Triple H On If WWE NXT Should Be Longer Than 1 Hour, Top Stars Being Left Off Takeover Cards, More
Triple H spoke with ESPN after last Saturday's WWE NXT "Takeover: Chicago II" event. The full interview is at this link and below are highlights:
Storytelling in matches, Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano leaving it all in the ring after the match:
"The match has to deliver off the story you're telling, right? You feel like, 'OK, now we got there, we're there. We've set the table really well. Now can the story deliver on it?' That is the beauty of the art of what we do, and also the dilemma of what we do. The final chapter ... it's never the final chapter, because the book never stops, but that kind of final chapter that you're telling [for now], it goes live, so no matter the best plan of how you see it playing out, it can go awry.
"Shawn [Michaels] and I talk about this a lot. It's almost more nerve-wracking for me back here watching it play out, because you want it to be so good for them, and just the heart and soul that everybody puts into it. It's tough as a fan, because you don't know — you just watch it and you're either entertained or you're not. But everybody puts their heart and soul into all this stuff."
Top talents being left off Takeover cards:
"I've heard people say it to me, even on these TakeOvers, 'How can you do this card and not put EC3 on? How can you do this card and not put Adam Cole on? That's a disservice.' No, you just don't put everything on the show. You save something for the next one that's even bigger. You save something for the episode that's even bigger. To me, that is the 'leave them wanting more' part in it, and I think we do a pretty decent job of balancing it — but it's always a work in progress."
If NXT should get more than 1 hour each week:
"There are times when I look at NXT and part of me loves the hour format because everybody's got busy lives. By the time you get to Wednesday ... if you're a huge fan, by the time you get to Wednesday, you've watched five hours of WWE, and then you're watching NXT. And that's if you didn't watch '205 Live.' There's a lot out there. The great thing is they're all slightly different, so there's a little bit of something for everybody. I run into things, for me, when we're scripting out weekly episodes of NXT, [where] it's like, 'Oh, man, I'd really like to debut this person, or do this thing with this new character, or help get a persona going or something [else], and I don't have the room to do it. There's a fine line between that and leaving them wanting more, so it's a balance."
Source: ESPN