NXT founder Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque spoke with Sporting News about how NXT fits into the huge wrestling week ahead of us. He reiterates the hope that NXT can be seen as more than a “developmental” brand, and that all three WWE shows can bring their own environment to the scene.
When I was younger and I would watch WCW and WWE, even before the heyday of the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars. Prior to that, when a (Ric) Flair would move to WWE, I wonder how he’s going to work out in that environment? There was a different feel and tenor and vibe to what that brand was
Of course, they’ll be a fourth “environment” to deal with, one running opposite to NXT on Wednesday nights. When asked about the competition, Triple H says that it’s not just AEW that concerns him. “There’s competition that we’ve dealt with for years. You can look back and say a brief period with WCW, but the competition we’ve dealt with for years is the NFL, is Major League Baseball. It’s large scale sporting events. It’s political debates. It’s everything that is out there and that’s what we deal with.” When asked directly about Kenny Omega’s recent comments about NXT, Trips got a bit more direct.
There’s a statement about opinions over the years I’ve heard. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. Everybody is entitled to put an executive tag on the front of their name and think that’s a cool thing. Whatever. It’s all good. Bring your best show. If that’s how you want to look at it, bring your best show. I’ll bring my best show. We’re all good and the winners are the fans and they’ll choose what they want to watch and how.
Finally, Triple H responds to the talk about how many of the talents in NXT are homegrown, and how that can affect NXT on USA Network. “There are a lot of people that when they’re talking about it in the discussion on “RAW” and “SmackDown” that are homegrown that I never really hear talked about as being homegrown. Braun Strowman had never stepped in a ring before. Alexa Bliss, Charlotte (Flair), there’s so many talent that do what we do that are homegrown.”
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