Triple H On If He Had Creative Input Into Retribution's Debut, If WWE NXT Will Be Part Of The Draft
As noted, Triple H held a media call earlier today to promote Sunday's WWE NXT "Takeover: 31" event. He was asked if he has any idea of how the NXT brand might be involved with the WWE Draft, which begins with the October 9 SmackDown episode, and then ends with the October 12 RAW show.
"I wish I did, but I don't," Triple H said when asked if he knows how NXT might be involved with the Draft. "I don't know. The Draft is coming. I'm insure, so you, like myself, will have to stay tuned, and wait and see. The Draft is always an exciting time because you can get new talent, fresh match-ups, and everything else. So, I, like you, will be sitting back, waiting to see the excitement unfold."
Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked Triple H about Retribution's recent RAW debut, and how much input he and NXT wrestlers have into how they will debut when they move to the main roster for RAW or SmackDown.
"Wait a minute, you're saying that some of the people in Retribution came from NXT? Geez, I gotta pay more attention to this stuff," Triple H joked.
Triple H continued and revealed that he has no creative say-so into what happens after a NXT Superstar is called to the main roster. He noted that the RAW and SmackDown creative teams take over once a call-up happens.
"We have conversations around who will go where, when," he said. "An example of, 'Hey, this person, we have an interest in them. They reach out to us, we have an interest in them. Great, I can write them out of some stuff and get them to you by this period of time. Excellent,' and we go from there.
"Where it goes from there, at this point in time, I don't have any say on, or anything else. It really goes to those creative teams. I get the call, whether it's from RAW, whether it's from SmackDown, or whether it's somebody that kind of has oversight of both, and we sit down, we have meetings around who goes where, when, and really that's it. You know, sometimes those calls are reversed as well. That's sort of the process, but the creative teams of those brands are controlling what happens to those talent. They might ask me, 'Hey, can this person handle this or can they handle that?,' Because they're maybe not as familiar with them as I may be, but it really doesn't go a whole lot further than that."
NXT "Takeover: 31" will takes place this Sunday night, airing live on the WWE Network. Remember to join us for live coverage at 6:30pm ET, beginning with the Pre-show. The full audio from Triple H's WWE NXT Takeover 31 media call aired as part of today's episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.