Triple H Credited For Giving WWE Women A Chance
A former women’s champion in WWE is grateful for what Triple H did for her career.
The first NXT Premium Live Event, previously known as a pay-per-view, was titled Arrival and took place on February 27, 2014. It was shortly after the WWE Network launched. This took place about two years after Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over as the man running the developmental process and became the booker of the NXT brand for the rest of the decade.
One of the big matches on NXT Arrival saw Paige defend the NXT Women’s Title against Emma. The two women had a great match that lasted 13 minutes, which was longer than most women’s matches on the main roster in WWE at the time.
With Triple H in charge of NXT, the women’s matches started to be featured more while women like Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Bayley, and others would join Paige and Emma as leaders in the division.
Paige held the NXT Women’s Title once in her WWE career, which lasted 1 year. She was also a two-time WWE Divas Champion. In AEW, she used her real name, Saraya, and won their AEW Women’s Title.
During an appearance on One-on-One with Andro Mammo, Saraya spoke about how Triple H utilized the women in NXT and his impact on women’s wrestling in WWE.
“I remember when I first got signed. I was at RAW in England, and he came up and shook my hand. He said, ‘Welcome aboard.’ I’ll never forget it, and also, oh my God. Triple H knows who I am. It was just insane.
Triple H was a really good boss in NXT, and I enjoyed him running it. He gave girls a lot of time, a lot of freedom, and he helped usher in the revolution too. He wanted to give the women a chance, and he did.”
Triple H “Made NXT What It Is Now”
The NXT brand is currently run by WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, who serves as Senior Vice President of Talent Development and Creative. While Triple H oversees the WWE main roster creatively as the Chief Content Officer, Michaels continues to book women strongly in NXT, as they often headline shows and even have more matches than the men sometimes.
As she continued, Saraya praised Triple H for his vision with NXT and its current state.
“When we were in NXT, doing a suplex from the top rope as a woman was a big deal back then. I mean, we got ‘This is awesome’ chants. Now everybody can do it, but back then it was special, and he let us do that.
He made NXT what it is now. It’s a spectacle. It’s like the third brand. It’s really big. People are selling out arenas when they do pay-per-views, all that kind of stuff. He was the catalyst there and made it something really special.”
Saraya would go on to say she was very grateful for what Triple H did for her career.
“Hunter is very open minded. He sees us women, knows that we can put on a match if given the time, and he was like, Okay, here’s the brass ring. I’m really thankful for him. I really am.”
Following Saraya’s AEW departure, it has been speculated that she could return to WWE as Paige in the future, as she left on good terms in the past and has spoken positively about WWE for many years after leaving the company.