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TRIPLE H TALKS NXT ON USA NETWORK, KEEPING THE NXT EDGE, FULL SAIL, PRODUCTION, HOW LONG THE USA DEAL WAS IN THE WORKS & MORE

By Mike Johnson on 2019-10-02 15:20:00

Earlier today, WWE's Paul "Triple H" Levesque spoke to the media about tonight's WWE NXT USA two hour debut on the USA Network.  Here is a complete transcription of that exchange: 

Mike Johnson : All right, I'll start.

Triple H: All right, then.

Brian Fritz: You always start.

Mike Johnson: I always start.

Triple H: All right. You're first.

Mke Johnson: So you always in the past have equated NXT as being punk rock, to where Raw and SmackDown, formerly the main roster, would be more pop. Is there a concern about keeping that edge on NXT, now that the show's off the Network and on USA every week?

Triple H: I don't have that concern. I know what the intent of the show is, I know what our fan base is, and I know what I want to create there. If I wanted it to make it Raw and SmackDown, we would already have done it, but there's no intent in doing that, and there's no benefit in doing that. It's to keep it what it is. I feel, in some way, we will be the band, to use your music analogy, we'll be the band that signed with a major record label, but we're not going to change what we do. We have no intent of trying to sell stadiums. We have no intent of trying to get radio airplay. It's a different time, right? We're going to get the larger music deal, but we're going to stick true to what we do. We're not looking to make pop music, we're looking to stick with the genre that we are in, and that has been successful for us. I will look to make the better version of NXT. There have been things over the years that while successful, there are things I would've done slightly differently if we had the opportunity to. We have that opportunity now, and I think if anything, this will just get better.

Brian Fritz, Sporting News:  As far as the creative process goes, you're going from doing tapings every month to weekly. So just behind the scenes, give us a little peak on how that's affected the schedule, and just the goings-on.

Triple H: I spend a lot more time in Orlando. Yeah, it increases the frequency of it. But the truth is, and I've said this before, the last couple of years, NXT really came to a point where the biggest frustration that we had was, "Man, we just don't have the room. I'd like to debut this talent, I'd like to put this person out there, I'd like to do vignettes on this person, or get them started," and you didn't have the bandwidth. "Man, I'd like to tell this story, but God, we ran out of space in the show," because you're trying to get to the next TakeOver, or tell that episodic storytelling. This gives us the room to be able to do that. It increases the bandwidth for us to be able to open that opportunity up to talent that maybe weren't getting the opportunity in the last year, two years, because we only have the hour show. It's not about, "Okay, so now it's weekly, so increase the speed of how you do things." It's maintaining the pace and the consistency that we had. But using that time to open it up bigger and expand the audience. Now that means there'll be a lot of talent that'll debut and be a part of this brand and be a part of this brand on a weekly basis. They might not be on TakeOvers. And people have to change their perception of how that is. "Well, I can't get in on a TakeOver because I'm not in this storyline." No, you prove yourself in these storylines, you get to the bigger storylines, you get on TakeOver. This will be the brand where there'll be no participation medals. You earn your spot and you'll grow into that spot. We're not going to make TakeOvers longer because there's more bandwidth for longer storylines. It's keeping, like you said, it's keeping the product what it is, just having more opportunity for people.

Scott Fishman, TV Insider:   I know this has been a long time in the making when it comes to NXT going to USA, but when did you really start to feel confident that that deal was going to happen?

Triple H: I would say probably about a year and a half ago, for me, was the reality that this is going to happen, it's just a matter of when. Everybody was talking about it, everybody was talking to us about it. Even just randomly getting the calls of like, "Hey, would you guys consider this?" Yes, we would consider that. "What would that have to look like?" Well, let's talk about it, right?  When those conversations start to happen enough, you're seeing a fish in the water, you're going to catch one. And it just took time. When we started to get later in the process, it started to get to, "Hold on a second. Now, there's going to be a significant change that looks like it's going to happen in the landscape. So do you want all these changes to hit the same time?" And that is this course of time that you're looking at right now, this week of the reboot of Raw in the premiere, the debut of the two hour NXT on USA, and Fox broadcast taking SmackDown Live on Friday night, this epic week. That's been planned for awhile, as well, and getting the timing of that down became very strategic.

Interview continues on Page 2.


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