Ex-WWE Star Accuses Triple H Of “Gaslighting”
Triple H has come under fire for his comments during an interview.
While speaking to Steven A. Smith ahead of Night of Champions, the WWE Chief Content Officer addressed fans’ reaction to his creative direction, which has not been as positive of late.
In doing so, the former world champion accused fans of losing perspective on how WWE stands as a wrestling brand. He claimed that fans get too caught up in storylines while all the company wants to do is entertain them.
His comments did not sit well with fans who have been investing hours and money on shows they believe are ‘mediocre.’ A former WWE star resonated with the sentiments of viewers and accused Triple H of gaslighting them.
Stevie Richards Pushes Back On Triple H’s Defense Of WWE
Former WWE Hardcore Champion Stevie Richards lambasted Triple H over his recent comments about fans needing to ease up on their approach to storylines.
While speaking on The Stevie Richards Show, Richards cited that watching the product was not free, and it has only gotten more expensive, which adds to the frustration.
Scrutiny is what they don’t want. Which you have to have. But also, it’s like don’t take things too seriously, but the people who spend the most money are the people who take it most seriously or, as you say, invested most in the product.
But the people who are the most invested in the product are also going to have one, their opinions on what they would like to see and two, they are going to want to find out more information. Like, why does he not realize he cannot have it both ways?
He also accused the Stamford promotion of wanting the fans to be emotionally invested, but not so much that it evokes criticism out of them.
Well, they’re also going to want a better product for the money that they’re paying, much like you said in the video. They’re going to say, ‘I’m paying a thousand dollars per ticket for this and it was a subpar show.’
Now, are you a hater if you’re a person who pays that money and you go there and you’re not satisfied? Are they going to tell you, ‘You’re the problem,’ right? Blatantly. What is going on? Corporate America, not just WWE, saying, ‘We hate the customers,’ or whatever.
Stevie further said that Triple H & Co. should look into fans’ criticism rather than thinking of it as a problem. While at it, he pointed out one of WWE’s recent Town Hall meetings where President Nick Khan shared screenshots of social media criticisms, only to defend their decisions, before accusing them of gaslighting.
Can I also say this? Triple H and Nick Khan did it one of their town hall meetings not too long ago. And then they were just reading out random criticism of WWE from over there. Some of them were 10 years old, unsighted, by the way. So, we don’t even know where these came from if they didn’t just make it up themselves…
Why are you trying to gaslight us into half the time saying we don’t ever pivot, we don’t bend to the will of the fans, when they clearly react constantly to what they think fans want?
But then they say that the fans are ruining it for themselves and ruining it for the company and it’s all the fans’ fault and not the company’s fault because they’re going out and trying to scrutinize what they see on TV or try and learn more or weirdly try and guess what’s going to come up next.
Richards then targeted the WWE post-shows, of which Triple H is usually a part, stating that they were being used to speculate the future direction of storylines. So, it did not make sense to tell fans to stop doing that.
Yeah, because in football especially… isn’t the talking heads trying to have you speculate… WWE has their own post shows where they speculate where things are going forward… We have a whole lot of gaslighting going on. We have a whole lot of finger pointing at the fans.
H/T: Ringside News