facing Dean Ambrose. Beyond that, Vince is hell-bent on re-signing Brock to another WWE contract beyond his current deal.
Triple H is certainly on board with all of that, but he didn’t quite see things the same way as his father-in-law in regards to how SummerSlam should have gone off the air.
[Image via WWE]
