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During today's WWE Summerslam tryouts in Nashville, Paul Levesque spoke on replacing Vince McMahon as the head of WWE's creative process, commenting:
"[You] gotta watch the show. Look, this is the, the longest running stuff on TV. We say it all the time, right? Raw SmackDown, Summerslam. Just everything that we're doing, right? There are, there are massive pair of shoes to fill that I'm trying in some way to step into, but I do not dream for one second that I can fill those shoes by myself, period, by myself. It's going to take a lot of us. It's going to take a team. It's gonna take everybody here to, to fill those shoes and continue this on, but we will, we will. The intent is to continue the legacy of what has been going on, what made me fall in love with this business [Vince McMahon] created, and to take it to new levels, to take it beyond where it is now. The only way we're gonna do that is with a team that's with Steph, that's with Nick Khan. That's with myself, that's with Kevin Dunn. That's with everybody that is here. That is with all this talent. We have the greatest, hardest working talent in the world. I have no doubt, no doubt in my mind with this team that we can do it, not an inkling of doubt. It's just a lot of hard work and we're all gonna grind, and we're all gonna make it do because we have the greatest fans in the world, and we're gonna make sure that they get everything they want out of this product. And then some."
On the challenge of taking over right as Summerslam is taking place:
"Yeah, that's a challenge. Yeah. Believe me. I've spent half my time on the ground and half my time in the air in the last few days. We finished TV. We were home for a little bit, flew out here. My kids' birthdays in the middle. We flew out here, came to day one of tryouts. When it was over, flew home, had meetings late into the night with our partners. We had a board meeting in the morning, flew back here yesterday afternoon, finished the last half of the tryout. I was working on the shows all night long and I'm not complaining about it. I love it and everybody here is working just as hard as I am. Like I said, it's gonna take all of us to fill a big pair of shoes, but we're hell bent on doing it."
On the potential of Paul Heyman on creative going forward after Heyman's promo to potential WWE talents trying out earlier this week:
"I want ideas from everybody. I want thoughts from everybody. To me, this is inclusive, and when I, when I say that goes for the talent, when I say, it's gonna take all of us, it's gonna take all of us and I want that. I, I want like, look, Paul's one of the best promos in the history of this business. So who better when I asked him to be a part of this, he was thrilled, right? We, we both joke about the fountain youth at these things. Paul always does this, rub it all over me. It's the fountain youth, right? Who better to come here and, and talk about that skill. Paul has the gift of gab, always has, and who better to come here and motivate these kids?"
On the talents trying out and wanting a collaboration from everyone:
"When I talk about that, you know, the 50-plus athletes that are all amazing athletes, why they were selected to be here, from the best of the best collegiately, that's a massive pool. We whittled this down from hundreds to the 50 that you saw here. The difficult part for them is picking up a microphone and standing in front of all these people and, and trying to do what we do. The difference from day one to what they are here today. What you just saw here today is amazing. It really, truly is, and it's a testament to what we can do in this system and what it can do. You look at NXT now, and, and the crew that is performing. There's some of those people that have like 10 matches under their belt and it's been, you know, literally single digit months since the first time they ever stepped through those ropes. That's amazing. It's credible, it's a crazy level of success that I'm incredibly proud of this team. Matt Bloom, the whole crew here, the talent development team, James Kimble, Sean Hayes with strength and condition, just all of it, what they do here is, is amazing.
Then Shawn [Michaels] and the team in NXT and taking that to the next level is amazing and even stepping in as I had to step out and just never missing a beat and running with it is incredible and I'm so proud of all of it and all of them. You talked about Heyman. I want everybody that anybody that wants to be involved. When I look at people who've been through this process and what it takes to get here, I look at Big E and I look at Bianca, right? Bianca and I were talking about it backstage. She was remembering her first time stepping through those ropes to try this same process for us. Who better than those people to see what that, that moment and what falling in love with this business can do for them and where it can lead them in their life. Who better to help guide this next gen, who better to look for that future, who better to stand in this group and say, 'Look, I can tell you from my point of view', that's something special, right? I want all that involvement and I want to, I want to be as open and collaborative as everybody as I can be, because it's the way we're gonna make this great."
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