The wonderful folks over at Inside the Ropes attended a press conference last week as part of their coverage of the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament, that was taped in the Royal Albert Hall on June 18 and 19, and will air on the WWE Network on June 25 and 26.
The man they questioned was, of course, the WWE‘s Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative, and founder and Senior Producer of NXT, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque.
The most recent batch of NXT call-ups haven’t exactly lit the main roster on fire; Ember Moon being the shining light, with No Way Jose, Andrade Almas, the Authors of Pain and SAnitY not really doing much.
This has also been the case with a whole lot of wrestlers who were massively over on the yellow brand but just fizzled out after making the jump to Raw or SmackDown. Tye Dillinger, the Revival, the list goes on and on.
And this poses the question – how much does Vince McMahon even know about NXT? Does he even watch it? Does he know who the potential stars are?
The same goes for the United Kingdom division, with the WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne being the only member to have been featured on an episode of Raw or SmackDown, when he faced Enzo Amore on the red brand in November.
Well, here are Triple H’s comments on how aware WWE‘s Chairman is of NXT and the UK division:
“He’s well aware of all of it. It’s a funny thing, some people think he’s not aware of things in his own company. [Laughs] He’s well aware of all of it. He’s all for all of it. There’s a lot of things going on. We grow as a brand every single day and that growing and that expanding, and all of it is an important part of WWE. It doesn’t take away from any of the things we were in the past, but our intent is not to stay what we were, our intent is to be what we can become. Our vision of WWE is massive compared to what it is right now. His vision of what WWE will become is massive and you have to remember this is a guy who envisioned it going from little smoke-filled bars to 100,000 people in a stadium and being seen all around the world with one global brand. That vision is amazing, so he has a vision for all of it, but he’s well aware of all of it, trust me.”
It’s fair to say there are a considerable number of wrestling fans who would claim that NXT and the UK division actually put on a better product than WWE‘s main roster.
NXT has already seen multiple matches rated five stars by Dave Meltzer this year, including Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade Almas from NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia and two matches from TakeOver: New Orleans, in the NXT North American Championship Ladder match and Johnny Gargano vs. Tomasso Ciampa in an “unsanctioned” match.
However, it is worth noting that some prefer WWE‘s less serious approach to entertainment, the most recent example being the Bobby Lashley vs. Sami Zayn storyline.
Here are ‘The Game’s comments on those who claim NXT and the UK division put on a better product than WWE‘s main roster:
“Everybody has opinions. I’m sure you’ve heard that quote before. Yeah, everybody has opinions. Look, you just try to put out the best product you can put out. For me, it’s a different reach and a different vibe. If you’re a fan of a certain genre of music, you just like that music better. If you go to that concert, you like that concert better. It’s a big world, lot of fans. WWE has almost a billion followers on social media, number one channel for sports, number two channel overall on YouTube. We got a lot of people watching. Some of them like different things. It’s just funny people believe what they believe is the answer. It certainly doesn’t seem to be hurting business, there’s enough product to go around for everybody.”
You can check out the full interview in the following video:
What are your thoughts on Triple H’s comments? What do you think of how Vince McMahon has handled talent following their call-up from “developmental”? Let us know in the comments below or on our official Twitter page, here! You can also join us on Discord to chat with Oli, Luke, the magazine team, the website writers and each other here!
6 years ago by Liam Winnard
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