Triple H Allegedly Eliminated WWE Star Over Vince McMahon Link

How did a WWE star destined for massive success crash hard?

Austin Theory was Mr. McMahon’s protege in mid-2022, becoming the youngest wrestler to win the United States Championship as well as winning that year’s Money in the Bank ladder match.

He won the US Championship for the second time in November and held it for 258 days, during which he won a WrestleMania match against John Cena.

In January 2024, an ex-WWE employee named Janel Grant filed a sexual assault and trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon, following which he resigned from the TKO board.

While McMahon endured criticism away from the ring, Austin Theory dropped among the ranks in the company.

He was then featured as part of a tag team duo with Grayson Waller. Despite winning the tag team titles, their pairing struggled to gain any prominence among the fans.

Theory’s last main roster match was in May 2025, where he lost to Sheamus. Any match he competed in after that was on Main Event. He suffered an injury in July, forcing him out of action until his recent return at Survivor Series: WarGames, where he appeared as the masked man.

Did WWE And Triple H Bury Austin Theory Over Vince McMahon Link?

Many fans believe that Austin Theory’s reveal as the masked man on the December 15 episode of WWE RAW was underwhelming.

On a recent episode of The Stevie Richards Show, the former talent of the Stamford promotion discussed the twist, claiming that Triple H may have buried Theory over his past connections with Vince McMahon.

Just because, it’s almost like because Vince was gone, anything Vince attached himself to, Triple H had to completely eliminate politically and not put him somewhere else with that. [11:06 onwards]

Richards also claimed that due to Theory’s past burial, the company might struggle to get him over with fans quickly.