Triple H On Planning Long-Term Storylines, Status of NXT Europe

Triple H recently talked about his long-term storyline planning, how their work on NXT Europe is going and more. The WWE executive and creative head spoke to Variety for an interview touching on the topics, and you can check out some highlights below.

(Of note: The article notes that this interview was conducted on January 4th, the day before Vince McMahon announced his plans to return to the WWE Board of Directors.)

On planning things on a long-term basis: “[Vince was] always thinking long term. Whether it gets executed that way or whether it wasn’t, I don’t know. But for me, it’s how I think because it’s how I was taught by him. I’m always trying to think about the long-term storyline. I was at SummerSlam and one of the first things I talked to the team about is ‘Okay, where do we want to go for Wrestlemania? What’s that goal?’ Obviously it’s going to change, but what’s the target goal?

“It’s like a GPS. As long as you put in the destination, the GPS will keep rerouting you if it needs to. If there’s an accident, it’s going to move you this way. If you miss a turn, it’s going to take you another way, but you’re gonna get to your destination. And as long as we are aware of where we want to get to, then we can get there. We’ll adjust along the way. And the destination might change we might decide halfway that we want to go in a different direction, but at least you constantly are aware of your of your target, and I think without that, you’re just floating around in the ocean.”

On the status of NXT Europe: “There’s been a lot of progress on it. We are very excited about the prospect of taking NXT in a larger global direction. I would like to be able to find the best athletes and the largest personalities and the most entertaining people from every place in the world, and bring them into what we do,” he added. “Because when you begin to create those characters and those stars from every region, those regions become more engaged in what we do. If you can begin to go to all these places, and begin to find athletes there that can resonate on a global stage, some will make it big, some will make it small, some won’t make it at all. But that Indian talent, let’s say, that you have that main events WrestleMania and is a native of that country, that wholesale changes how [that country] views the product.”

On pursuing NIL-style recruitment methods in Europe: “NXT UK was based mostly on independent wrestling workers, guys that worked their way up and found their way to us. We’re starting the process there doing the same thing we’re doing here. There isn’t an NCAA collegiate level of athletics in Europe, but there’s a lot of athletes that are training in a lot of places like Loughborough or whatever, for specific sports. We’re beginning to engage with them now and finding the same interest level that we’re finding in NCAA athletes here.”