At a critical time for WWE, just ahead of WrestleMania 41, the company seems to be reverting back to some of its old, sloppy booking ways.

This time, though, the just throw them in a Triple Threat match has tied up CM Punk, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins.

It's a staggering thing for WWE to do, really. It seems that Triple H and those in charge of creative are doubling down on mistakes, rather than attempting to right some previous wrongs.

The first misstep was wasting the long-awaited blood feud between Punk and Rollins on the debut episode of Raw on Netflix. What should have been a WrestleMania main event match and landmark moment in the career of both men instead got broadcast on a weird, celebrity and corporate-filled streaming debut highlighted by things like The Rock retconning and tearing up long-term plans.

Now? The Jey Uso-sized elephant in the room.

Triple H and Co. shocked at the Royal Rumble with Jey's upset win. Barring a change from tradition and totally choosing to ignore the man's "Main Event" nickname, Uso will main event 'Mania against Gunther while Cody Rhodes' match takes the other top slotting.

That leaves Punk and Reigns out to dry with Rollins tagging along with nothing to do.

It's just an odd turn of events, really. With Punk aging and so many good Reigns-Rollins stories to tell (and other things like John Cena's retirement tour), it's downright staggering to see that this is the year WWE finally chose to elevate a Superstar with a Royal Rumble win.

All of it becomes a poorly diluted mixture in a triple threat, too. Frankly, it borders on lazy. Now, fans have already seen the Punk-Rollins feud and match.

The build that started with Punk's shocking return to WWE after public jabs for years from Rollins in the media was wasted on the Netflix debut. It should have received the build that Punk's feud with Drew McIntyre did. Instead, it got thrown out essentially for free on an episode of Raw and now isn't even the primary focus of a 'Mania match.

Punk-Reigns now gets wasted, too. There was that whole "favor" thing hanging in the backdrop between the two Superstars thanks to Paul Heyman's scheming character lurking in the background. That could have been used interestingly in the rumble.

Now? It's hard to care about the "favor" wrinkle at all. And any compelling storytelling that could have unfolded with Heyman in the middle goes to waste as they attempt to figure out ways to keep Rollins meaningfully involved.

Same vibes for Rollins-Reigns. Yes, we've seen it before, like that amazing time a Joker-inspired, cackling Rollins entered the ring to The Shield's entrance music just to play mind games with the Tribal Chief.

But slapping Punk in the mix just because they don't know what else to do with him on short notice just makes things awkward. Unless they skew really meta and loop in some of Punk's notorious "make Roman look strong" comments and such that many fans won't even understand, it isn't going to work—and even if it did...it won't main event.

As it stands, it's almost impressive to waste three blood feuds that could main-event 'Mania without a belt and get year-long builds like the McIntyre-Punk drama in one go. All while, it seems, sidelining them for Jey Uso, who is over with crowds, but perhaps not the best pick at the current moment.

If that's how things go, it's going to be hard to eventually loop back to solo feuds between Reigns-Punk-Rollins in the future and keep fans similarly engaged, which is a shame.

And no, elevating the triple threat match to main-event status and putting Jey-Gunther as a Night 1 or Night 2 opener doesn't really fix things, either. The core issue is the match itself, with the placement just a sort of extra weird ingredient atop a bad mixture.

Oddly enough, the Triple H era has been defined in its early stages for a strong commitment to continuity and measured storytelling. To see three of the biggest names in the sport and three of the best of all time railroaded into a triple threat that diminishes more deserving solo feuds is, in a word, disappointing.

WWE's excellent production and revisionist history will attempt to mask over these problems and do a so-so job at it. But the problems are there, obvious and easily avoidable, with repeated self-inflicted mistakes creating a bitter road to 'Mania this year.