Triple H Talks NXT Possibly Getting TV Deal Someday, Rumors Of Building A New Performance Center
As noted, Triple H took part in a media conference call today to discuss this Saturday's NXT Takeover: Chicago event. Wrestling Inc. was on the call, and with the sharp increase in television rights fees for live sports-oriented programming, I asked Triple H if he sees the show going live and moving to a cable network in the future.
"To your point, the landscape of the world changes on a regular basis, whether that be cable live television, broadcast television, networks, OTT services and everything else, it's changing on a daily basis," Triple H said. "My point of view on that would be, 'never say never.'
"RAW and SmackDown are obviously the juggernauts, that will never change, but NXT has kind of grown into its own. It still is, at its core in some way, where people are developing. But at the same time, they're still developing when they're on RAW and SmackDown, I think you never stop doing that in this business. It really has become a third brand, an alternative brand. I think it's different from both RAW certainly, and SmackDown. It has its own wide fanbase and I think that there's interest there, so you can never say never. It's all in what comes up down the line."
Earlier this week during a media interview, Bobby Roode had suggested the WWE was building a "new" and "larger" Performance Center. Triple H squashed that rumor, stating that while Roode's information is "glorious", it's "just not accurate always."
"We have no current plans for a larger facility that are in the works," Triple H said. "It is constantly something we are looking at, growing and evolving, I never want to be stagnant to where we are. The Performance Center is kind of the heart of what we do, because it's creating the future and it's churning out all this talent, plus the content we're creating there. There will be some announcements on some new things we are doing from there soon.
"I'm always open to that idea of expanding out in the future. Is it in my mind? Absolutely. Have we started actually doing that yet or physically going down that road? We have not. But I do appreciate Bobby's enthusiasm for it, certainly."
On the call, Triple H also discussed the possibility of main roster talent moving to NXT to "freshen up", why the U.K. tournament isn't airing live and more. You can listen to the full conference call in the video above or the audio player below: