During WWE’s recent United Kingdom Championship Tournament tapings, WWE COO Triple H was interviewed by Inside the Ropes about NXT becoming a global brand and opening more pathways to WWE by working with local indies in the UK. Below are the highlights from the interview:
On WWE working with the local indies within the UK: “I think to say to ‘work with all the indies,’ I’ve said this before, there are groups cultivating talent and I’d like to work with those. There are also groups out there just putting on shows and you’ve heard the stories of are you going to get paid? Is there medical? There’s a lot of things we’re trying to upgrade. It’s hard, fans just see it and they liked the product or they don’t, but I’m trying to upgrade the behind-the-scenes for the talent, for their health, for their well being, [and] for their careers. I want this to be a career for people, not a thing where you you hope that you make it and 15 years later and go, ‘Man, I spent a lot of time doing this and I have nothing to show for it.’ Trying to change that and trying to change that for their well being. That’s the effort and at the same time showcasing them to the world. The pathway to get to WWE, the pathway to get this to be a career didn’t necessarily exist before, [I] think talent is beginning to see this [open up].”
On UK brand becoming included in a more global vision of NXT: “I think it organically developed into that, it what was always in my head of how it would end up being. When we did it the first time it was, ‘Hey, WWE is going to do this UK tournament’ and I think it helped up put more eyeballs on it. But as NXT has become more and more established, the ability to look at Raw and SmackDown as kind of these two bigger flagship juggernauts that are out there and where everything sits beneath it. It’s not a downgrade, but it’s just this global system that allows you to have the benefits of the WWE and a career that can be meaningful. Putting these in other international markets and in some way building a global territory system, much like what existed in the U.S. year ago, but global.
Having talent have those places to work, so even if they spend time in a location and they’re not quite ready to make that move yet or it’s just time for them to go someplace else, they can go someplace else, but still stay within that system. Still continued to grow. If I were a 25 year old kid trying to make it in the business and they told me, ‘You want to go to the Middle East for six months and work a territory there?’ I’d say, ‘hell yeah.’ Those are the things that are a blast when you’re at that time frame and to be able to have that experience will be so valuable to all those talents.”
You can check out the entire interview of Triple H in the video below:
