Triple H On Who Pitched Having NXT As Part Of WWE Week On USA, Tastes Of Wrestling Fans Changing
Triple H recently spoke with Brian Fritz of SportingNews.com to promote Wednesday's WWE NXT broadcast debut on the USA Network. The full interview is at this link and below are highlights:
You've had NXT on the WWE Network now for 3-4 years. Is there anything that's really surprised you about its growth and what it is now?
"Look, I'm always surprised. I don't want to say surprised because it's pleasantly surprising. You planning for it to be great and you hope that it is and then you're pleasantly surprised that it is. You want to put on the best product possible. I think, for me, I look at the Performance Center and the talent there and I look at the talent that we have coming in and I just try to say what would I want to see if I'm a kid and if I put myself that way. At the end of the day, I'm just a fan, right? A fan of this industry and the business of what we do and I say I really like that talent. I'd love to see him face this talent. I there would be a really cool way to do it but doing this and that's how we put it together. What's been nice about it is even when we've had setbacks, I think the thing that's been probably, if there's been one thing that's surprising is the ability to continue to just let it evolve organically on its own.
"You can look at the short period of time that NXT's existed in that four years or whatever and you can see distinct, almost little eras of the Finn Balor time and then Samoa Joe, then there was (Shinsuke) Nakamura, then Bobby Roode. Before that it was Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and Neville. You have these sections of time that almost become these eras of NXT. Whether talent gets called up or whatever the situation is, there's kind of that next thing that begins to pocket in there and people latch onto. There are a lot of talented performers available. Yes, they're all learning. Yes, they're all getting better every day but there's a lot of talented performers available. To me, the exciting part about it is if you build it, they will come. We just put it out there in a way that people seem to appreciate and they continue to watch so it's exciting."
NXT being on USA Network is part of WWE week on the channel. Is this something you have previously pushed for, getting NXT on USA Network, even for a one-shot?
"No. It's funny, I really haven't. This has been exciting in that ... break this down however you want and you can look at it and say holiday week or however you want. NBCUniversal, USA Network, the No. 1 cable channel in America, is taking an hour of primetime television and giving it to NXT which is huge from where this has come the last two, three years, where NXT has come. And they called us for it.
"It wasn't like we went to them and pitched it. This was a "we would like to do Monday 'RAW,' Tuesday 'SmackDown,' Wednesday we'll do 'NXT.'" When they sent me the email, our television studio, to ask if I would be interested in doing this, I was like, is this a trick question? Yeah, I'll put "NXT" on USA for a week and expose it to a much, much, much larger audience than what we have on the (WWE) network.
"While the WWE Network will always be NXT's home in some way for sure, this is a great opportunity for a lot of people to see a product they've never really had an opportunity to see before other than clips and bits and pieces. I'm sure they've heard a lot about it and I'm hoping a lot of people will tune in and sample it for the first time because it's different. It's an alternative and it's a different flavor and I'm hoping people will sample it."
You've obviously learned a lot of different things behind the scenes over the last five, ten years. Is there anything in particular that you're looking at now that you want to learn or get more experience at?
"This industry, what we do, is fluid. It's constantly changing and I feel like you're never going to stop learning. The generation that watches right now is different than a generation that watched five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago. It's totally different. So, you're constantly learning, you're constantly having to put your finger on the pulse of what works today. It's like music in a way and it's the closest thing that I can relate what we do.
"When you make music, when it's really good, it stays classic forever. That song will stay classic forever. But a song that's classic today from 30 years ago, if you wrote that song today, would die. It would be miserable. No one would like it. It's changed. People's tastes have changed. People's acceptance of things has changed. Everything changes on a constant basis so you have to stay ahead of that and the people that are open to that and can continue to change and are willing to change stay consistently successful. The ones that aren't are one-hit wonders or are successful for a period of time and then it goes away for them. It's constantly learning and staying open to that because, I think, the moment that you start thinking I know what I'm doing, you just do this and it's good; you're done."
Source: SportingNews.com