Triple H On Possibility Of An NXT Title Match At WrestleMania, Tonight's "Takeover: Portland" Event

While we've seen NXT talent perform at WrestleMania before, one thing that we've yet to see is an NXT Championship match on The Grandest Stage of them All. Triple H was asked if that's a possibility during a recent WWE media call.

"Right now, the TakeOver the night before is gonna be a pretty epic card. It becomes a difficult task when you say NXT at WrestleMania when you already have an event that goes maybe five hours. It's hard to put all of that into play in one event. It's why WrestleMania is really a week-long event for fans," stated Triple H.

He then said that WrestleMania week begins on Wednesday with NXT in Orlando and then the Hall of Fame and Axxess on Thursday. SmackDown follows on Friday followed by NXT TakeOver on Saturday.

"Sunday will probably be a two-hour lead-in show with epic matches and then a 4-5-hour PPV event from the stadium," revealed Triple H. "If you start adding more into that event, then it becomes longer and it's diminishing returns. Then you've got Monday Night Raw and this year we'll be doing a special thing with NXT coming out of WrestleMania. It's a week-long series of events and you've got to put things in different places. Otherwise WrestleMania would start at 6 am and go into the next morning."

Triple H was then asked about the belief that moving so much NXT talent to the main roster will hurt NXT in the long run. He said he's not worried about that because there is talent on the NXT bench ready to shine once given an opportunity.

"Those are conversations held on a day-to-day basis. But if you look at NXT, the roster is loaded from top to bottom. We have probably the strongest women's division of any roster. The men's roster is deep and there are people sitting in the pocket waiting to get the shot. That's what makes it so good," stated Triple H. "There's also the opportunity that people will float over like Finn. You have those opportunities to crisscross because you have this deep talent roster.

He added that if they lost top people to RAW or SmackDown, he wouldn't have a problem because their bench is so deep.

"People have been saying that about NXT since the very beginning ? that the [movement] is a weakness. I don't see it as a weakness as I see it as a strength. That movement can happen at any time and it keeps things fresh," said Triple H.

The Game is always cognizant of not cramming too much into a TakeOver event as a high quantity doesn't mean a high quality. He was asked how long fans can expect tonight's TakeOver: Portland to be because it's a longer and more packed card.

"I'll say it's a much more packed lineup. But it feels like every time we have these calls, we say the same thing: 'Wow this card is stacked.' Then you get to the next one and say, 'Wow this card is more stacked than the last one' and that's a good thing. I'll be honest, this card was debated heavily because there were so many things I wanted to put in there. And to be honest, this card could have been even bigger," admitted Triple H.

"I don't wanna overload the time on this as, to me, once you get past a certain time then it's diminishing returns. I think that's been a strength of the brand and people seem to enjoy it. This card is really one match bigger than the TakeOvers we've been doing in the past. When it lays out, you'll see what it is. But I don't expect it to be this dramatic difference where you're like, 'Wow, that was totally different than anything we've seen.' I think the quality is there and it's been there every single time.

"We talk about it every time, 'Oh my God! How do you surpass that' on the next one and that's always the challenge. I think this one will surpass what we've done before and the trick in Tampa [before WrestleMania] is to outdo it again and I'm confident that we will. I'm confident in that because of the talent and they wouldn't have it any other way."

Every TakeOver event in 2019 had five matches on the main card while TakeOver: Portland currently has six scheduled. Triple H was asked if the matches will be shorter to make up for the bigger card.

"That's always a concern. Part of the planning process for the TakeOvers or any PPV is the length of time and how long things go. But for me it comes down to what talent needs. Sometimes talent need 30 minutes or more than that or a lot less than that to tell the story," said Triple H. "It depends on the stories so when we go through these cards there's a lot that's poured into all of this. We're working with the talent and having conversations around, 'How do we think this should go', 'What's the story we're trying to tell' and 'How long do we wanna tell that story.'"

Triple H then noted that in Hollywood, movies don't start being made by deciding how long they should be. They last however long they need to in order to tell a story.

"You go through it and see what works and what feels right. That's what we do with this and that's what will happen this weekend," said Triple H. "We believe we have the right mix to give the right length of show and right length of matches. We feel that we're in the right spot, otherwise we wouldn't be doing it that way. We'll see if we're right."