But I actually would have booked the match slightly differently, with Axel almost dominating Trips, or at least showing signs of improvement under Heyman's new direction

Then you could still go to the "SuperHHHero Trips is losing his power/maybe having a stroke ZOMG!!!!!!!!!!!!" angle

The argument against that, though, is that it somehow would "make Triple H look weak," and LORD KNOWS WE CAN'T HAVE THAT SHIT... but even that could have been bought back by having the announcers cop pleas for Trips, saying that he was "off his game" because of the "brutal match from the night before"

Which is why the Extreme Rules match, while good, didn't quite work for me. Triple H, not BERRRRRROCK LESNAR, should have been the "injured" one for most of that match... the whole babyface in peril thing... then he could have gone to the sledgehammer in desperation, and the match could have gone on from there...

If they're telling some sort of story with Triple H losing his superpowers or whatever the fuck road they're on (until Vince gets impatient and changes his mind in 3 weeks), then the right time to start that is at Extreme Rules, when he gets injured early on, gets his ass beat the entire match, makes the super babyface comeback (with the aid of his hidden cage sledgehammer), but still loses...

EDIT: And as an added bonus, you could have Heyman spending the next few weeks having his clients take credit for putting Triple H "out of commission"...

_________________________________________________________________________________
A No Rough Stuff Type Deal