Tuesday Morning Backlash: Triple H Fires Miz, R-Truth, Where does that Leave John Cena, CM Punk, and the Rock

Columns, Top Story

If WWE isn’t setting up a heel stable, it’s increasingly difficult to see what they’re going for. Triple H ended Raw last night by firing his #2 and #3 heel, The Miz and R-Truth, for their transgressions the previous night (attacking Triple H, CM Punk and referees). Obviously, Miz and Truth won’t be gone long – they already attacked Triple H for firing them – but how will they return?

The two obvious ways for them to return are to be reinstated by Triple H so he can beat them up, or to have John Laurinaitis rehire them. The first wouldn’t be interesting, really, but it would almost certainly cause the return of Shawn Michaels. If D-X were to reunite for a merchandising tour to combat the nefarious heels, well, Michaels retirement match would obviously be cheapened, and given that he’s keeping busy and saw what happened to Ric Flair, I don’t see it.

If Laurinaitis rehires the heels, just as he can rehire Kevin Nash, well, then this is all obviously at the behest of Vince McMahon. Vince has previously used the New World Order to try and get rid of undesirable elements within the company, and the Corporation as a means to exert control. The obvious members would be Alberto Del Rio, Kevin Nash, Miz, Truth, Laurinaitis and Vince. As a group, they would be going against Triple H, John Cena, CM Punk and, very likely, the Rock. Since Survivor Series is coming up and Rock is already confirmed to be on Cena’s team, this all seems extremely likely, as it really only leaves one free member for each 8-man group, and that could be easily finished by either an undercard pairing, say Morrison and Ziggler, or just using the Smackdown top two of Randy Orton and Mark Henry.

Of great concern, however, is that Survivor Series is the show of swerves traditionally. Punk has been playing the crowd, playing nice with John Cena, and generally living up to his Cult of Personality song. Should that occur, Punk would doubtless make a higely impressive heel lead of the Corporation to hold the belt until Wrestlemania, giving Rock and Cena a foil until then to keep them from one another’s throats, as well as keeping Triple H important. The problem is that no one expects Rock back full time, and when he leaves, it would help to have Punk already established as a second major face with Triple H only part time. They lucked into gold with crowd reactions to Punk – killing it now doesn’t seem wise.

The other side of that coin is that when Rock caught fire he immediately joined the Corporation himself, coming out of it no worse for wear. Even if Punk goes heel soon, fans are dying to cheer for him, and when he finally throws off his corporate shackles, well, they should root for him even more than ever. There’s little chance Del Rio, Miz, and Truth take to being lackey’s so the face-turn would be easy. It’d be a risk, sure, but it could reignite the fire under Punk that this angle has taken away.

We’re still stuck, though. It’s early with a PPV in 2-weeks and nothing is allowed to change, yet. I fully expect Punk to pin Del Rio and claim the title coming out of this next PPV. He needs something to protect going forward and seems like, if no stable immediately forms, he’s being shifted away from Triple H. H can be busy with Truth and Miz, leaving a 3-way feud for the title, or a fourth contender to emerge. It seems like without a turn, without a big change like a stable, there isn’t enough to get WWE through this period with oh-so-many PPVs – Hell in a Cell 10-2, Vengeance 10-23, and Survivor Series 11-20. With football sapping ratings and buy-rates to be down thanks to market saturation, something really must be done.

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.