None of that says transitional though. Most of that shit is due to him being a damn heel. Does losing to Slater actually mean anything?
I mean if your world champ losing to the definitive jobber in the company doesn't mean anything then ¯\_(ツ_/¯
He's not a scary domineering heel champ like HHH. He's not like when The Rock was picked by the Corporation to be their guy and screw over the babyface, a la Seth - The Rock was always portrayed as a cheating, arrogant guy but never comedy jobber tier that lost to Patterson and Briscoe.