Highly-criticized WWE announcement wasn't Triple H's fault, says wrestling veteran Bill Apter (Exclusive)

Triple H has been highly criticized by many for the direction that WWE has taken in 2025, especially since he is the one in the hot seat. However, one unpopular decision was not his fault, according to wrestling veteran Bill Apter.

On the latest episode of Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Time Machine, host Mac Davis addressed all the criticism that The Game has been receiving and defended him after fans had gone after him, as well as AJ Styles' son and even Bret Hart, who called him a phony.

Bill Apter said that while The King of Kings gets a lot of flak, unpopular announcements, such as WrestleMania 43 going to Saudi Arabia, were completely on TKO and had nothing to do with Triple H:

"A lot of people can't learn from the boss. They only go to a certain level. He's up and up at the top level. I don't care if I get slammed here on social media, but you people who bam [criticize] him all the time as if everything is Triple H's fault. When you talk about WrestleMania going to Saudi Arabia in two years, everyone is pi**ed off about that. That's more TKO than HHH. This is a business thing for them; they're doing it like the UFC. The bottom line is not the fan, unfortunately, with TKO. The bottom line is what is the best deal we can make, and that's why it's called the wrestling BUSINESS."

You can watch the full video below:

An ex-WWE personality thinks Triple H is punishing 2 top stars for attending Vince McMahon's birthday party

It is currently the topic of speculation about the nature of Triple H's relationship with Vince McMahon, but some signs suggest that the two aren't exactly on speaking terms. This might have something to do with The Game and Stephanie McMahon both voting "no" when it came to McMahon's return to WWE.

On a live episode of The Coach & Bro Show, Jonathan Coachman pointed out that ever since Drew McIntyre and John Cena attended Vince McMahon's 80th birthday party, they have faced bad booking:

"Anybody that was at that birthday party, either has not been pushed in the last month. Drew McIntyre was there. [John] Cena was there. What does their last month look like? Pulling the Boston show away from Cena, beating Drew McIntyre clean after he made those comments. Are those coincidences?" Coachman said. (H/T - ITRWrestling)

It should be noted that "bad booking" is a subjective opinion, but many fans will agree that neither man has been booked to their full potential. In fact, the recent criticism surrounding both men has nothing negative to do with them - it's about how the WWE creative team has handled them.

At Wrestlepalooza, John Cena was squashed by Brock Lesnar in a near-repeat of their SummerSlam 2014 match, while Drew McIntyre lost clean to Cody Rhodes. The criticism regarding Cena was that it was disrespectful to him, given that he had only a few WWE appearances left. Additionally, the argument was that Lesnar didn't need the victory.

As for McIntyre, many fans were hoping that WWE would pull the trigger on a shocking title change, since Cena vs. Lesnar was expected to close the show instead of the WWE title match. However, since the swap happened, some hoped that it would be a huge angle, but ultimately, nothing materialized despite Triple H's promises of big surprises.

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If you use the quotes from the first half of this article, please credit Sportskeeda Wrestling and embed the episode of The Wrestling Time Machine.