As noted earlier, BT Sports’ Ariel Helwani did a long-form interview with Triple H. Among several topics discussed, Hunter was asked, “NXT went head to head with AEW, it couldn’t beat them, we’re gonna punish it. Was that a real thing?”
“No, look, people put so much pressure on this competitive wars, it never was that. Look, first of all, they beat our developmental system, good for them. Right? No, it was never that. There was never even a pressure of like ‘you have to beat that.’ Like, it was never that. It’s put on the best product we could. Like I said, it shifted over time, during the pandemic, all of that shifted over time. And the opportunity for us to change it back to what it truly was. Right? When you look at a lot of the stars that have come through that system, that had either started from zero, or very little exposure anywhere and then became massive stars with us. so many people. And we had lost the ability to take those people and groom them from the ground up. We really had and it’s the biggest change that’s out there.”
“I’m proud of where Shawn and that team have taken that even under circumstances where the change happened and was massive and all at once. And they sort of kind of got this jumble thrown at him and had to go out there and take that and run with it. The job they’ve done is amazing. And now I think you’re starting to see people begin to you know, they got a clean slate and all these athletes you’d never heard of and never seen before. And they’re green and don’t know what they’re doing and they’re out there doing this, you’re seeing it now start to pick up tempo again and start to become what it is, again. I truly believe in that brand. I think you’ll see that here as well.
The decision to pull NXT UK back. It’s the right decision for us, we had plans to do what we’re going to do now right before the pandemic hit. And it took it all the way. So we weren’t able to do that. Our partnership with BT allowed it to stay on the air the whole time. But the truth is, it was totally different from where we wanted it to go. We’re pulling it off the air now so that we can get to NXT Europe because it’s tough to do both at the exact same time to continue to operate a product but build a new product around it. We’re gonna pull it off for a little bit, we’re going to bring NXT Europe back in a bigger way than it ever was before. And the intent is hopefully if we’re successful at it to replicate that. So it’s NXT Europe, it’s NXT, India, it’s NXT, South Africa, it’s NXT Mexico. [And] be able to take those products, put them around everywhere and eventually over time to build brands in those markets locally and build World Cup scenarios around that where, you know, they’re competing on that level, all over the globe. And that tide then feeds into Raw and Smackdown. If Raw and SmackDown are the NFL, NXT at all levels is collegiate football. It’s amazing football. In some ways, same as the NFL, some people like it better. It becomes that but it’s all a feeder system to the overall picture.”
Nick Khan has said in the past that everything is competition and WWE competes with all forms of entertainment. Hunter was asked if he pays attention to what AEW is doing and if he considers them to be competition: “Okay, again, it’s funny. I’ve heard Nick [Khan] say that. And I’ve heard people say it’s a cop out answer. It’s not a cop out. Everything is competition. We pay attention to everything. You have to. Do we pay attention to AEW, do I watch it on a week-to-week basis? No. Am I aware of what’s happening there? To a degree, right? I’m not following everything they do. There’s some times I’ll see that somebody would say ‘oh that’s very to what they do.’ I have no idea.
At the end of the day, you have to focus on what you’re doing. You have to focus on your product. Doesn’t matter what anybody else is doing, if people want to watch that product, there’s nothing I can do about it. There’s nothing that’s going to prevent me from doing that right? Focus on my product, make my product the best product it can possibly be. And I’ve confidence in that ability for this team, for the amount of people, for the talent that we have. I’ll put our talent against anybody. You know, that is how you are successful. Monday Night Football is a massive thing for us. We pay attention to that. Absolutely. We pay attention to all sports that are on television. We’re very strategic about where we put our events and how not because we think we’ll try to block that we think we’ll do this like, No, we’re going to put them in the places where we think we will do the best business. That’s all that it is. There’s nothing more to it than that. And I think that is where people get lost in the small thinking of what happens on a day-to-day basis is the much bigger overall picture that needs to stay in front of you of where you’re trying to get to.”
Click below for the entire interview.
More from the interview: Triple H confirms Brock Lesnar was upset when he heard about Vince McMahon stepping down from WWE
Also: Triple H comments on Sasha Banks, Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, The Rock possibly returning to WWE
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Ariel Helwani on BT Sport with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
