wrestling / News

Triple H Post-WarGames 2 Conference Call Report: Bobby Fish Doing OK After Main Event, Experimentation With Brand Via Light Bracelets, More

November 17, 2018 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
Triple H Raw 91018 WWE

– Following tonight’s NXT TakeOver: WarGames 2 Event, Triple H took part in a conference call with reporters to talk about the event. Here are full highlights from the Triple H conference call, courtesy of PWInsider. You can also check out 411’s results and coverage from tonight’s NXT TakeOver: WarGames 2 event RIGHT HERE.

Triple H met with reporters on a conference call after tonight’s awesome Takeover show.

There was some chaos early, I am guessing reporters talking until HHH came in to the ring.

Adam Hopkins greeted us and turned the show over to HHH.

Triple H opened by thanking us. He thought they had another tremendous night. He knew coming in it would be a great lineup and he feels like he always says he comes in and says what a great show it is, but there is a hunger and they all have it. It’s at a different level. He is proud of them. They all want to deliver. It shows in their passion and pride. He said that isn’t say that they don’t have it on Raw and Smackdown it’s just different here.

He said the only bad thing he could say is that he took off his arm brace before the show and he kept getting so excited he had to put it back on because he didn’t want to hurt his pec.

He loved the Women’s match and mentioned that four new characters came out of it.

He put over Black and Gargano, then Tommaso and Dream. Tommaso is great and Dream is only 23. It’s scary to think where he will be. And then, they capped it off with War Games. They left it all out there and it was “crazy good”. He said Ricochet has a brass set doing that spot from the top. Pretty much everyone walked out unscathed so it was a good night. Once again it proved why NXT is the hottest brand going.

The first two questions were in the room. He asked why they added the Riddle match. H said I lied to you. Sometimes I do that. He was kidding. He said it’s nice to give a surprise and do something different. People at the building and expected him to wrestle before the show, so they gave the live crowd a treat. It played off of Riddle’s personality. It showed that when the bell rings Riddle can go. Ohno will not like it. It’s a story.

The next question asked what H needs to see from NXT in the future since they always deliver.

H said you always have to top what you did the last time. It’s the nature of the business. That’s the pressure but it’s what makes it so good. That is the constant thing, even on the Mania level. If you have a great Mania, you have a year to do it again. And you do. It’s the process and NXT’s talent all always rise up. He put over all of the people behind the scenes that make it happen. They all work together to make it happen. When they started, most of the people working there didn’t do then what they do now. Everyone just stepped up to help. It became a passion project and then it became more. It’s kind of like ECW was in my opinion. Everyone that is there is super engaged. When he leaves this room he will see everyone that put a lot into the show. They are all apart of it.

The first question came from Mike Johnson. Triple H asked him if he stayed on the last call. Mike asked about experimentation in the brand. LED bracelets tonight, etc. How much more of it will we see.

He said that they have been experimenting all along. He mentioned things that they did, like LED boards, before they made it to Raw. He said Vince saw them and said they looked great and he was putting them on Raw. He said that the Center and Full Sail is a think tank and they can try things there. If they fail, it doesn’t matter. He said it’s an opportunity to do things. They turned the whole crowd purple with Dream tonight, with the bracelets. They did virtual reality at the show. He didn’t see it, but he was told it was great. He loves that they get to experiment. That is what this all about. They never want to be complacent. You never stop learning or changing. You have to give the crowd what they want, and that changes. They try to stay on the front of that. Some things work in NXT but not on Raw and vice versa.

Dave Meltzer asked about the San Jose TV taping. He asked why it felt more like a house show than a TV taping.

He said it was an opportunity to explore some new things. It will play out over the next few weeks. He said that they could experiment with things and get some content.

Triple H was asked about the Wargames this year vs. last year. He mocked people who hated there was no roof and said, “Did you enjoy it? Shut up and enjoy it!” The three teams deal was a little more confusing although when you got to the end people enjoyed it. This year was a little more straight forward. They took a brand that had been gone and brought it back. There were great Wargames and terrible ones. Tonight was epic. He said the kid whining about there being no roof is the same kid who popped for Ricochet’s dive. The match can’t be what it was in 1985, it has to work for today.

HHH was asked about Velveteen Dream’s evolution. He said that the other day, it dawned on him that there are a lot of talents where he feels they have no right to be as good as they are, so that means that maybe they are doing something right in how they are recruiting people who are the type of people and have the aptitude that they need as a company. He said that when performers understand what they need, that’s what makes the business great. Dream comprehends that. Not everyone comprehends that and again, he’s only 23 years old. Pete Dunne, over in the UK, he was told to do something and the next day, he came back as if he had an epiphany because they were teaching themselves. Now, when someone is teaching them, it helps them take it to the next level. HHH said the team is right and he doesn’t want to take away from them. Dream is great. Jessamyn and Marina are on their way. Bianca Belair. They had to explain to Xia Li what WWE was all about two years ago. Now she’s taken to it in a major way.

Bobby Fish is fine. He had a moment where he had taken the physical toll of the in-ring work on his surgically repaired knee and had to feel it out, but he’s OK.

Pete Dunne had been working on a broken bone in his foot and needed to take a few weeks off to let it heal but is good to go and was fine tonight

HHH was asked again about Velveteen Dream. He put over how great he is at 23 and that he’s incredibly coachable and is great at so many things. He said he feels like the sky is the limit for him and went on and on about Dream.

He was asked about NXT UK running here in the United States and potential Takeovers for that brand. They are going to have lots of involvement of the NXT UK brand during Wrestlemania weekend. Towards the beginning of 2019, we’ll see NXT UK growing again and there will be a big announcement. They are heading to Liverpool for TV and there will be a big announcement there for the first quarter of the year. They had some glitches and timing issues with getting it up and running but now Wednesday is a big destination for WWE Network viewers. It feels like NXT but it’s stylistically a little different and that’s the goal. He isn’t happy with everything about it and there will be changes, but you’ll always see constant changes. He joked he wasn’t going to give the scoop tonight.

He was asked potentially expanding the NXT TV show. He said he didn’t feel having talent that were underexposed was a bad problem to have. He said that when he watched wrestling growing up, not everyone was on every week. He wants the show to be the showcase but then they can expand and grow characters on digital and social media channels and experiment. He put over their new lab as a way they can try things. He noted Jeremy Borash just went out and shot vignettes that in the old days would have taken a full crew and a half day to get 5-10 minutes of content after it was edited and after all the lighting and editing, was done in no time and HHH had the finished product on his phone to watch the same day. He said there’s lots of talents who aren’t on the show every week like EC3, Keith Lee, Heavy Machinery, some of the women, Street Profits, etc. who can show up at any time and mean something. He said he wants fans to discover and follow them and get excited when they pop up. He doesn’t want to get to a point where the show has another 15 minutes you are dragging yourself through. He doesn’t want to have segments on the show so people can take a pee break. He wants to leave the audience wanting more.

Adam Hopkins then joked this is where they leave the media wanting more and signed off.