Backstage notes on Triple H's move to Smackdown - how it was planned
On Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 7:52 PM EST According to a recent report, when Batista got hurt in late 2005/early 2006, an idea was pitched during a WWE creative meeting to have Triple H move to Smackdown. According to a source who was at the meeting, Hunter reportedly "freaked the f*ck out" and said there was no way that was ever going to happen. From that point on, Vince McMahon reportedly joked with him saying he "better back those bags" because he was heading to Smackdown.
This ties in with the decision to move Jim Ross to Smackdown in that one WWE source stated that if Vince discovers something bugs you, you can pretty much count on him to exploit it as much as possible. As reported on Monday, Jim Ross made it very clear he didn't want to be traded to Smackdown and as a result Vince and Kevin Dunn found this amusing when they found out about it and then went forward with the decision to pretty much humiliate him on television during the draft.
In regards to pushing Triple H to Smackdown, the decision was said to have been made around the time the deal with MyNetworkTV was made and was not something they decided on recently. MyNetwork reportedly knew from the start that when they started airing Smackdown in October that the show would largely be built around The Undertaker and Triple H as the top two stars. Right after WWE's European tour following WrestleMania in late April before Triple H won the WWE Title at Backlash, Undertaker, Triple H, Edge and Vickie Guerrero were brought into the studio to tape promos for the network. Triple H's promo saw him spitting water into the camera and saying something along the lines of, "You're watching Friday Night Smackdown right here on MyNetworkTV." The fact that Batista wasn't used may have indicated they made a decision then to push him to Raw, although some felt he may not have made the cut as one of the "top babyfaces" on the brand with Undertaker and Triple H involved. So, only a handful of people knew about the direction the company was going after WrestleMania and all had to sign non-disclosure agreements that expired on June 24. All shooting was done in April and the ads were completed in late May. It should be noted that in San Franciso, ads are already running on MyNetworkTV with Jim Ross and Triple H saying Smackdown is coming to the network.
Source: The Wrestling Observer & Figure Four Newsletter