Triple H Talks Choosing WWE NXT TakeOver Main Events, Bianca Belair's Growth

Triple H spoke with Yahoo Sports! before this weekend's NXT TakeOver: Portland from the Moda Center. Triple H was asked about the process of choosing main events in NXT, and Bianca Belair's rapid progression as she gets set to face NXT Women's Champion Rhea Ripley at the upcoming show.

When it comes to figuring out which match will close out a show, Triple H boiled it down to who is getting the most buzz, and which would be considered "the biggest battle scene" to close out the show.

"It's a funny thing when people ask how I feel about the women headlining," Triple H said. "When I look at the TakeOvers, I look at where it lays out from a storyline standpoint, that's really all I look at. It's about the overall card, but also what is causing the buzz in the moment.

"When you look at WrestleMania last year, Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair were the main event because they were in a position where they had the most buzz. They got the most TV time and the most push only because that was the reaction of the crowd. We sort of are following [the crowd], not vice-versa, in the reactions.

"To me, it's not a man, woman thing, not a tag team or singles title thing, not anything else. Whatever the biggest storyline and whatever has the most emotional connection is what I want to see in that last spot. You don't put the biggest battle scene in the middle of the movie and then taper it off toward the end. You want to approach this that way."

A bout that could potentially close out TakeOver is Ripley versus Belair, the challenger is someone Triple H is still amazed by considered she came into NXT with no wrestling experience back in 2016.

"When you watch a talent like Bianca Belair, who comes in with no experience, step into the ring with no wrestling background and you see that growth curve [it's amazing]," Triple H stated. "You watch them grow, change and excel. She's at a point now, if you were to have said to me six months ago that she would be where she is now, I wouldn't have doubted it, but it would have been hard for me to envision that curve being so sharp.

"Now she's feeling it, and a lot of this, when you're working with someone who is training, they know what they need to do, but when the red light turns on, those are two different things. If they can only succeed at it part of the time because they are still in their head, they need more time to get that confidence. Now Bianca, she is in the zone, she is just there. Every arena she walks out in she owns the place."

Wrestling Inc. will have complete coverage of tomorrow's NXT TakeOver: Portland, beginning at 6:30 pm ET.