WWE News: Triple H Discusses NXT Move to USA Network, NXT UK, Vince McMahon, More

It has been over four months since NXT officially debuted on the USA Network, starting what fans like to refer to as the Wednesday Night Wars with AEW. Triple H recently sat down with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT to discuss his thoughts on the new competition.

“I don’t approach it as a competitive thing. To me, we’re just putting on our shows. I’m gonna put on the shows when we need to put them on, the best places we need to put them on, the right time slots for them and with the best talent I can find in the world. And we already have them. I’m confident in that. When I look across the board at NXT and NXT UK, we put on show after show of the highest caliber not one match or two match, the entire show. For me it’s not competitive against anyone or anything. I just want to put on the best show possible for fans of NXT [and] for fans around the world. That’s all this is. It’s funny because a few years ago, we were doing this and doing the same kind of thing: wowing people. There wasn’t any competitors out there. I guess we were just doing it for competitive reasons then to compete with ourselves.”

NXT is not the only brand that Triple H oversees as he is also in charge of the NXT UK Brand. Triple H discussed he hopes that NXT moving to the USA Network will bring more eyes to the UK Brand as well.

“It takes time to build these things outright, and it’s not just about looking at the UK or at individual markets while looking at a global presence. NXT UK I believe is the second most popular thing on the WWE Network and that was behind NXT in the U.S. [Now] moving to the USA Network and having a 24-hour re-air on the Network, changes a little bit. I also expect that opportunity on the USA Network in the states to resonate here (UK) as well. I want to use that platform, as well, to continue to grow these brands, to continue to grow the presence in the UK, to take this NXT UK brand [and] showcase it in a different place all over the globe [to] make sure it has as many eyeballs on it as possible. We’ll see where that goes from there. As this grows out, the WWE plans to do more TakeOvers here. We’re gonna add more to that scheduling. There’s a lot more to come. It’s bit by bit. I don’t want to overwhelm everything too much, but it’s bit by bit. It’ll continue to grow so every next step you take is successful.”

Finally, Triple H discussed the fear that some WWE fans have that now that NXT is on national television Vince McMahon is going to take control and “ruin” it.

“Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of things that people say that don’t make sense because they don’t approach things from a business standpoint. Put it this way, we’re gonna be live on Mondays. We’re gonna be live on Wednesdays. We’re gonna be live on Fridays. There’s so much bandwidth to go. It’s just funny the small mindedness of it that people don’t give Vince the [credit for being the] businessman that he is. When people talk about him as a businessman, there’s so many crazy misconceptions.”

“The truth is, all of what we’re doing right now, this business is here because of him. [He] took a failing industry, so to speak, and a period of time in the 80s and took it a global phenomenon when nobody else had the foresight to do it. You hear people talk about where it is today and some of the negative things, and I’m like, ‘really? Because we’ve signed billion dollar deals with Fox and USA. I’m not sure it’s crumbling.”

“He’s also smart enough to understand the things that we do and where they go and how. If you’re asking for the simple answers, he’s not involved. Yeah, he’s gonna have some say in some things as far as where the brand sits and the marketing of it within USA.”

“The truth is, at this point in time, he’s basically just said go make this thing a success. It’s what he told me in the beginning. ‘Go make this thing a success.’ We pick up the phone with each other every now and again. We see each other all the time. ‘How’s it going? Good. Excellent. Great.’ And we move on. That’s where it’s at, but they always want to speculate. A lot of it is just silliness. If you love NXT, it’s just gonna get bigger. There’s gonna be more of it. Two hours gives us more opportunity.”

Thank you to WrestlingInc for transcribing the quotes. The full interview can be seen in the video below including Triple H wanting to wrestle The Rock at WrestleMania 32, but scheduling issues prevented it from happening. There’s plenty of good stuff in here, so check it out.

Matt’s Musings: WWE NXT has been the most consistent and entertaining wrestling promotion in the world over the last few years. Hopefully, Triple H can keep steering the ship, and the promotion can just keep growing and getting better for years to come.