Triple H Talks Mae Young Classic, Indie Promoters, Possibility of a Future Women’s Show & More at NXT Takeover Conference Call

Triple H held a conference call today with members of the media ahead of this weekend’s NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III live special on the WWE Network. Wrestlezone’s Justin LaBar was on hand and documented the entire call over at his Twitter account @JustinLaBar.

– The call started about 1:20 p.m. EST after a 20 minutes delay. Triple H welcomed everyone to the call and started things off by offering his thoughts and prayers to Ric Flair and members of his family. He called Flair one of his best friends, a mentor and an idol to him throughout his career.

– He said that NXT Takeover going into SummerSlam is like their version of WrestleMania, with things coming to an end and the start of a new season of stories, feuds and characters.

– Independent promoters are welcome around NXT and Full Sail as Triple H wants to work with people and groups that are “in the business of cultivating talent.” He believes there is opportunity on both sides to grow and learn from each other.

– With regards to women’s wrestling, he specifically praised Dave Prazak who founded both Chicago-based Shimmer Women Athletes and the Florida-based Shine Wrestling promotions. Hunter said he’s asked for Prazak’s views and opinions, and that while they could have possibly done more for women’s wrestling sooner, now is definitely the right time and right place as people keep asking for it the more they produce. He said the women previously didn’t have the “pot of gold” at the end of the proverbial rainbow the same as the men did, but that’s slowly changing.

– Originally the Mae Young Classic was supposed to be 16 competitors, but he expanded it to 32 and there could have been even more with all the talent on the global scene. Triple H said that Shawn Michaels was speechless after the Mae Young Classic, and some of the crew think it’s better than the Cruiserweight Classic. He spent a lot of time putting over the MYC and how good it’s going to be, and how all the girls competing killed it and exceeded expectations. It’s being released in large clumps binge-watch style and not week-to-week because they have the hindsight of the CWC and know that people would rather watch things when they want to and have time, and it’s hard to keep the audience’s attention every single week. The goal this time is to build towards one huge match they can produce in the live finals in Las Vegas.

– With regards to signing more women’s talent and the possibility of a future show exclusive to the women, Triple H simply said “never say never”. They’re experimenting with a lot of things as they monitor and track the viewing habits of their audience.