Triple H Insists NXT Europe Isn’t Dead

Triple H still has big plans outside of North America.

In late 2016, Triple H announced the creation of the WWE United Kingdom Championship with 16 of Britain’s best wrestlers taking part in a tournament to decide the inaugural champion.

The tournament was aired as a WWE Network special in January 2017 and was won by Tyler Bate. A second tournament and another special were subsequently held, and this eventually led to the launch of NXT UK in October 2018.

The brand acted as a launching pad in the company for Toni Storm, Rhea Ripley, Gunther, and more, but it was closed in August 2022. In September, all of the NXT UK titles were absorbed by NXT at Worlds Collide.

With the closure of NXT UK, it was announced that the brand would be replaced by NXT Europe. However, two and a half years later, there have been no updates, and no plans have been released publicly for the creation of the new brand.

Triple H Believes In Expansion

During WWE’s recent European tour, the company stopped off in the UK for a series of tapings while holding try-outs at its UK Performance Center. At the try-out, Triple H sat down with Alex McCarthy of the Daily Mail to address WWE’s push for young stars and the importance of NXT.

The Game was also asked about NXT Europe and whether it even exists.

‘It is,’ he asserts. ‘I’m still a big believe that the UK was going to work. The product was there, the interest level as there – the pandemic squashed it. For years we couldn’t move people, we couldn’t bring people in and it just shut it down. I still believe it’s there.

I still believe in the expansion of what we’re doing. It’s about the opportunity for people. The opportunity in this industry, what we do, is few and far between outside of WWE where you’re kind of just trying to do it on your own…

The future of the business for us is going to Japan, the Middle East, Australia and all of these places where we can help support and grow a thriving industry. The people who don’t see that don’t see what we do.’

During a different interview, Triple H suggested some NXT stars become complacent when they move to the main roster. The WWE boss said that within six months, some Superstars aren’t “the same person” they were in NXT, and it’s obvious they aren’t training as hard as they had previously.